TEACHING

I taught in the fields of art and design for more than a decade at a university level.

Teaching is an excellent way to develop your own skills. Art and design students are exceedingly creative, eager to push boundaries and test the limits of software and hardware. Keeping up kept me sharp.

UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA
Industrial Design Division

I spent a little more than 10 years as the computer lab technician in the Industrial Design Division at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. In that capacity, I was the primary source of instruction on much of the software within the lab, but I was also responsible for the “high-technologies”: CNC machining and 3D printing. As an avid maker, I spent a fair amount of time helping out with more traditional tools and processes in the well-equipped shop.

I was never officially an instructor at the U of A, but as I became among the most senior members of the staff, and I honed my craft, I took on more and more teaching responsibility. Sessional instructors handed their classes over to me for Rhino instruction. I contributed to curriculum development, gave frequent demos, posted instructional tutorials to the lab server, and participated wholeheartedly in critiques. I came in on weekends, pitching in in the computer lab when a big project was due, or down in the shop before a furniture crit. While I was helping a student one-on-one with a computer model, I would gently make suggestions concerning the design, or throw out a couple of options for how to go about constructing it. I made a point to remind students what intriguing aspects of their design they should remember to highlight in their presentations. I often served as a go-between: students would petition me if an assignment was too vague or a timeline too tight, and if I agreed, I took those concerns to their instructors, where sometimes concessions were made.

I can’t even count the number of times a student came into my office, closed the door behind them, and burst into tears, almost always near the end of the semester.

And I was always grateful when a graduating student took the time to tell me “I learned more from you than I did from any other single person at this University”.

ALBERTA COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN
Department of Jewelry and Metals

​This is the job I miss the most. I only taught for two years at ACAD before budget cutbacks forced the postponement of my course.

I concentrated everything I had learned at the U of A into one class. Officially, the class was an introduction to Rhino and rapid prototyping. But I found the more time I spent at the fringes of the core material: presentation, design theory, practical applications, the more the students responded with enthusiasm. In the end it was a course about art and design, with a focus on new technologies.

I'm proudest of my course evaluations. Students think I'm good at this too.

ALBERTA COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN
Department of Extended Studies

​I taught a truncated version of my ACAD Rhino class to adults. It was a lot of fun.