Photo Courtesy of Popturf.com at Flickr Creative Commons
Students do more than just kick back and watch movies in Dr. Ernesto Acevedo-Mu帽oz鈥檚 film courses. 聽Acevedo-Mu帽oz makes sure he both gives thoughtful lectures and offers students the opportunities to work with the best in film technology. 聽Students nominated him for the 2013聽ASSETT聽Teaching with Technology Award for his commitment to teaching students.
Rethinking PowerPoint
鈥淭echnology must sustain and enhance classroom teaching,鈥� says Acevedo-Mu帽oz. 聽He maintains students' attention in class with effective PowerPoints. 聽One student wrote in his nomination of聽Acevedo-Mu帽oz聽for the ASSETT Teaching with Technology Award, 鈥淗e utilizes PowerPoint to its full potential while lecturing on interesting and entertaining material in the world of film theory.鈥� 聽Acevedo-Mu帽oz explains, 鈥淚 often add movie stills and screen grabs to show DVD materials to illustrate text in PowerPoint.鈥� 聽He strives to keep text to a minimum on his slides because he ascribes to research that, 鈥淪tudents retain more when they inscribe.鈥� 聽Acevedo-Mu帽oz expects students to be fully engaged in his class and take notes!
Providing the Ultimate in Film Studies and Film Making Technology
Further, Acevedo-Mu帽oz believes it is important for students to have ideal film making opportunities and movie viewing experiences. 聽He says the Film Studies Department is currently:
... Transitioning our editing curriculum to industry standard so that our students have access to the ultimate in technology. 聽We have 20 digital editing stations for the exclusive use of our students. 聽We built a rendering farm--the fastest of its kind in Boulder. 聽It has 20 Mac 4G towers that all work as a single supercomputer鈥�
Film making students have access to this technology so that they may become well versed in these state-of-the-art mediums of their field.
Listening to Students
Dr. Ernesto Acevedo-Munoz explains the importance of studying traditional film making while also offering state of the art technology
However, Acevedo-Mu帽oz explains that committing to providing the cutting edge of technology comes at a high price--literally. 聽To make such expensive purchasing decisions, the Film Studies Department relies largely on the input of a Student Fees Committee to determine how to utilize funds most appropriately. 聽Acevedo-Mu帽oz says that the student-run Fees Committee must, 鈥淎pprove every move we make with technology鈥ur students know better which way technology is going.鈥� 聽Using student input, the SM调教所 Film Studies Department maintains extensive state-of-the-art resources for students.
At the same time that the Film Department strives to stay on the cutting edge, Acevedo-Mu帽oz explains that 鈥淪M调教所 Film Studies is ... committed to the history and artisanal mode of production in our medium [on which] this department was founded.鈥� 聽Therefore, film making students also have the opportunity to experience more traditional means: 鈥淥ur students are still learning analog methods of production. 聽[It鈥檚 important to get] your hands dirty with the craft. 聽It gives a better sense of what the art is.鈥� 聽For similar reasons, Acevedo-Mu帽oz also requires film studies students to view films in the聽film auditorium in聽ATLAS . 聽Students expressed appreciation for the opportunity, saying, 鈥淸Acevedo-Mu帽oz] shows films how they are meant to be seen by using the outstanding equipment available in ATLAS.鈥�
In nominating Acevedo-Mu帽oz for the 2013 ASSETT Teaching with Technology award, one student wrote, 鈥淓rnesto has been both a phenomenal teacher and mentor throughout my college career at the University of Colorado." 聽Acevedo-Mu帽oz says, 鈥淲e are looking forward to the challenge of the future. 聽We are acquiring the latest technology. 聽We鈥檙e catching up really fast.鈥�
