My year soon became filled with teaching, committee work, software development and evaluation, and the planning for a new campus (with Science Labs!). Spring and 100 plus degree temperatures rolled around and my thoughts turned to summer and relaxation by the pool (I don't have) sipping mint juleps (no mint, too bloody hot). Into this bliss, my words from the fall came back to haunt me: "Hey, I'd like to go and do that". One summer project and much wrangling later I was preparing to go to Miami.
One problem: I didn't know my way around a big nasty city filled with who knows what (it had been some time since I watched Miami Vice). I needed a guide: someone who had spent his youth outside an afternoon science lab (while I, poor science major, slaved away over a hot bunsen burner); someone not a scientist if I was to have any FUN! Solution: take a member of the English Faculty! At EMCCC this was Mr. Rod Freeman, a very tall person with a good sense of humor and excellent taste in literature. Luckily the air fare wars heated up and tickets became 2- for-1. Another Summer Project application and we were set. Yo!
The Miami-Dade workshops were intended to cover basic to advanced skills, basic in the first week, advanced in the second week. Being arrogant MCCD faculty, we chose the second week. At MDCC, the multimedia lab is all MacIntosh IIci's (running very fast on System 6?) with 13 inch 24-bit color monitors, a 3-lens projector, Xapshot camera, Slide Scanner, several video-in-boards, laserdisc players and monitors at all stations, and printers (including a color laser printer donated to the lab). A DOS lab was next door, but we decided not to risk infection by going in. Copies of software to be used were already loaded on the Macs, with lots of room for our own presentations.
Arriving in Miami after midnight we reached the hotel: Howard Johnson's on south on Old Dixie Highway, only a few miles away from the Mariott (and $2/night cheaper, wow!). Sunday, at the beach, I collected coral while Rod collected visions. Sunday night the workshop commenced with a Pizza Party and 3-hour session to discuss our goals and projects for the coming week. Half of the participants had attended the previous week's session. Our classmates were mostly administrators at High School and University levels. One couple was from Brazil, another from Massachusetts. The Monday session covered the new (to me at least) program Coursebuilder by TeleRobotics. Similar to HyperCard, but with 8Ð bit color and an easy to use graphical format, Coursebuilder can be easily learned to turn out interactive multimedia projects in a few sessions. I prepared a unit on the Rock Cycle. Tuesday covered Macromind Director, QuickTime, and xapshot/slide scanners. These could all tie into Coursebuilder if needed. Wednesday we learned a little about Photoshop and Adobe Premiere. Photoshop is an excellent program for retouching, labeling, and other manipulations to scanned photographic images. Premiere is an editing tool for pasting together QuickTime movies, sounds and graphics (some from Photoshop). Again, the new programs could be used with the others previously learned. Thursday was the big push: get projects ready to show Friday, before flying out late that afternoon. We made it, despite long hours conducting research along Miami Beach or in the Coconut Grove.
Several items stand out in my mind as I write this: 1) the center there had an excellent staff, usually one expert in each program, with the others roving to answer questions; 2) much of their equipment and software was donated through partnerships with Apple and other companies; 3) it rained so hard that Rod said the rain was coming up from the ground (English faculty do have a way with a phrase); 4) spread of multimedia and other technology into the classroom/computer labs must be faculty driven, with an adequate reward system; and 5) it really doesn't matter which platform is used in multimedia (I like Mac, but let's leave religion out of this) as long as something is used to try and reach students and involve them in the learning process. The days of the pure chalkboard lecture are hopefully long dead. All in all, a very worthwhile trip. I am convinced somewhere in the MCCD this sort of workshop can be done, if it already hasn't been.