Monthly Lesson/Contests?

[Chisa]

Just want to get people's opinions on an idea I had.

How about this: a monthly lesson type thing. The 'teacher' (who will be whoever is willing and knows enough about the subject) will post a lesson on a particular topic, examples maybe? and some links to other reference material on the internet. They also give a task, which anyone interested then has a month to complete. After that, the 'teacher' will comment on submitted completed tasks, give advice and constructive criticism, as well as anyone else who has an opinion. New month, new thread, new lesson.

The only thing is that it will take a lot of work for the 'teacher' to think up a lesson, set it all up and comment on the entries.

First up I think we should have banner and logo one. Maybe put some background info on designing a good logo, then the task is to make one. And make the first one at least a competition, with a nice prize We can use the winning submission on our front page. We'd have to wait a bit, until we get some more members before running that though.

Please post your opinions on the idea here, what you think could be added/changed, when you think it should start, if you think you would like to be a 'teacher', what kind of topics you would like to be covered, and that kind of thing.  

[GhoSt-X]

Sounds good ...
No one would understand me if i tried to teach ... but im sure there are people out there who can ^__^  

[edison]

Its a great idea. It is a lot of work for the teacher though.
I wouldn't want to be the first one.
Of course it wouldn't always have to be just 1 teacher. A few knowledgable people could set up the lessons and projects.  

[OptimaClonic5]

I think that sounds like a great idea. I would be interested in sharing what I know and learning new stuff from others. Let me know if I can help out in any way. smile  

[Acis]

i think that's a great idea!! knowledge is power
mwahahahaha!!!
sorry...

how long would the competitions last??  

[Kitsunehime]

Yes, it's a very good idea. 3nodding
Though, perhaps sometimes we can have a group of people be the teachers? that way they can share the workload.

As for teaching . . . The only thing I could explain would probably be CG and a few tidbits of HTML. sweatdrop  

[GhoSt-X]

I can teach a lil HTML and CSS and basic PHP ...
but with the limitation of the forums..its hard to give examples...

i may start a HTML or CSS tute some time soon ..
but i need to know how many people know HTML already ..cause then i can just skip to CSS  

[Chisa]

A group of teachers would work well, and yeah, make it a lot easier...

OptimaClonic: thanks for the offer! What kind of topics do you think you'd be interested in sharing your knowledge on?

Acis: I think it would last about a month, to give everyone time to complete the task.

I'm not sure about making them all competitions though... just more friendly lessons and advice. I do think we should have a banner competition though, to reward the winner for making us an 'official' banner. I might be able to donate a Sealed Letter or something to the cause.... actually, maybe we should have the banner competition completely separate from this, as it seems to be going in a different direction?

I was thinking of maybe not necessarily full on lessons... obviously it is hard to do in posts on a forum. How about, for example, a intro to CSS lesson. Put up some basic background about CSS (uh... this would have to be after the basic html lesson I guess sweatdrop ), the theory of its use, and a few tips/things to keep in mind (say with compatibility issues). Then link up a few good resources (like the tutorial at Webmonkey) and give a simple task, like recreating a page that the teacher created with CSS earlier.

So then the teacher is using online resources instead of giving a full on lesson, but still sharing their knowledge on the subject and helping anyone interested. I don't know how well that will work out in the more designy things though... tutorials tend to be less effective for those.

Any ideas on what kind of things you'd like to learn you guys?  

[Acis]

definately html, i have no idea how to use this and it plays a big role in web design. (i don't even know what css is!!... i'm willing to learn though)  

[GhoSt-X]

i guess i should try teaching it
but there are quite good online tutorials that can do a much better job than me  

[OptimaClonic5]

Chisa: I can give helpful tips and tricks in regards to Photoshop, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver (for you web design peeps). I also have good knowledge on the principles of design. It would be great to show people things that would be helpful ^_^  

[kurohitsuji]

Chisa

A group of teachers would work well, and yeah, make it a lot easier...

OptimaClonic: thanks for the offer! What kind of topics do you think you'd be interested in sharing your knowledge on?

Acis: I think it would last about a month, to give everyone time to complete the task.

I'm not sure about making them all competitions though... just more friendly lessons and advice. I do think we should have a banner competition though, to reward the winner for making us an 'official' banner. I might be able to donate a Sealed Letter or something to the cause.... actually, maybe we should have the banner competition completely separate from this, as it seems to be going in a different direction?

I was thinking of maybe not necessarily full on lessons... obviously it is hard to do in posts on a forum. How about, for example, a intro to CSS lesson. Put up some basic background about CSS (uh... this would have to be after the basic html lesson I guess sweatdrop ), the theory of its use, and a few tips/things to keep in mind (say with compatibility issues). Then link up a few good resources (like the tutorial at Webmonkey) and give a simple task, like recreating a page that the teacher created with CSS earlier.

So then the teacher is using online resources instead of giving a full on lesson, but still sharing their knowledge on the subject and helping anyone interested. I don't know how well that will work out in the more designy things though... tutorials tend to be less effective for those.

Any ideas on what kind of things you'd like to learn you guys?

colouring pictures? CG may be or creating a 3d object from a 2d?  

[OptimaClonic5]

kurohitsuji

colouring pictures? CG may be or creating a 3d object from a 2d?

I could do a little lesson on coloring pictures if anyone else is interested. smile  

[Kitsunehime]

I could probably do a CG tutorial, for those interested. I'd need a host for example pictures though; I can't hotlink from my website.  

[Chisa]

Kitsunehime

I could probably do a CG tutorial, for those interested. I'd need a host for example pictures though; I can't hotlink from my website.

GhoSt just got hosting, and he said something about using some space for Gaia graphics... I'm sure he'll let you borrow some. He has like 6 gig xd

Okay, here's what we got so far:

HTML - Chisa, GhoSt-X
CSS - GhoSt-X
CG - OptimaClonic5, Kitsunehime

and here's some things I'd like to see:

Typography
Colour theory
Basic design principles
Things related to print

I was thinking we could start with the most basic design principles (OptimaClonic5? Anyone else know much about that stuff?), and then move on from there. Or, we could start with techincal stuff like HTML, which should be easier to learn and teach than the design stuff, since its less intuitive and more knowledge based.

Opinions? More suggestions?