I am teaching today. I am at work on a Saturday and since it is one of the three days a week I work, I guess I am not going to complain that much. Everyday, I try to impose on my students a sense of what they will face in the workplace. It’s amazing how many of them seem to think that they will be able to just go in and create whatever they want without giving thought to how functional it will be.

They pick colors that they like instead of what works best for the layout. They use spaces and returns to format text. They try to use RGB images in a print document. The sad thing is that I get students throughout various stages of their education here and some of the graduating seniors don’t know that screen images need to be 72 dpi and print images need to be 300 dpi. I have yet to come across a student that could explain to me the difference between raster and vector.

They don’t seem to get that these are the things that are going to edge them out of job opportunities. You have to have some interest in your field. Or at least fake it enough to make me think that you care remotely about this. It scares me how the younger generations are getting more and more apathetic. It’s like someone is forcing them to be here. Which if that is true…they are all over 18…you have to take control of your life some time. Why not start now?