Thanks guys for your feedback! I'm trying to explore what my best usages of Pd have been, and what I might have to offer to people starting out. Your tips will go a long way!
~Kyle On 6/24/07, Andy Farnell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wed, 20 Jun 2007 00:18:23 -0500 > "Kyle Klipowicz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > Hi List~ > > > I'm curious about teaching Pd to interested people, and know that a > > number of you have given workshops on the subject. I could really use > > some collective wisdom on this. > > Teaching Pd is something I really enjoy. > What I've seen so far are great differences in audience > goals and the need to prepare and research exactly who you > are talking to and why, because Pd has such wide applications. > Look for your own niche skill that Pd allows you to express and > use that as a guide. > > > What methods do you use to structure and communicate your course > > material? How do you market it within the city that you are teaching? > > What sorts of materials do you use? > > > Often people bring their own laptops and headphones. > > The best format imho is lots of practical elements, short exercises > that can be done individually or in small groups, keep dove-tailing > talk time with hacking time. > > If machines are available but are administrated workstations > it helps to take live CD environments so you aren't treading on > anyones toes having groups of students install stuff. Or make > sure whoever invited you or organised the talk has done > the groundwork for any practical element. > > A copy of PureDyne is useful, with the patches used in a workshop > handed out on thumbdrive, by web-site or burned into the distro. For > the cost and time it takes to run off a dozen copies it's worth > it for everyone to take home a workable Pd environment for the PC. > > I guess it depends on whether you're teaching audio, video or > physical computing what needs and priorities you might have. > For audio I always want a good stereo sound system and a pocket > mixer is a useful gadget. For Gem/Visual presentations I suppose > you'd spend more thought on the beamer resolution and framerate. > For physical you need desk space where people can play with > components and wires. > > Often it's requested that laptop users install > Pd on their machines and get it running before coming to > a session, that way everyone is ready to go *and* they can take > their work home with them. > > What makes it fun imho, and possible to make focused > presentations, is the flexibility of Pd as > a teaching tool... it's almost designed for the job! > Using Pd itself as the presentation tool, making folders > of patches that are linked as "slides", and having it self > document to pdf handouts and html resources are things I've > put a bit of thought into. > > It's nice if you have a LAN available so you can go into > the network parts of Pd. A good finale is to get everyone jamming > with some OSC net-pd type patches linked together. > > For finding audiences, I think the same as Alexandres advice, technical > and art colleges and universities doing interactive design, music > technology and courses like that. I specialise in audio so I try > to use Pd as a vehicle to teach it, rather than generally > "all about puredata" which is quite beyond me. And also try to get groups > of producers from standard industry roles interested too, Pd is obviously > very enabling in radio, TV, film, animation, games and theatre. > > To teach Pd generally, finding colleagues is as > important as finding audiences. I don't think anybody could tackle > the entirety of Pd and it's applications alone without it being a > very dull, highly structured and long exercise. I sometimes pair with > someone who is teaching visuals or composition or something else that > complements my stuff on audio synth. Work together to put on events. > With groups of more than 15-20 having a buddy as an extra demonstrator/helper > in practicals is essential or you can't give everyone enough 1 to 1 contact > time. Best all round Pd presentation I have attended was organised by goto10 > at > space studios as a summer school with several specialised Pd users > teaching individual areas in a structured programme so that the whole 2 week > event became more than the sum of its parts. > > > > > my waffling 2c... hope that helps > > Andy > > -- > Use the source > > _______________________________________________ > PD-list@iem.at mailing list > UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> > http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list > -- ----- ------------ ---- ----- ---- -------- - ------ http://perhapsidid.wordpress.com _______________________________________________ PD-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list