Adult Education experiences

[lamble]

With the Three Cups Ride planned for Oct-08 to April-09, I thought I'd enrol for a few of classes that might come in useful: Spanish being uno, mechanics another, uno aid, playing the harmonica (campfire nights on the pampas) and Final Cut Video editing.

I started yesterday with the FC editing class.

Aren't teenagers awful?

You know the kid with the gun that shoots his classmates....I met him.

We were watching an example of previous students work...a blood and gore fest full of teenager' worthiness and self absorbed angst, when one scene has a voice of God moment...up jumps Dave as if a spike had entered his nether regions..."Miss, Miss, Miss, God doesn't sound like that, his voice is much deeper" and here's the clincher that all is not well in the world of Dave, "I know 'cause I've heard him".

This may mean more to you than I, but another Daveism was, when asked if a song could indicate the theme of a story, his example was the theme music for the Fresh Prince of Belleair? Some of the class risked a giggle.

These very words sprang from the depths of a hooded top which for some unknown reason required a baseball cap underneath, despite being indoors.

We were all too stunned to point out that God has a female voice to begin with, plus, you don't anger someone you can't make eye contact with.

The facially punctured youth at the mac next to me, managed to sleep through this and most of the lesson.

The class instructor offered no avenue for escape, letting Dave interject at every other word she said, and to read...out loud!...each individual bloody word of the credits for all three of the examples we watched.

Is this a typical experience?

Are there Daves at all daytime classes?

Should I buy a kevlar vest?

[Belquar]

I take my classes online. The only voices I hear are the ones in my head.

[lamble]

I take my classes online. The only voices I hear are the ones in my head.

I guess those noise subduing headsets really do work then.

Trouble with online when design elements are required, is I'm not sure how it would provide reliable critiques?

Does it work out well?

[Montana]

It will all make sense once you read "The Book of Dave"...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Dave

[SNC1923]

What you have experienced is a result of an "open door" policy in adult education, which includes community colleges. In principle, it's a good policy as it provides an avenue for marginalized people, those struggling with disabilities, in recovery, transitioning out of prison, escaping abusive relationships, etc. It also opens the door to people who are seriously mentally ill. I regularly do battle with our counseling department over students whose troubles are simply too severe to be inflicting on an entire class of students. Believe you me, I deal with this all the time.

Your description of the instructor makes it sound as though she's not too strong and doesn't know how to run interference or do crowd control. It's not everyone's thing, but then you're at the mercy of the God talker. That's too bad. I encourage you to speak up. "Can we cover this during the break?" "I'd like to move on if that's OK with everyone." I'm sure you don't need my advice. I'm deeply sympathetic.

[lamble]

What you have experienced is a result of an "open door" policy in adult education, which includes community colleges. In principle, it's a good policy as it provides an avenue for marginalized people, those struggling with disabilities, in recovery, transitioning out of prison, escaping abusive relationships, etc. It also opens the door to people who are seriously mentally ill. I regularly do battle with our counseling department over students whose troubles are simply too severe to be inflicting on an entire class of students. Believe you me, I deal with this all the time.

Your description of the instructor makes it sound as though she's not too strong and doesn't know how to run interference or do crowd control. It's not everyone's thing, but then you're at the mercy of the God talker. That's too bad. I encourage you to speak up. "Can we cover this during the break?" "I'd like to move on if that's OK with everyone." I'm sure you don't need my advice. I'm deeply sympathetic.

I did suspect that Dave was there because it was warmer than outside, more than the fact that not in a million years will he ever get a job out of this, no way no how, not at all.

I emailed the tutor to ask if she'd worked with Dave before and if he was just "excited" at new people being around, she says he does calm down when work starts...there's definitely some synopitic wiring that's awry and I don't for one moment believe he realises what he's doing, or why, but given the miriad of "useful" subjects he could take (blunt or soft items to hand) why would a college allow him to take this class...it's not simple (well it's not too hard either, otherwise I'd not be allowed in), is it just money for bums on seats?

[SNC1923]

is it just money for bums on seats?

I'd like to think it's a more noble goal than that, but colleges are businesses. Public institutions like mine are paid by the state based on the number of students. But that's where it ends. The college encourages retention and follow-through, of course, but it's not a quota system or anything.

Many students really turn their lives around and make substantive, positive changes. Others simply stay out of trouble. There are a lot of folks who would simply fall between the crack were it not for institutions such as these.

I sit on our institution's scholarship committee. Reading those hundreds of application essays is a daunting task—not only for the voluminous bad prose, but for the absolutely harrowing circumstances that so many of our students come from or labor within.

I try to remember them when a student comes in on the first day (a week from Monday) wearing a tinfoil hat.

[lamble]

Just had an email, tomorrow's class is cancelled. No why, no reschedule, no reimbursement mentioned, just a note from the lecturer saying , sorry I can't make tomorrow's lecture and so it is cancelled.

