Designing Experiences | Building Environments
Distance Learning
RICK HUGHES
Content
Video
This Vimeo showcase presents a variety of overview and introduction videos that I have created for both university courses and projects.
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Online Ed
This example is an overview of a chapter titled Visionaries from an online course I created called Digital Technology in the Arts.
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Writing
This popup presents excerpts from essays and university lectures that examine the creative applications and implications of art and digital technology.
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Music
This audio playlist presents a short compilation of songs and orchestral pieces that I have written and produced.
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Institutions
University of Montana
Western Washington University
Yeshiva University
University of Wyoming
About
My introduction to distance learning began with a small online music theory course that I offered through America Online in 1990. Despite its limitations it was there that I realized the possibility of the quickly evolving internet and it's potential to expand and democratize what up to that point had been an exclusively in person teaching/learning experience. For me it was a game changer. It soon became part of my teaching method and when I began my career as a professor at the University of Montana in 1997, the internet had already begun to reshape the learning environment in profound ways. Students had become increasingly savvy with the many facets of digital technology, such as the early versions of Photoshop and Social Media, and the necessity of adapting to its evolution became clear. To do that I needed to understand what it was, what were its applications and what were the implications going forward.
Today, in this age of acceleration, exemplified by everything from robotics to artificial intelligence powered by quantum computing, that necessity of adaptation looms even larger. As a teacher I have always tried to help students engage with their sense of curiosity because it is one of the most important learning tools that they have. But it must be combined with an appreciation of the complexity of integration. This website, for example, isn't just one thing. It's the product of a technological collaboration between a variety of software programs and platforms. All working together. My job is to help students understand that by demystifying the process so that they can become competent creators and not just comfortable consumers.
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