1.2 Making our student marketable? Getting our students prepare for their future

 How do you build a website?

I wonder if anyone was taught this in High School. I know it is debated whether or not students should learn how to build a resume, how to do their taxes, etc. And yet, we ignore an essential question when we have this debate: How do students build their brand?

The student’s brand is the students themselves. What I mean by this is when it comes to jobs, college, any opportunity, students need to know how to sell why they should be chosen. All this is done digitally now days. 

Thinking about technology in the classroom, it would be beneficial for student to learn how to build a website. Whether they continue to use the website built in class or not, skills developed from this lesson will help our students in the long-run. Decision making, branding, promoting are all useful skills students will gain from this. 

Since I will be in a photography class next year, all students have access to Adobe Creative Cloud. In this app, you will find Adobe Portfolio. This app is essential creating a digital portfolio in the means of a website. As an artist myself, I cannot stress how important the connection to the digital world is in order to  build relations and open opportunities. I tried for years to stick to physical, traditional work and it was difficult to get into shows without a digital portfolio. When I was in high school, I could get away with developing a physical portfolio. However, that is simply not enough these days. And even if it is, students and artists alike need to know how to take photos of their digital work in order to upload their work to apply to shows/opportunities online. 

Below is the website I made during my senior capstone class during my last year of college. I had always wished I had know about how to build a website earlier as it has made it possible for me to connect with people from all over, and not just about art. It’s allowed me to create not just a physical portfolio where my work can get ripped, water-damaged, etc. But also a digital portfolio, even as a backup, can be shared with the click of a button, which is highly more marketable than scheduling a meeting, compiling the works, having a portfolio case, etc. 

https://meaganvarecha.art/

Overall, this is one lesson I plan on teaching during the end of year should the circumstances permit. Even if the students do not have access to Adobe Portfolio, they can make a portfolio on instagram. Or even create a physical portfolio and learn how to take proper photos of those works to upload online later should they need.  

I would say this technology in education course has sparked ideas more than anything. Ideas of lessons, ideas of connecting with my students/staff, and the tools I can use to do these are all valuable takeaways from this two day class.