Flash @ CSM

Hey Everyone,

I’ve gotten a couple of e-mails recently with students concerned about what we are doing in class, and that what I’m talking about during the lectures seems too hard. I just wanted to take a minute and address some of those concerns.

First of all, I want to see everyone succeed with class, you just need to meet me half way. It is not my goal to fail anybody. In fact I only consider  a semester a successful one if everyone passes, and I want to work with you to make this happen. This is one of the reasons we have lab time built into class, so that you have a chance to practice what we talk about during the lecture and ask me (or your fellow students) for help when your stuck. And I can’t stess this enough, but solving problems (no matter how you do it or who you ask) is the most important thing you can take away from this class.

Those of you who’ve done a few assignments so far (and shown them to me for credit) hopefully have realized that I mostly want you to try things out and demonstrate to me that you have. Most of the code necessary for lab assignments is up on this website, and if not I’m also positng the video lectures for you to review. Also if you have questions there is always lab time, and e-mail. And I can’t promise this all the time, but if lab time after class is a problem just drop me a line, and I’ll do my best to show up before class to answer your questions (just please make a prior request first).

In 2000 I was actually the first graduate out of the Multimedia program you are in now. If you can imagine that the content they were teaching almost 10 years ago isn’t terribly relevant these days. The one thing I took away from those classes and earning that Associates Degree was the ability to learn and problem solve with the tools I had at hand. And thats what I want to pass along to you. The ability to dig in to whatever technology you are using to find that best  practice or workaround to a problem to make you a valuble resourse to either your employer, your client, or yourself.

Now I’m not saying learning ActionScript in itself is not valuble, however I know for many of us Flash and ActionScript wont be the primary focus of our careers. What I want you to take away from this class is a taste for ActionScript, and the ability try new things even if they seem outside of your grasp, and solve problems. If you want to succeed with class, I want to help you succeed. Thats my job, and thats why I’m here. And if I can train more people in the area who can do production work with Flash and ActionScript, my life gets a little easier when a company I work for decided to hire more production people (which does still happen, even in this ecomony).