TV, Radio & New Media Broadcasting

Hi Hacx,

First of all, I would tell you to switch to something else, either your second or third choice. The reason being is that I have just completed Multimedia there, a BA (Honours). And that is a good 4 years wasted out of my life. Go somewhere else, because that institute is a joke. It is nowhere near what it used to be. (This post will be long, so forgive me, but I hope you will understand why I am a bit 'hesitant', to say the least, to recommend the place).

In first year, Multimedia/ Music Tech/ TV Radio all do the same modules. This is to make sure that people have made the right choice regarding their course. (One can transfer from TV to Multimedia to Music Tech, or whichever way you choose. Music Tech generally stays where they are, in terms of their course.) Unfortunately, they are not entirely truthful regarding the modules, as I will detail further. Also, when I was there, we were one of the first years to experience semesterisation, which divided lecturers as the time for subjects is greatly reduced.

Okay. First year we ran into a lecturer who was meant to be teaching Information Technology.<mod snip> Every group complained about her, and she was not allowed teach for the rest of the semester. She still has her job there though.
You choose your modules for the following year, at the end of the current year. Yet you may not get the module you choose, despite it being in the prospectus.

The time I was there, I saw TV radio folk getting their modules changed without their knowledge. 3D animation was in the prospectus, but the TV radio group were not allowed do that module. This was in 2nd year, and one person who really wanted to do the subject, had to switch to Multimedia to do it, as well as doing a few modules extra. Brave soul he was, he did it.

The year below them, came back after summer, having chosen to do Media Graphics (Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator) yet this module was yanked without their knowledge, and instead they were put into photography. They vented their complaints to the Head of the Department, but were told 'They should be delighted with the facilities' for photography, a really poorly taught subject. Their names were even on the attendance list for the MG. The only thing is, photography is taught in FAS, by FAS, despite it being the college’s duty to do it. None of the college lecturers are involved in it. Without Media Graphics, they were not able to do After Effects in the final year, despite that also being in the prospectus.

TV Radio also had some awful luck with lecturers. In Third Year, the lecturer for dynamic websites stopped coming in to teach class. She would instead spend the entire time down in the canteen <mod snip>. After weeks of no classes, they were expected to complete a project, and had no clue what they were doing. They complained, she was suspended (escorted out by security on one occasion) and they got a month extension with a different lecturer in order to get the project finished. She is also still in the college.

My own experiences there were equally awful. Some lecturers were unable to teach a subject, so much so that some folks were teaching the lecturer how to do it. Some never helped, sometimes hindering. Claymation, as a module, was yanked on us. Folks, who did do the subject, TV Radio, also had to teach themselves. They got no help from the lecturer. He is the same for 3D and Flash animation. Just gives one notes, and that is it.

(I was lucky, I knew 3D by teaching myself years before. Ended up helping out folks in the module.)

<mod snip>

Every second project is a group project, and oft times you are dragging someone after you to make them work, and they are dragging your grade down immensely. Fourth year was hell, worse than the other years, because we were assured that we had the choice of an individual project, yet they were all group projects. Some were there just to fill out the year, yet took up a truckload of time. We, all of us, complained to the lecturers at the beginning of our final year that we were unsatisfied with the course. We were trained for nothing, and in some cases, taught outdated software that is no longer used. Yet they will continue to teach it because it means that lecturer has a job. There are 4, yes 4, good cameras in the college, a college of 3 500 pupils, yet they are ultra-protective of them. They have launched masters in creative media, but the brochure is not worth the paper it is printed on. They will not fulfil any of the promises, I guarantee it.

I am due to re-sit a project that was not correctly marked or looked at. I paid for the resit project, figuring I would get a pass degree and get out of there, yet a project brief I was due to receive in June, has, to this day, never turned up. I was told all I would have to wait is a few days. I called the college, and they told me the lecturer who was due to give me my brief, was on holiday. Any phone calls I made to him could not get through, at all. I paid over 100 euros for my resit, but never got the project spec. Now I want my money back, because I cannot have the project finished by September, as I have no requirements or brief. I am damned if I do, and damned if I don't.

