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THE ONLINE ACADEMY'S INITIAL CURRICULUM
The future of
political cartoons is in digital media, and our online Academy is dedicated to
giving students the knowledge and skills they need to function, compete and
excel in that future. Our program is one of the most innovative and
comprehensive of any such school in the world. We will offer different classes
in all aspects of cartoon advocacy and activism, from understanding and
analyzing to hands-on training for professional and would-be cartoonists,
editors, writers, and journalists.
The student, with
the assistance of the Academy’s academic advisor, will enter into a specific
program of study and will receive a certificate upon successful completion of
that program.
The initial courses to be
offered by the Academy are listed below:
History of Cartoon Advocacy
An examination of
the history of Political Cartoons, Analyzing the Past in Order to Work in the
Future, Understanding What Makes a Good Political Cartoon, Defining Roles and
Setting Goals. Informing or Influencing?.
Dr. Seuss: But Not the Cat
in the Hat
Everyone is familiar
with the delightful Children’s’ Books done by Dr. Seuss. But few know that Dr.
Seuss was also an important political cartoonist. This course is an “in depth” analysis
of the activist cartoons of Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) which were done in
the 1940’s during the rise of Nazism and Fascism and the outbreak of WWII.
Antisemitism in Cartoons
The course is based
on Kirschen’s study (published by Yale University Press) which examines the
historic infecting of cartoons with a unique image-based virus of Jew-hatred. The
course focuses on the three main strains of this cartoon virus, and makes
extensive use of the library and guide to those viral cartoon images at
SecretCodesHiddenWar.com.
Cartoon Creation
How to Create a
Political Cartoon. Three Function/Tasks of an Independent Cartoon Activist:
Editor, Writer, and Artist The Basic Cartoon Formats and their uses: Panel,
Strip, Hybrid. The Serious Use of Humor. The Secret Sentence: (What Happens in
the Reader’s Mind) Foreign Language Translation and Local English Variants
versus “Standard” English. Spelling, Copy Editing, and other necessary evils.
Student’s work is reviewed and critiqued.
Cartoon Graphics Training
A thorough examination of the Technical Tools, Software, Fonts, etc. The Principles of Scanning, Sizing, Coloring, and Cartoon Lettering. Understanding Various Resolutions and “file types” for Digital and Print. The Course features “hands on” experience and exercises.
Cartoon Distribution
In the Digital world cartoon distribution is done by readers who share, like, and forward the cartoonist's work. This course will focus on maximizing cartoon distribution through the effective use of social media.
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Why We Are Creating the Academy as an Online Entity:
We chose to create our
Academy as an online entity because of the many advantages that the online
environment offers. Some of these advantages include:
1. Global Reach. The
online Academy can reach out to students around the world who will be able to
take our courses without their having to physically travel to a university
campus.
2. Disabled Students.
Students with physical, chronic, mobility issues will be empowered by taking
our online courses and can later go on to be effective online cartoon activists
regardless of their physical restrictions.
3. Student Anonymity.
Isolated and beleaguered student activists on belligerent campuses can be
empowered covertly because of the “one on one” nature of their participation in
our online programs and courses.
4. Individual
Scheduling. Students can take our courses at times convenient to their
individual schedules without their having to all assemble at the same time. Not
only are students able to set their own schedules, they can also study at their
own pace and stick to their own learning style rather than having to change it.
5. Freedom from “School
Year” Limitations: A traditional school calendar runs from September to
early June, divided into set “semesters”. Included within these set months of
learning are school vacations, holidays, teacher workshops, and early release
days. A student who chooses to “attend” our classes no longer has to adhere to
this type of rigid learning schedules and can instead create a calendar that
works for him/her ,their other educational activities, and other possible
responsibilities.
6. Economy of Cost.
In addition to freeing the student from the cost of travel and housing, The
online Academy itself is freed from the high cost of constructing “brick and
mortar” buildings, classrooms, and lecture halls along with the ongoing costs
involved in their maintenance. Our financial resources can, instead, be put
into creating and developing courses, and providing students with expanded
personal and educational services.
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Questions and Answers:
We received number of questions from an interested foundation. Below are
their questions and our answers to them. We thought that you might find them
helpful.
1. What are
your thoughts about recruitment?
Thoughts about recruitment:
The Academy will be seeking serious college and high school students from
around the world. We have already received a number of inquiries. In
addition, the Academy will run cartoon competitions; open to the general public
with prizes in various categories, i.e. professional cartoonists, students,
etc. These competitions will be invaluable in generating publicity
and in aiding recruitment (of both faculty and students)
2. How are
you planning to reach candidates?
Plans to reach students:
We plan to use our popular Dry Bones FB page, Twitter following,
award-winning Blog, our feedblitz subscriber list, and our indiegogo and
Kickstarter lists of contributors and backers, along with Google plus groups we
belong to, newspaper interviews (a story being written right now at
jPost), stories in Anglo Jewish newspapers which carry the Dry
Bones cartoons, "Cartoonist", the official magazine of the
(American) National Cartoonists Society (Kirschen is a long-time member), the Jewish
Telegraph Agency (we have been keeping their director posted on
developments from the beginning), coverage by major newspapers (as a journalist
Kirschen has close ties with colleagues/friends at the NY Times, Wall Street
Journal, etc.) along with TV Interviews. The cartoon wars are a growingly hot
topic in which major TV news shows and newspapers are really interested.
3. How many
students are you expecting to find?
How many students? Part one:
Given the fact that the courses will be
online, there is, in theory no limit to the number of students that
the Academy can teach. The number of students will, of course, be limited to
some extent by the size of our faculty (because of our plans for instructor
review and critique of student work). Students will have to qualify; preference
would be given to activists and to students currently registered
in schools of journalism or in Journalist courses. In addition we
hope to be able to offer scholarships to those who would have difficulty
paying.
How many
students? Part two:
Our plan is to develop courses one by one, in
sequence and to then open each to students as soon as possible. As a practical
matter, in the beginning we plan to limit each course to a maximum of forty
students.
4. Are you
expecting a core class with a group of registered students?
Student Body:
The online Dry Bones Academy will limit
participation to students who have registered. Once registered, they
would then be able to register for individual courses (as listed in our
proposal's curriculum section)
5. How are
you planning to teach?
Lesson Formats:
The Academy's courses will include lectures,
assignments, tests and quizzes, critiques of student work, faculty advice,
special events, competitions, internship program, etc. The digital world
provides a number of convenient formats to enable exciting and meaningful
fulfillment of the course requirements. These formats will include Skype
lectures, YouTube videos, PowerPoint presentations, online webinars, audio
files, PDF’s, and downloadable graphic files (from jpegs and pngs to Adobe PSD's)
Below: TV NEWS coverage by 700 Club Christian Broadcasting.
