Week 3 Ron Smith Interview Interactive Q&As

Following the format to the left the following are study guide questions to accompany Ron Smith's interview with Full Sail Program Director, Holly Ludgate:

Ron Smith Interview Interactive Q&As

1. What career goals might students that attend the New Media Academy at Hollywood High School have? Entertainment business: movies, graphics, web design
2. What type of media are students today attracted to? animation - mostly Flash animation combined with video
3. What does Ron Smith mean when he says “I’ll use anything fair or unfair”? He'll do anything to get students interested in what's happening.
4. Why does Mr. Smith refer to his class as a laboratory? He uses his class as a place to field test new technology as it becomes available to him - just as a scientist would conduct experimentation.
5. Describe the difference between what students want for technology and what teachers are using for technology in the classroom. "The teachers are part of the problem"...teachers are stuck on PowerPoint - students want and use Flash animation - teachers use overheads, while students use video.
6. Explain the term “front-loaded” with regard to lesson planning. there is a lot of work at the beginning - doing all of the planning prior to any of the instruction
7. Why is “front-loading” a hard sell to many teachers? it is so time-intensive and it goes against what they are used to doing
8. List and briefly describe the 3 “hot” applications that Ron Smith is using with his students.
a. Scratch b. Sketch Up c. Blender
9. What real-life implications do these applications provide? 3-D animation and design, combines with Google Earth to help with architectural design,
10. What type of directions does Mr. Smith provide to his students when working with these applications? very little, he provides some basic operational info and a target project, but then he has the students discover the how and the creative aspects as they work through the program
11. What is his reasoning for this? he wants the students to put their individual stamp on each project - he doesn't want to influence them
12. What does Ron Smith see as the challenges facing online instruction in the future? curriculum design and material going online - the challenge will be to make digital media and video classes effective through an online platform

Online interview of Ron Smith, Lead Teacher, New Media Academy, Hollywood High School, Hollywood California by Holly Ludgate, Program Director, Educational Media Design and Technology, Full Sail University.