The student's union there is equally inept. The lookout for number one, themselves, and nobody else. They insult those who question them as often they have no answers. The union is made up of a bunch of failed students who failed their exams, or not sat an exam in 3-4 years. They also published a completely idiotic email that was sent out last year saying that there was a genital warts epidemic in the college, and 1 in every 2 students had it. They also gave out false information as to how it is caught. This was merely weeks before the CAO was due to be sent out and it spread around the social networks like crazy (like the so-called epidemic). See below.

http://www.joe.ie/health-fitness/health-news/hogwarts-warning-of-genital-warts-epidemic-at-it-tralee-0010703-1

In short, don't go there. You will regret it immensely.

Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Hello,
I have read this thread in full and i feel i could offer my assistance in a lot of regards to IT Tralee and college life as a whole. This will broken down into stages of short paragraphs but will give you an overall picture of life in college and life in Tralee aswell as the courses.

Like all people finishing their leaving cert there is a renewed hope and an expectation about college, that is, you think you are free to make your own decisions and that college is going to be great and fun, however while your parents my have less of a role in your education, you are very much left alone to screw up by yourself.

for example: you may think that your leaving cert was tough (and lets face it, it is) and now its done your worries have come to an end. This is not true in matter of fact it gets progressively worse. The reason why i state this is because unlike having to worry about teachers calling your parents, your lecturers will simply just issue letters at home asking you to de-register from college or if you are on a grant, you will find yourself short of payments for not being in college.

IT Tralee issues each student a T card (student card) this cards are used to "sign in" for each subject so the college can monitor your attendance and report any issues of not turning up.

Course layout:
It is important to understand one thing about your course before you go and do it. Consider it like the stocking fillings during christmas except its your education. You will have a lot of "pointless" subjects to do over your time in college, that will hold little to no relevance to what you want to do as a career, these subjects can be the likes of (personal communication, personal taxation, a foreign language, entrepreneurship etc.)
these modules can be chosen from, but other subjects may not and i have noted a lot of ticked off students about the relevance of certain subjects.

Lecturers and how they teach:
In a lot of the lectures i have been to, the lecturers may know some of the stuff, but they rely heavily on notes gained from the internet, or books in a library. The lecturers have a tendancy to ask students do there own work in finding the answers to solutions, without offering much in advice. So in other words you have to teach yourself in some parts, having personally been told in 3d animation when i was having an animation issue, "have you checked the internet for a solution, im sure you can find the solution there". There is much more of an expectation that with age, comes the need to teach yourself and do your own teaching.


Projects:
Each subject you are doing (sometimes not even in your prospectus, as its subject to change and availability (note the persons comments above )) will have a project sometimes several projects that need to be handed up, these projects may be group projects are time vampires, when you start your first year each lecturer is expecting a minimum of 2 hours per night on their subject of teaching (this is actually impossible, unless you have a cure sleep deprevation (that doesn't involve sleep)) and they expect good work turned up. Some of the projects can be due at the end of the 1st semester or the last semester, but you will need to budget your time well to insure each project and subject is getting equal attention.

Jobs and the future:
Unlike the student above me, i did a different course, Bsc in Computing with Games Development. While my course is not TV and radio or new Media, i lived with a student from that course and had heard the stories, but from my side people need to understand the opportunities they can avail of, when/if they finish college.

Getting a degree does not guarantee a job, in some cases it hinders it. In all job interviews i have been in regarding my field. I have been asked about my portfolio, what have i done since college etc. Most companies will not be satisfied by only the work done in college, but projects you do on your own and what you have thought yourself outside of college. So be aware that doing the bare minimum in college to get your degree wont guarantee you a job.

Sports, Night life, other stuff:
Okay, firstly i want to mention time management. When you are a college student you may want to booze up and go to a night club (Horans mainly but to be honest its not that great but where all students start with) and usually its a Thursday night all students go out. I recommend that you consider the implications of getting plastered before having to go in for 9am on the friday. I some how managed to do pretty well (by some miracle)

Sports: There is a good few sports, i did one myself and its great. It breaks up the monotony of college, outside of getting drunk.

other stuff: There is a ton of societies, ranging from airsoft guns, to anime or to the likes of the LGB, so if you have an interest there is a society for it.