Far from impressed.

I booked an hour with a mac genius at the Appleshop instead, one to one $100 for an hour per week for a year, not $480 for missing lessons, a 1:25 ratio and a Dave.

[aerialfilm1]

Is this a typical experience?

Are there Daves at all daytime classes?

Should I buy a kevlar vest?

Yes
Yes
and Oh Hell Yes!

Dave is not unlike those guys that stand at the parts counter for hours on end and ask countless technical questions about bikes they don't own.

My theory is this class is Dave's only social interaction and the only place where anyone gives him the courtesy of being heard.

Give Dave a hug. When he eventually pops his cork he may just repay your kindness by only shooting you in the arm.

[DarrylRi]

Sorry to hear about your travails, Lamble. I took 3 semesters of German at the local JC. Now I can speak German like a native... a native Angelino. ;)

But the teacher was good and she didn't let anything get out of hand. (She was a native, and she didn't put up with any stuff.) And now I can order the parts I need for my old bikes vom Vaterland, and usually the right ones show up.

[lamble]

One advantage...I can get the upgrade from v5 FCP to v6 at a discounted student rate. Hurrah!

I'll be able to use what I've saved for piercings, jeans that don't cover my bum and a backward cap.

Dave's got a key chain with more keys on it than anyone can amass in a lifetime, even a locksmith...I should get one of those too, but my 3 keys would look pathetic. You can hear him coming though.

[Belquar]

I guess those noise subduing headsets really do work then.

Trouble with online when design elements are required, is I'm not sure how it would provide reliable critiques?

Does it work out well?

I just finished Anatomy and Physiology I and II online. We did all our tests online. All our dissections at home.

This semester I am taking Developmental Psych, Fundamentals of Organic and Biochemistry, and Ethics. All online.

They are reading intense courses. I like online education. Don't have to waste time listening to lecture. I don't learn well like that. I read and learn on my own then just take my tests and submit my assignments. Good stuff.

[lamble]

$600 v6 upgrade to Final Cut Studio, just so I can play the lessons on a disc, and that if I do any work at home, when I go to the college lab, the mac there won't just snort a disapproving snort and shout "look everyone, a version 5 user".

Plus an additional terrabyte external hd. All this just so I can edit holiday vids. I must be stark staring bonkers, with nothing better to do.

Come to think of it....

[lamble]

All our dissections at home.
Good stuff.


What the ........?
Is that allowed?

You aren't waiting for a particularly stormy night to demonstrate your course project are you?

When you walk in a bar, does everyone wave crosses at you?
Do grave yards have a sign saying Keep out and then underneath name you in person?

These are clues!

[Montana]

For $20 a year we can sign up to use one of four editing suites with FCPro plus up to three cameras at a time including all supporting hardware (tripods, mikes, etc) and all instruction (it's not structured but it's useful). This is through the local cable access channel (think "Wayne's World"). I guess this is a product of the cable rights funds.

I made a 10 min documentary, it came to $150 and about 150 hours. It was about motorcycling; I showed it to some folks from the MT DOT and the guy in charge of the snowmobiling program said his department had spent $10,000 with a contractor and didn't get nearly as good a product.

[lamble]

For $20 a year we can sign up to use one of four editing suites with FCPro plus up to three cameras at a time including all supporting hardware (tripods, mikes, etc) and all instruction (it's not structured but it's useful). This is through the local cable access channel (think "Wayne's World"). I guess this is a product of the cable rights funds.

I made a 10 min documentary, it came to $150 and about 150 hours. It was about motorcycling; I showed it to some folks from the MT DOT and the guy in charge of the snowmobiling program said his department had spent $10,000 with a contractor and didn't get nearly as good a product.

Is your work available on-line anywhere?

By the way, of three sessions so far, two have been cancelled including today's which I found out by reading a note posted on the classroom door. Thanks a bunch!
Of the 10 sessions that's two missing so far, plus another 2 that are set aside to be teacher training days.
I'd like our lecturer to go on a 10 day holiday and the hotel to say, "sorry but for 4 of your 10 day stay, you'll have to go home, or sit outside and watch other people use your room. A refund? Why? We'll just make you stay awake longer on the days you are here, so you can cram in all that holiday fun".

[Montana]

Sorry, I've got nothing online. I made a DVD and mailed it around to a few rider groups; also used it for some presentations. The cable access channel requires that you are producing content for them to air, so it was broadcast a few times to pad their schedule. That was interesting, to watch it over my cable on the TV after seeing it 6-bazillion times on the editing equipment. It's a little different, especially the text (captions and credits) when it's broadcast.

I did all the camera work (started with two hours of stuff), the writing, the editing, the narration, the planning, the production, the disk copying, the distribution.

It's like wallpapering and transmission R&R: I've done it, I know how to do it, I now have a greater respect for those who do it, and I don't really want to do it again!

