Adobe is honoring the best student and faculty by recognizing their achievements using technology and the creativity arts at the Adobe Design Achievement Awards. The competition showcases both individual and group projects from accredited higher education institutions that are using Adobe’s creative software. The talents showcased are from promising graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital …
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My Thoughts: Adobe abandons mobile Flash development
With the announcement today from Adobe on no longer having plans to develop future versions of its Flash Player for mobile browsers, I wanted to share my thoughts on this subject. First, I feel that it is important to disclaim my relationship with Flash from the start. As a college professor and web developer over …
Move with Purpose
In my experience as an educator in web design, I see how students work with and interact with computer programs differently. Photoshop is an amazing image editing program that allows students to create professional presentation graphics or surreal images out of dreams and nightmares. There are specific skills needed to manipulate the program, but rarely …
Part 2: Use of Grades for Design Projects
This blog post is a continuation of The Important of Grades. As I wrote the previous post on the importance of grades, I have been trying to determine what is the best role of grades in education within the collegiate level. The problem that I find with grades in college is that students feel that …
Part 1: Importance of Grades
I was speaking with a student the other day and they expressed their frustration with the ‘low’ grades they were earning in my college course building web sites. They were concerned about the 80% and 85% on their first two projects. Here is an excerpt: Professor Leach, Thank you for all the detailed feedback you …
Importance of Good Grammar
Julius Caesar, a Roman general around 60 BC, wrote essays on grammar. High-ranking officials began to view good grammar as a status symbol. The use of good grammar was used to separate the hierarchy – those that understood the rules of grammar versus those that didn’t. As a college professor that focuses on design and …
Lessons from the Animal Kingdom
My father was a teacher at an outdoor education center in Michigan. As a nature specialist, he taught me at an early age to look to the animal kingdom to help me understand how things in nature are based on their own unique governing system. The wooded lot at the corner of every neighborhood works …
Parents in College
Recently, I had a parent near tears contact me because the time that she was putting into her college homework projects seemed to take away a lot of the time she used to spend with her kids. She was frustrated – from both an academic standpoint, but also as a mother. Here were my thoughts …
Advice from Reality TV Shows
I’ll freely admit that I’m a huge fan of certain reality shows today. I’m not talking about shows like Jersey Show or Keeping up with the Kardashians that just follow people around, but about shows that analyze and showcase people for their skills like Hell’s Kitchen (Chefs), Shear Genius (Hairdressers), and Project Runway (Fashion Designers). …
Designer’s Oath
The Hippocratic Oath is over 2300 years old and has been sworn by doctors in order to remind them of their professional responsibility. In short, it reminds them to put their patients interest first before their own, not to use their status and ability to gain advantage over those they work with, and to respect …