Today was the last day of the 2008 Urban Digital web design programme. As ever, it’s a sad but also a proud day when I get to the end of a course.
What I find most interesting about teaching within this environment is the variety of outcomes people are looking for, and the tenacity that some have in striving to achieve their goal.
This year, as last year, students aims have included:
- Developing business based websites
- Developing personal web projects, for example family history archives
- Specific, task based, advice for on-going projects
- Personal development and achievement
Some of the challenges this creates for me as a tutor are:
- The need to maintain a flexible programme that caters for a range of needs, but has an overall structure
- Balancing my own agenda and ideas of what people should be learning against these needs
- Ensuring that we achieve a good level of base knowledge, but at the same time keeping the content relevant to achieving some of the “quick fix” objectives
It’s a much harder balance to strike in this setting than in a more formal teaching environment, but every time we run these courses we get that little bit closer to getting it “just so”.