Conclusion:
I know you have received a lot of negetive feedback about IT Tralee and the course. But you need to do a lot of the work alone, you need to be continiously motivated to get your work done and learn new things to pass the course, if you sit back and relax for a minute you will fail. Dont miss classes (as hard as it can be) and trying getting involved in a sport of some sort.

When I say that lecturers don't help, I mean no help, none.
Claymation is taught by a guy <mod snip>, and I use the word 'taught' loosely. He'll come in, talk about Jedward or something else in the news, for an hour (the entire class) and by then, you will have learned nothing. There are so little books on the subject that it is equally hard to figure it out for yourself. Then you have to make a short film to pass the module. No advice on lighting or anything else.
When I was having problems with making a website in VB, the lecturer would look at my work, and not critique it or help me out, despite always saying she would tell me where I went wrong. She simply looked at it, and that was it. By some sheer miracle, and a lot of help from a friend, I passed that subject with the bare minimum of points needed to pass. Nobody in that class scored more than 50%.
The T-card registration device does not work. By the middle of the year, it was the same method of pen and paper to log people in.
More money wasted.

I forgot to mention that I did a FETAC course to get in there, which encompassed photoshop, HTML, Flash and other subjects, and after 4 years in the IT Tralee, what I knew from that was what i walked away with. As that was all that was useful. The rest I taught myself, and that majority of it I already knew from my LC and reading books.

@RabbleRouser I am starting Multimedia and I was wondering what laptop do you need to get? like do you need a expensive top of the range with good graphics card or a Mac? or can you get by with just standard mid priced laptop?

RabbleRouser2k wrote: »

My advice to you is to hold off getting a laptop until 2nd year. The reason being is that you may wish to transfer from that to TV Radio or Music Tech.
In Multimedia, you should get a Windows laptop. There are only two subjects that are Mac only, over the entire 4 years, the rest are PC specific or PC/ Mac such as the Adobe suite. Alot of folks were using a PC emulator for their Macs, but it is not as successful as having a PC. Plus when you are doing Microsoft Office Powerpoint presentations, you can run into issues when displaying it on a PC if you have created it on a Mac, and vice versa. It won't recognise it or will run into issues, which you will have to fix on the machine you are presenting on.

If you know that you won't transfer, then get one with 6-8 gigs of ram, a dual or quad core processer with good amount of ram and processor speed. Argos do good ones, as I know people who have gotten em there and had no issues.
Avoid Harvey Norman for laptops, be they Mac or Windows, I know folks who have had nothing but issues with them (one person's laptop started deleting their files, including the virus software. Had to go back to the shop for that. Another's Hard drive started kicking off, and someone else found the case, behind the screen had cracked, like an impact break, but she swears she never dropped it, and I believe her. She had to pay for a new one, because they claim the makers of the laptop don't cover impact damage, despite her claims she never dropped it.)

Learn to BS, as in 'I like this image because....' 'I chose this design because...'. And buy a truck load of hardback sketchbooks, because you will use one for nearly every subject. Specifically A4, and blank pages. Easons do ones for 4.99, so bring a load with you, although that paper is hard to draw on. Also get a load of glue, PVC paste or Pritt Stick, the jumbo ones. (Again, you will go though it like an addict.)

Thanks for the advice. But I am not from Tralee and will be staying in Kingscourt so I need a laptop to do my work on as I will not be able to go home and use a PC. Or can you just do all the work in the IT on the PC's there?

I don't intend to switch over to another course anyway(I am doing Interactive Multimedia btw) unless I find that I REALLY hate it. So you suggest Windows then? Because I don't particularly like Macs tbh as I am used to Windows. And I was intending to get one from Argos I think they are the most reliable.

Also can I ask why would you go through so much Pritt Stick? I understand the hardback for notes from lectures but Pritt Stick?

