Welcome to the Digital Photography online class. Digital Photography is a natural to offer as an online class because of the ease in creating and posting your work electronically. I find eLearning to be cumbersome in general and have decided to publish the course syllabus on my own website, http://jnevins.com, and run the entire experience using the web, and Google's Blogger. Albertus is part of the Google Apps for Education universe and Blogger is part of that. Your Albertus login works perfectly with the blog. eLearning currently does not have the capacity to hold the number of images you’ll be posting as part of this class. It's slide show functionality is non-existent and it's design is clunky and unattractive... there I've said it! :)
Class runs from May 30th until July 8th. All work needs to be completed by then.
There are four elements we need to juggle in order for this to be a successful experience for everyone...
1. The class syllabus... here are all the assignments and links to readings that you will need to work through the problems for each week of the class. The syllabus is found with this address: jnevins.com/digitalphotographysyllabusonline.htm or click on the link in the upper right hand side of the blog.. While you are at it, browse around the rest of my site to get to know me better. I have posted a portfolio of my photography, links for finding galleries and museums online, my teaching philosophy and more. The assignment for each week is posted on it. Read it carefully and work to incorporate the main idea into your work that week. The link for the syllabus is in the upper right hand side of the blog.
2. The Class Blog. (Here) This is where we will build a sense of community. It is important to post examples of your work each week as well as comments about your images to accompany the images posted as well as comment on the work of others in the class... you can ask questions to me personally anytime via email, but here is a public place to offer suggestions, ask questions and just generally where we can create a class environment. Blogger is very easy to post to...
Your grade is based on your posts to the blog and more importantly your portfolio of photographs, illustrating your understanding and completion of the assignment for each week. Attendance is taken each week on Monday morning, accounting for the work you have posted for the previous week. If no work is found, 2 absences are recorded on the Albertus electronic system. The college is very strict about attendance and when you have 4 absences, they remove you from class and basically remove you also from the college. Please don't let that happen.
I have added you to the class blog … you need to respond to the link that Blogger.com sent you in order to become a member of the class blog. Once you are a member, you can post here. I'd prefer to stay in contact with you via regular email. Please email me at jnevins@albertus.edu or jnevins@jnevins.com. You may call me at home anytime (up until 9 pm) if you would like to talk personally or to help solve a technical issue that would be harder via email. It is very important to get all technical issues solved and out of the way at the outset, in the first week. Just email me that you would like to talk to me and either send me your phone number or ask for mine...
3. Photoshop CS2... This is available free with a lifetime serial number as Adobe no longer wants to officially "support" it. You can do everything for class with this version. http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/ Be sure to copy the serial number ad observe if you are downloading the Windows version or the Mac version. Note: later versions of the MAC Operating System may not support CS2 so you should then download the current version... there is a free download good for 7 days...After that there is a monthly charge... $9.99/month for students. You just need a .edu email address.
Taking pictures each week is just the first step! You need to edit each picture you care about for light, focal point, contrast, color balance, etc. I have videos linked in the upper right hand side of the blog to show you how.
This first week, we must iron out all of the technical issues to be sure that you are up to speed. I have asked for you to post a creative self portrait and to tell us something about yourself. This is an art course and its primary focus will be on your portfolio as the basis for your assessment. Study the syllabus to get a sense of what I will be looking for. Links I have posted to visual images and readings are an important component of the class... I'll be looking at how you are in dialog with the images and ideas linked in the syllabus as a component of your grade. Also important is that I get a sense of your spending time at the assignments and are growing in the medium of photography as the course unfolds. Posting your best 6 - 10 images you are creating to the class blog each week is vital to your success in this class. Use the comment button to respond to your classmates posts. One of the strong points of using this blog is the ability to post comments as well. I am expecting 7 images per week as the bare minimum… (6 that really fulfill the intent of the assignment and more like 10 would be a better number… this is digital!)
With my wife Debbie in France a couple of summers ago....Married 42 years this June!
Any comments, suggestions, or observations as to how I can smooth the way for you as we get going will be welcome. My goal is your success and your feeling that this was well worth your time.
Looking forward to launching this new class!
Best wishes,
Jerry
