With job skill requirements updating as often as computers, students, staff and faculty must keep up with the times or be dumped in the recycle bin.
Many majors, like marketing, wildlife and fisheries, and interior design, require their students to be proficient in specific software that the teachers don’t always have the time or means to teach.
“Students can only help themselves by learning as much as they can about software in their fields because of the very competitive job market,” said Lora Defore, a communication instructor. “Any knowledge of software is a good thing.”
However, many of new programs such as Adobe PhotoShop are too complex to learn quickly without help, and they remain outside of the average student budget.
Realizing that today’s marketplace demands on workers from all fields, the Mitchell Memorial Library and the Instructional Media Center paired up to create the Bits and Bytes program to teach the new software.
Pattye Archer, coordinator for the media center, said, “It is our goal to make these classes available so our students, faculty and staff can enhance their education.”
Archer said they realized that many students didn’t have the time to spend an entire semester in one class learning one software program, but the students and professors needed help.
Also, various departments invested money in technology that needed to be used. These departments use Bits and Bytes to maximize the usage of materials they put in their classrooms.
Bobbie Huddleston, instructor media center assistant and workshop instructor, said the workshops teach students aspects of software that they may not have a chance to learn in normal classes.
“Some [students] don’t know how to put their work in the form they need,” Huddleston said. “They can’t always get instruction in class so the free workshops are to their advantage.”
Aside from class projects, Bits and Bytes also aims to keep graduates and professionals informed on new software, but Archer said many of the people in the class are often taking them for their own betterment.
“The marketplace gets tougher, the more skills you have to bring to the table, the better off you are in the job hunt,” Archer said. “A short workshop that takes up three to four hours of your time might give you the edge in the search for a job.”
Bits and Bytes workshops include Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, Quark-Xpress and have expanded this year to include workshops in Adobe InDesign, Adobe Go Live, and Adobe Acrobat. They have also upgraded many editions of programs they have previously taught.
The classes are offered throughout the day with workshops varying from two to three hours, and are open to graduate students, undergraduate students, staff and faculty. Special workshops for groups of five or more can be scheduled by contacting the media center.
The class schedules are available on the library Web site: http://library.msstate.edu/workshops/bitsnbytes.asp.