[monkeywork]

It's too bad you're on the opposite side of the country, I could help.

I use Final Cut Pro and several other programs in my job, (Maya, Shake, Pro-tools, Photoshop, etc)

I would pick up the book on Final Cut and methodically go through the tutorials. You'll learn more and spend less. Once you master the basics, there are other books on cool tricks and shortcuts.

Monkeywork.com (http://monkeywork.com/p/Gallery.html) is my site, if I can be of any help, let me know.

[lamble]

It's too bad you're on the opposite side of the country, I could help.

I use Final Cut Pro and several other programs in my job, (Maya, Shake, Pro-tools, Photoshop, etc)

I would pick up the book on Final Cut and methodically go through the tutorials. You'll learn more and spend less. Once you master the basics, there are other books on cool tricks and shortcuts.

Monkeywork.com (http://monkeywork.com/p/Gallery.html) is my site, if I can be of any help, let me know.

It's not all foreign to me, I spent many hours watching avid pilots whizz around time lines and the like, but I need to learn the knobology to start with.

With this stay in the US being one long trip, I need to be able to aplly some methodology to all the footage I'm collecting. I know iMovie and iDVD are simpler, but, I think FCP enables a lot more freedom. I'll plod on with the class, and have been working through the manual and taking advantage of Mac 121 sessions too.

By the way...Dave has terrets and a record of anger and violence...I learned on Tuesday. He normally lasts two weeks of a course before being moved, so there's light at the end of the tunnel.

[monkeywork]

Hopefully that light isn't a train.

[lamble]

Is this normal?

We take classes Tues and Thurs, with online tests to be completed by Sunday.

The second half of the Thurday class is devoted to going through the answers for the forthcoming test.

Not, and I must emphasise this, working through the knowledge that will give us the experience we need to work the answers out...we get the answers verbatim, on a plate, done and dusted, gift wrapped etc...
You could sleep all Tuesday and most of Thursday class, wake up, write down the answers and pass the test to get the grade. The girl with the green hair, sitting next to me, does just that, apart from the times she's outside chuffing on a ciggie with her chum.

That's just an insult!

I took some extra lab time for my monkey project. One of the class bought in her friend, a video editor, to do her classwork. What's that about?

I'm doing this for fun, but these folks are getting degrees out of this. What value does that give to a "formal" qualification?

It's a joke...a bad joke. But is it standard procedure here, because frankly I'm astounded?

[Montana]

I've just started teaching adult ed and it is a different world. First, a challenge is what you make of it, so who cares about the others? If you have a goal, it is up to you to achieve that goal and get the help you need, even if that may not be the current instructor. I've been told, "This isn't consulting, it's a lesson plan." Just take advantage of the resources as much as you can right now.

Second, I'm starting to better understand how the experience is affected by if it is a credit class vs one for completion (or attendance-only). Even then, I've been told there is no minimum attendance level to require/expect, that I should give a completion certificate to pretty much anyone who is there the day I hand them out, about 2/3 through the 6 week class. Hopefully, by then, I'll have had drop outs: the noninterested.

In the adult world, the person who brought in an editor could be said to know how to delegate and use resources!

[lamble]

Second, I'm starting to better understand how the experience is affected by if it is a credit class vs one for completion (or attendance-only). Even then, I've been told there is no minimum attendance level to require/expect, that I should give a completion certificate to pretty much anyone who is there the day I hand them out, about 2/3 through the 6 week class. Hopefully, by then, I'll have had drop outs: the noninterested.

In the adult world, the person who brought in an editor could be said to know how to delegate and use resources!

As an insider, perhaps you'll know if there's a need for the tutor to be seen to be successful (pass as many students as possible) and if this over rides the needs of the students to actually learn something?

When I trained as a motorcycle instructor for WA, there were issues of what I'd call integrity, but others might call, getting the right numbers through to the exam.
It's one of the reasons I quit after the first day.

This is a credited course. I may go on to get a degree, if I don't run out of time, before the big trip. It's just not education, as I'm used to education being.

[Montana]

Before beginning this new career, I had a long talk with one of the local RiderCoaches to understand some of the issues I am likely going to face as I teach adults. I can't speak to the issue of a credited course as it relates to the instructor's performance. If my students turn in glowing evaluation reports on me, I would hope they got something out of the course as well. I would also expect that a repeated reported shortcoming would result in some action from the administration. I have seen adults take a class more than once simply to get access to resources, such as a video lab. You should have been given some sort of syllabus, outline, or objectives statement. If it's a bit warm and fuzzy, such as "students will become familiar with..." then I wouldn't expect a tough final exam. "Students will show their proficiency through..." is a goal-oriented statement. I took a Real Estate Exam class that was exactly as described: you worked through example questions likely to be on the exam. You don't know the math behind it? Too bad.