Week 3: Ron Smith Interview Interactive Q&A

1) Where does Ron Smith teach?

New Media Academy, Hollywood High School – Hollywood, CA

2) What is the focus of the New Media Academy?

The New Media Academy is career-focused, with the goal of getting its students into the entertainment industry.

3) In addition to wanting their students to go to college, what does the New Media Academy hope to get their students involved with contemporaneously?

Getting their students on a career path with internship and mentorships in the industry

4) What does Ron Smith use in his classroom to get his students engaged?

Anything fair or unfair – including dancing around the room

5) How does Ron Smith use his classroom as a laboratory?

He uses his students as scientists to explore new technologies as they emerge

6) Give 2 examples of these emerging technologies.

Podcasts and Text Messaging

7) How does Ron Smith account for individual differences in his classroom?

He allows them to express themselves individually through the medium of their choice

8) What are the two mediums he provides as examples?

Flash Animation and Graphic Design

9) Does Ron Smith believe teachers or students are more technically adventurous?

Students

10) Fill in the blank: “Teachers think they’ve crossed the rubicon if they can make a good __________.”

PowerPoint

11) Ron Smith insists his students go beyond PowerPoints by doing what?

Creating Flash presentations and posting the on the web

12) Ron Smith says that digital teaching is “front-loaded.” What does he mean by that?

There’s a lot of work at the beginning, developing curriculum. There is a lot of prep work with teaching digital media.

13) What is Scratch?

A free open-source program, developed by MIT, for creating games

14) What is Sketch-up?

A free program, created by Google, used for 3-D modeling

15) What type of project does Ron Smith suggest using Sketch-up?

The development of a movie created using different scenes generated in Sketch-up

16) What other Google tools can you import into Sketch-up?

Google Maps and Google Earth

17) What is Blender?

Free 3-D animation open source software

18) How much technical instruction does Ron Smith give his students on using Scratch, Sketch-up and Blender?

Relatively little – He introduces them to the program interface, then asks them to explore and create.

19) What is Ron Smith’s answer to the question, “Well how do I do that?”

“I don’t know – You figure it out.”

20) What educational trend does Ron Smith see developing?

The movement of curriculum online to service learners at various places in their education

Source:

Media Asset Creation. (2009). Interview with Ron Smith. Retrieved July 20, 2009, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0e3YlOFPcQ&feature=player_embedded