RabbleRouser2k wrote: »

The hardback sketchbooks are not for notes, they are for projects. I am talking about the kind that you draw in, blank pages, because you will have to draw your designs for projects before you are ever allowed touch a program (one lecturer asked for A3, but people got a4 and he never said anything about it. Plus, 2 A4 pages=1 A3 page). Nothing elaborate, just something that is clear and easy to read.. When it comes to doing projects you will be printing out alot of images, and sticking them into sketchbooks, as well as saying why you like the image. That is why I said learn to BS. The pritt stick is for sticking images into sketchbooks. Some projects, such as Media Graphics, give 50 percent of marks for the sketchbook, another 50 for the project. You have to show your ideas in the book, before they will ever let you do any of the project. And you cannot skip a stage, they want to see weekly updates in the SB . And that is just one project(btw, have a few blank cd's too, because you will need them for submission. They sell them in the shop, but are real expensive). Btw, colour printing costs 25 cent per page, and 8 per black and white, when using the college printers. Sometimes, okay, alot of times, they malfunction, and you have to go to computer services to get a refund. This can be down to new software or other stuff going on in the network.
College PC's are available until 9.30, when the college closes.

Kingscourt, huh? Buy a set of ear plugs, because that is party central. Every town/ city has one. And that is Tralee's. Also, lock your window's during the day, and do not open them until you are home. I remember in first year, an email was sent around about being careful with our stuff by the SU. The email cited one person, living in Kingscourt, who left their window open, and someone climbed in the window, and stole their laptop, laptop case and all.
Some places, such as Kerry Lee, or Town centre apts, are really strict about parties. Even if you have a few friends over while you are working on a project, or before you go out and have a few drinks, you may find that certain landlords will want to know why you are there. The first few weeks when you are settling in are crucial, so learn the safe areas.
And at all costs, avoid the Bull Ring. When my bro was goin to the IT years ago, they used to include it on a list of places people should not go. Nowadays, no need for the list, since everyone knows not to go there. not even on a dare. Unless you want to get your wallet stolen, or windows on your car smashed in.

Oh right, I will buy some A4 and A3 hardbacks so. I will bring some blank cd's cus I have some at home. That sounds a pain about the printers not working tho.
Cheers for the info.

Yea I chose Kingscourt because it is right beside Tesco and you will get to know people much easier down there but that's got me worried that they get robbed! and since I have never been down there what other places and clubs/pubs should be avoided unless you want to get stabbed ha?

RB100 wrote: »

Oh right, I will buy some A4 and A3 hardbacks so. I will bring some blank cd's cus I have some at home. That sounds a pain about the printers not working tho.
Cheers for the info.

Yea I chose Kingscourt because it is right beside Tesco and you will get to know people much easier down there but that's got me worried that they get robbed! and since I have never been down there what other places and clubs/pubs should be avoided unless you want to get stabbed ha?

Horan's fine most nights, but outside of the student nights, you may spot alot of Urban scumbags, or Less than likable members of the travelling community. Stabbing is rare, but fights aren't. Most of the pubs and clubs are grand. The Abbey is a bit dodgy, not because of any people, but if you are using the toilets, you have to climb two flights of stairs down to go tinkle. Because that is where they are located.
If you have had a bit to drink, then that can be like maneuvering a labyrinth.

Printers work most of the time, it's just sometimes, during the holidays, they upgrade the software, or occassionally you get paper jams, and you end up having to go to computer services to sort it out. The problem is they are expensive to print, and alot of folks buy a cheap printer to do the printing for them, to save money.

irishgurl wrote: »

does any one know when orientation is???i think its next monday but not sure!!

It is different days for each course. if you are talking about tv radio course im not sure. it says on the website the dates for every course on the orientation page. here's a link.
http://www.ittralee.ie/en/InformationAbout/1stYearRegistrationFrequentlyAskedQuestions/
Just go to your course under Q15 at the bottom of the page in the FAQS and the info will be there.

I will be down there for the 11th for Interactive Multimedia.

hi eveyone,
im starting tv radio and new media broadcasting next week also!!
im heading down by myself all of my classmates from home are heading to cork/dublin/limerick so im heading down completely blind.
is anyone else in this coarse in the same boat??
if ye are staying in tralee where are ye staying ?? ive booked kingscoart.

hey alleystar,
thank god your the 2nd person to be in the same boat as me that calms my nerves alot ha!
the guy i was talking to was staying in coisceim too ye'll be put in a house together now haha
where are you from ??

alleystar wrote: »

Ah yeah sure there's nothing to be nervous about, I'm sure there's plenty of people starting out by themselves in first year

I'm from Tipperary Only a few days until orientation starts now!

i know after a few days itll be grand we'll all be grand :P

whats your name?? im martina by the way...i know i cant wait till it starts..in ways..:P