Apple Technology Review, Fall 1997: Digital Photography Course

Digital Photography Course, page 7

The final assignment, which involved collaborating via the Web with at least one other student in the course, was mentioned as a particularly stimulating and challenging in several evaluations. Here's what one participant wrote:

I enjoyed the collaboration assignment, despite technical difficulties, because of its potential in community build ing. It has the most potential for synergizing the creative abilities of multiple individuals. I believe in a world where our children will learn more and become more because of this synergy. Besides, it was fun.

While participants enjoyed the collaborative project and the way it helped them get to know others in the course, it was the last assignment, so the value of the community building that took place was short lived. In the second course, we have incorporated some suggestions to speed up the process of participants' getting to know one another. These include requiring a personal Web page as the first assignment (optional in the first course and done by only one student), structuring the way students comment on other students' work so that everyone's work will be reviewed each week, and splitting the class into smaller groups for two chats per week. The collaborative assignment remains the final assignment, and perhaps in the next of the course revision we can incorporate an additional collaborative project.

Future Plans

We are interested in exploring ways to reach more teachers with the course. This might include training current students to teach the course, then providing them with the support necessary to manage the Web site while they handle the details of implementing and running the course. This is a very inexpensive model for Apple and generates interest in us as a hardware/software provider, distinguishing Apple from commodity vendors. We might also consider a self-paced course that could operate with minimal support, as well as variations on the existing course that might be focused on specific curriculum areas. For example, a digital photography course for history teachers might have a set of assignments tailored to that subject area and might provide opportunities for history teachers to collaborate on projects with each other and their students.

References

Collis, B. (1996). Tele-learning in a Digital World. London: Thomson Computer Press.

Nardi, B., and Reilly, B. (1996a). Interactive Ethnography: Beyond Being There. Innovation 15, 2.

Nardi, B., and Reilly, B. (1996b). Digital Photography at Lincoln High: An Interactive Ethnography. The ARL Review, March 1996.

About the Authors

Samples of course work | Digital Photography Extravaganza