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By Rebecca Blaho Members of the Savannah College of Art and Design’s online student community have been teaching others the ways of the Web in a new venture called Hive Online Training Network Educating SCAD, otherwise known as HOTNES. The big project started as a small idea. “A lot of people have come up to me asking if I could help them with their Web site because they do not understand [how to design one],” said Scott Englert, director of The Hive. “So it struck me one day to get The Hive to teach anyone at SCAD something we do everyday ourselves.” HOTNES is a five-part workshop series that meets every Saturday at Montgomery Hall, where members of the SCAD community can learn the basics of building and designing their own Web sites. Appropriately, the class even has its own Web site where class announcements and notes can be found: http://thehive.scad.edu/hotnes/. Students from The Hive share their Web and design-related skills with those students who may not have had the opportunity to take Web design classes as part of their curriculum. “The goal of HOTNES is to help students learn to design and build a Web site and help them make their own Web portfolio,” said Brandon Ashworth, assistant director of The Hive. According to Englert, this is an opportunity to share the skills of The Hive staff members. “The Hive has a skilled staff in Web design, and we also know the needs of the students. With the Internet growing so fast and a lot of artists putting their work online to share, most do not have the knowledge of creating such a Web site or will have to wait to a class to take to learn how to do it,” Englert said. While HOTNES is supported by the entire Hive staff, Englert, Ashworth, Ben Willis, Q. Manning and Rex Morgan have been actively teaching the class. “All staff members have helped in turning these classes into a reality in one form or another,” Englert said. “All do their part in providing this service to students. The goal of The Hive is to help everyone no matter what area they are in.” The class is made up of nearly a dozen students from a variety of majors. Each has decided to participate in the workshop for different reasons. Katerina Fyler, a junior traditional animation major from Charlotte, N.C., said she felt that a personal Web site would have professional benefits. “I have very limited experience with computers. I have often explored Web sites of other students and professionals in my field, and formed the impression that a personal Web site is the best way to advertise one’s skills,” she said. Megan Garaudy, a junior from River Ridge, La., who is majoring in sequential art said she just wanted to pick up a few new skills such as basic HTML and Web design skills. “Hopefully, now that I’ve got some basic knowledge about creating Web pages, I’ll be able to build on that and use it to perhaps create a nice-looking page of my own,” she said. “It feels really great to see people come to these classes and how much we help them is so rewarding,” Englert said. “It feels good to know that later on these students will do something in the same area and they will think, ‘I am happy someone was able to help me.’” The Hive is looking into facilitating more workshops as part of HOTNES. For more information, call The Hive hotline at 525-7157. Blaho is data entry coordinator. |
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