Apple Technology Review, Fall 1997: Digital Photography Course

Digital Photography Course, page 3

Some student work drew comments from nearly all the participants, while others received only a sentence or two from the instructor (a required part of our agreement with her). Not all students completed all the assignments, and not everyone spent the same amount of time on their work or on their comments.

One issue we tried to address through the assignments and our choice of participants was the balance between a tool emphasis (Adobe Photoshop) and a digital photography emphasis. We deliberately chose applicants who mentioned how they would apply digital photography with their students and avoided applicants who expressed an interest in learning Photoshop. We tried to steer the assignments toward photography and away from just learning the tools. We also attempted to keep the chat sessions focused on content and the application of digital photography in the classroom. Despite our intentions, the discussion often moved toward software tools, and not just Photoshop. The students wanted to spend at least some time "talking shop" since they were so immersed in the tools. This wasn't terrible; we had high-minded aspirations to focus on artthat didn't always take into account the reality of the teachers' concerns.

Students enjoyed most of the assignments but were particularly enthusiastic about the last one, which involved collaborating via the Internet on a collage with another participant in the course. Here, the students shared images via email, discussed their plans using email and chat, and produced either a single image or variations based on the same set of images.

Nuts and Bolts

ACOTNet, the Web-based education environment that we used as the vehicle for the course, includes a regular password-protected Web site that contains course content (syllabus, resources, chat transcripts, and links to other Web sites).

The server environment includes the following hardware and software:

Apple Macintosh Workgroup Server 8150 with 56 MB of RAM
Web Star 1.3.1 server software (Starnine/Quarterdeck)
WebLock security extension (Maxum) in combination with AppleShare File Server 4.2.1
We used WebLock as the security extension because it allowed us to control access to all Web pages on the ACOTNet server based on the file-sharing privileges set with the AppleShare File Server. Participants could access the course materials and chats offered through ACOTNet only after entering a user name as well as a password.
Apple e.g. (e.g. is the product name):
Apple e.g. added search and indexing capabilities to the ACOTNet server, allowing course participants to locate and retrieve information that is relevance ranked.

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Samples of course work | Digital Photography Extravaganza