ACC blends programs
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
We need your support!
Local journalism needs your support!
As we navigate through unprecedented times, our journalists are working harder than ever to bring you the latest local updates to keep you safe and informed.
Now, more than ever, we need your support.
Starting at $15.99 plus taxes every four weeks you can access your Brandon Sun online and full access to all content as it appears on our website.
Subscribe Nowor call circulation directly at (204) 727-0527.
Your pledge helps to ensure we provide the news that matters most to your community!
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Brandon Sun access to your Free Press subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $20.00 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.00 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/01/2011 (5473 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A sign of the times, Assiniboine Community College will morph its media productions program and its web design program into a new interactive media arts diploma program.
Recognizing that the worlds of media information and online technology have become intrinsically intertwined, the college will begin offering a blended program this fall.
"It’s as plain as the cellphone in your hand that we’ve got to meet the needs of the future with as much flexibility as possible," says web design instructor and chair of ACC’s technology department Curt Shoultz.
"I’d say we’re going to keep 85 per cent of the strengths that media and web are known for, but it gives us the flexibility to keep that changing, shifting 15 per cent as fresh as it needs to be."
The new program will start with a common first term shared by both media and web design-oriented students, who will then branch off into the specializations of media (multimedia producer or writer/producer majors) or interactive specialization (design or development majors for the remainder of their study). After two years, graduates will be trained for careers in a technologically advanced media industry.
While the move spells the end of the traditional broadcast style of program that ACC has been offering since 1986, it will not abandon the college’s instructional focus on news collection and production.
"It’s no longer that you’re a broadcaster in television or radio or (you work) in print or now this weird online thing … it’s all of those things," said media productions video instructor Greg Sherris. "The idea is to prepare our students for more diverse types of work."
Forty-four students — 22 in each stream — will be accepted into the program each year.
The interactive media arts program will also offer a certificate exit after one year of study.
"Occasionally, that odd (first year) student finds that job opportunity … and decides to take that opportunity, but they leave without any form of accreditation," Sherris said. "The certificate allows them to not only say ‘Yes, I took this one year of this program,’ but it gives them perhaps a track to go back to education and it does give them something to put on their resumé."
While the new program will begin its intake this fall, current students in the web design and media productions program will complete the studies they’ve started, meaning each respective program will graduate its final class in 2012.