Creative Media Technologies FE Taster Day 13 January 2016
One example of this engagement was the event hosted by the Department of Technology and Psychology, on the afternoon of Wednesday 13th January. They ran ataster day for prospective applicants from FE colleges to the BSc (Honours) in Creative Media Technologies (CMT).
The ab-initio CMT programme was introduced in September 2015, and builds on the previous 16 years of the successful B.Eng in Audio Visual Media Technology (AVMT)/B.Sc (Honours) in Digital Media Systems (DMS) add-on. The reputation of these previous programmes helped to launch CMT.
The taster day began around 12 noon with a get together of all the students who came from Bray College of Further Education (BIFE), studying FETAC Level 5 computing/networking and Dun Laoghaire Further Education Institute (DFEi), studying film/media. The students then participated in a creative technologies workshop, each making electronics effects circuits that made gave electric guitars that classic 70s heavy rock sound, David Bowie would for example have used in his early tracks. The students also got to know about CMT in general, and the largely practical/project driven nature of the programme.
The FE students were taken to lunch and they visited AVMT2 students who were developing projects. The FE students enjoyed very much chatting with AVMT2 and getting to know their projects – a mixture of software and hardware technologies.
The students were then taken on a tour of the faculty, in particular to Visual Communications, Modelmaking, Animationand Art. The tour finished with a detailed look at the National Film School studios, and our visitors were delighted to see a TV programme in production, plus the radio studios.
Feedback from the visitors was excellent. They all enjoyed the day, finding it very worthwhile, well organised and delivered. The students who were undertaking FETAC programmes in film/media were pleasantly surprised that they could easily access the technical side, find it interesting and develop relevant skills in that area. Students from a technical background realised their world would open up into the more creative outlets they were looking for, via CMT. They are all seriously consideringCMT in their CAO applications and would otherwise have no hesitation in recommending the programme to their friends and family. It is this blend of the creative and technical which makes CMTattractive, when prospective candidates understand what it has to offer.
Ganesh Ramachandran organised and lead the taster day, helped and supported on the day by Ruth Moran, Keith Thornton and numerous colleagues in the department of Technology & Psychology, Visual Communications, Film/Television and across IADT. In general, the taster day introduced prospective students' to Creative Media Technologies and the range of degree programmes at IADT.