Pixeled Multimedia Teachers Association

Actionscript PD

It’s always hard to give up a day of your weekend to school-related work, but it was a really useful and enjoyable day last Saturday.
Despite a slight glitch with addresses, everyone managed to find I.D.E.A. in their new premises at 190 Queen Street
Paul and his staff made us very welcome and the facilities were great. It was interesting to have a quick look at a show reel of some of the 3D animation being done by the diploma students. The recent Federal budget announced the introduction of HECS for some of the pathways offered by I.D.E.A, making private providers a more attractive proposition for some students. We look forward to hearing more from Paul!
Although the participants in the workshop came from a variety of backgrounds, with vastly different levels of experience, our trainer Adam Parker was able to pitch the session at a suitable level for all. I enjoyed Adam’s historical tidbits (YAH-Alan Kay!!) and interesting analogies that would work well with our students. For example, he likened a Flash object to a biological cell. The inner nucleus contains the instructions inbuilt by Flash that we don’t need to know about, with a cell membrane that has various openings that we can send instructions through via scripting. I also loved Adam’s little paper model of timelines within timelines. Adam paced things really well, giving us breaks at just the right times.
There wasn’t a great deal of hands on, but it never became boring and Adam left us some exercises to work through in our own time. I think everyone came away with something to add to their knowledge of Flash and Actionscripting. Lunch at nearby Gloria Jeans was enough to fill everyone up. It was also a great opportunity to network and share ideas with fellow teachers. Most participants agreed they would like to attend more! Feedback the committee will certainly take on board.
Claire Bloom
Warrandyte High

This post comes from Marian who had a wonderful night at the Pixeled dinner last week.

It’s usually the smokers who congregate outside restaurants these days, but during the Industry Dinner it wasn’t us who were smoking. The dinner was held at Angliss Restaurant which is part of the William Angliss TAFE, so when we heard the fire evacuation alarm we unkindly assumed it was our kitchen that was on fire. It turned out to be another kitchen upstairs – we could all smell something burning as we stood outside in LaTrobe Street shivering in the cold. It turned out to be less than a raging inferno, so we went back inside reasonably quickly to hear the remainder of the excellent presentation by guest speaker and talented animator, Alicia Braumberger. Alicia is studying Multimedia at Swinburne and concurrently working as a freelance storyboard artist and illustrator. Her work is very art-based, reflecting her exceptional drawing ability. I would recommend her as a guest speaker for VCE students of either VCD or Multimedia as her youth and energy would make her an inspirational role model.

The food was a la carte, but catering quickly to a large group did not ruffle any of the young wait-staff. We ate a three-course meal, each beautifully presented and tasty. Drinks were at reasonable bar prices.

The second guest speaker, Adam Parker, took us into a new domain – robotics. Adam spoke about visionary design practices and the role of drawing. He took us on a short historical voyage around computer hardware and software, illustrated by sketches done by the very early PC pioneers who imagined the first monitors and mice. We then journeyed by some lateral leaps through to present-day robotics and the microbot. Microbots can be programmed collectively to behave as a mass, but by some fairly simple programming, this mass can behave unlike any other when exposed to outside forces – blowing on them could make the mass expand or maybe contract, pushing them could roll the mass into a ball, make it branch out, whatever, just depending on the programming. The possibilities are only limited by the designer’s imagination - that’s where drawing came in. Adam showed some of his thumbnails – pretty good sketches for a programmer-type.

Teachers new to teaching Multimedia had great opportunities to network on the night and State Reviewer Mark Ridgeway was able to give timely advice and assistance. We all took the chance to fulfil the VET requirement to update our industry knowledge and contacts in the most pleasant way possible, with good food, good wine and good company.