LaSalle SIA... the sad truth.

[EclectronicEscapades]

Would anyone disagree if I say this institution is driven more as a hobby workshop than a college/university?
Anyone with a minimal understanding within their field of expertice would be shocked to see how their art is teached at this school.

Any other place where the arts scene isn't as microscopic and shallow as here in Singapore they would NEVER get away with this.

 

[serialninja]

get away with what, exactly? this is interesting, i've never been to LaSalle SIA but my impression of it was that it was pretty good

 

[phoenix]

I agree. This place, like all the private universities in Singapore, is run like a scam. I took a 1 year course and at the end of it learned nothing new. I practically "paid" for my certificate. And the stuff that passes off as "art".... All I can say is that even if i let my 3 year old nephew draw on canvas and pass it off, I might still get an A grade. That's why I don't trust all the hype on artists these days. 5 mins of work on the canvas and charge their price $500. At least they learn how to scam from the best schools....

 

[jbarks]

Would be great if you could explain what you're talking about, because right now it's just a statement with nothing to back it up

And no, I'm not from Lasalle...

 

[EclectronicEscapades]

get away with what, exactly?

You are sort of underlining my point here.

 

[EclectronicEscapades]

Would be great if you could explain what you're talking about, because right now it's just a statement with nothing to back it up

And no, I'm not from Lasalle...

yes, it is just a statement, well observed.
my personal opinion.

i was just wondering wether there where more people of the same opinion.

 

[soft]

EclectronicEscapades, so you have been in Singapore for a year already? so what was your experience with LaSalle SIA that made you form such opinion?

 

[unsane]

I agree. This place, like all the private universities in Singapore, is run like a scam.

how true...same goes for certain 3 lettered instituitions...

 

[Audrey Fenghuang]

give us more details EclectronicEscapades, please do. im from the school too.

 

[CrispyEgg]

i'm with Mr Soft on this. do explain more in detail, your experience, your observation and all.

my stand is that an art cannot be thought, only the structure in which to study it can be given, and that is what the school is for. other than that, the school is a social gathering for fellow musicians to network. and it's also a place where u can express yourself and get criticism from other artists, thereby improving yourself.

interesting topic sia!

 

[soft]

ya, i hope EclectronicEscapades can substantiate his opinion.

 

[detroit_red]

I can understand how some people may feel about their money being scammed, i feel that way eventhough i'm from a government polytechnic. We have this crap called PBL, problem based learning. It's basically, We show on the timetable that you have 4 hrs of tutorial, but you only need to come for one hour, and that will be used to see your project. Fun what, 1 hr only? Yeah, but you gotta research so much yourself, its crazy, when the teacher can just give you what they want. I dunno ah, but PBL is stupid ...

 

[ciel21]

dude its called learning. they give you everything might as well dun do project give u grade ask you go home. easier for you easier for your tutor.

 

[bluepowder]

Ciel: agreed,one must learn as much as he can,after a point(esp in the uni and poly) the professors can and should only guide us..

 

[knackroller]

I think sometime last year there was this 3-day workshop for composers for modern music or something. I remembered I signed up (luckily for one day only) and when I turned up they prompty pocketed my money.

What ensued was a few lecturers appeared and stood around wondering what to do with the bunch of us who actually turned up (it was as if they were expecting us not to).

After some 15 minutes of baffled looks, one lecturer said that he actually had a performance class scheduled for the same time (and he was supposed to be heading the workshop!), so why not some of us "join" in - and when we "joined in" he just said, ok just go find an instrument and play along - so we had to barge in on someone playing the piano or something and we had like 3 of us squashed into a piano.

After the class ended, I trooped over to the "computer music lab" and there was this guy doodling there. Again, it was as if he was just doing his thing and never expected us to turn up. So he went, ok so what do you want to know? And we sat around with blank faces.

We rounded off the day be joining another class which, while being mildy interesting, was just another class of music theory.

So yeah it was like they collected money for a "workshop" which was never really organised at all, they just thought to make some extra cash by slotting random people into random classes.

 

[Kwerty]

I can understand how some people may feel about their money being scammed, i feel that way eventhough i'm from a government polytechnic. We have this crap called PBL, problem based learning. It's basically, We show on the timetable that you have 4 hrs of tutorial, but you only need to come for one hour, and that will be used to see your project. Fun what, 1 hr only? Yeah, but you gotta research so much yourself, its crazy, when the teacher can just give you what they want. I dunno ah, but PBL is stupid ...

I take it that you're from RP as well? Let's put it this way, if you do not like the system over there by all means you can transfer or something. You may think it is in-efficient but others think otherwise. Hey don't get me wrong, I'm not a "pro-RP-er" crap.

There are pros and cons to everything. PBL makes you independant. They give you free time to learn yourself. Like what I've said earlier on, if you prefer the traditional way of studying a.k.a "spoonfed-by-teachers-and-memorise-notes-then-go-exam" style, by all means man :wink:

 

[Timex]

Wats important is that there is value added. If u come out not learning anything, then i guess its better to cut your losses.

 

[Cheez]

I think sometime last year there was this 3-day workshop for composers for modern music or something. I remembered I signed up (luckily for one day only) and when I turned up they prompty pocketed my money.

Who organized the workshop?

Out of curiosity, if a group of composers in SOFT come up with an e-learning (what James has been trying to kick-start) on composition for modern music (like what you attended), do you think you or others around here will be interested? Free of course. And I believe there are sufficient expertise here who can pull it off with professional content, the only problem being time.

 

[Cheez]

For the comments on PBL, it's already been shown that PBL doesn't really work without proper guidance. Singapore is now fine-tuning the PBL system in the universities. The idea is a good one, but it's already more than 10 years old. We also know the spoon-feeding system doesn't work - worse than PBL.

So be patient.

I was one of the first batch of PBL guinea-pigs (in Australia) - that was more than 10 years ago - when Singapore was still spoon-feeding. Singapore is a little slow - they are following the PBL system that other countries already threw away. But we're picking up. There has been a lot of changes in recent years - for the better.

In my guinea-pig days, there's also what we call "self-directed learning". We always complain that they "don't teach us, but examine us on what they don't teach". As I said, things have changed dramatically since...

 

[azlyjacaz]

Back to the topic of LA SALLE..

Basically the lecturers form a starting ground, the foundations into the art world.

In art, it's not systematic.

Ideas derived from individuals' creativity.

For example, in music, the teacher teach you the chords. It's up to you to create the song. Nice or not the song turns out to be, it's totally up to your own doing.

The lecturers set the starting line, you finish the race.