Danny de Vries

Posted on Feb 12, 2019

I'm Danny de Vries, Web development lecturer at the Amsterdam University, Ask Me Anything!

#ama

I'm a lecturer and researcher Communication and Multimedia design at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.

I mostly lecture about web development in the technical courses of our program such as Back-end or Project Tech which are courses focussed on HTML, CSS, JavaScript & Node.js. Besides that I teach people about Web Animation during the Minor Visual Interface Design which focusses on keyframing, transitions, processing & SVG.

Apart from teaching in front of a classroom I've coached lots of students helping them navigate the design and agency field:

I've helped them with their portfolio's to land internships.
I've improved their soft skills like presenting and communicaton.
I've helped them to choose what skills to focus on during their studies.
I've had 1-on-1 sessions to set goals and actually reaching them.
I've given constructive feedback and design critique on work students handed in.

I'd love to chat about these topics or give any feedback!

Top comments (21)

Anna Buianova • Feb 13 '19

Hey, Danny.

What are the most challenging concepts or topics for the students?
What techniques do you use to improve students' presenting and communication skills? Thanks.

Danny de Vries • Feb 13 '19 • Edited

Motivation is the most important aspect. Every student can learn how to program. Getting started is not the hardest part, it's to keep pushing true if you feel like you don't understand anymore.

From a technical perspective, specific to JavaScript, the difference between console.logging and actually getting input from the DOM is one of the hardest conceptc to understand. Oh, and CSS layout / Box model!

I would treat presenting like public speaking, these book recommendations from Notist are a nice way to start. Design is a Job from Mike Monteiro is a good confidence booster.

Anna Buianova • Feb 14 '19

Thanks!
Could you answer one more question:
What's the biggest challenge for you as a teacher? Or maybe what was the biggest challenge when you had just started teaching?

Danny de Vries • Feb 15 '19

Sure!

Not every student has the same motivation and eagerness to learn.
Coaching is hard, it's not about slides and theory. It's about motivating students and getting them interested in particular topics.
Making students realize they are not making assignments and exercises because I want them to and they get a grade but it's theory that is needed for their own career paths.
Students shouldn't compare themselves to others in their classroom but compare who they were yesterday. It's hard to make them set their own goals and define their skill level and learning path.

Anna Buianova • Feb 15 '19

Thanks again!

Jack Harner 🚀 • Feb 12 '19 • Edited

Hey Danny, Thanks for doing this. I've got a few questions, if you don't mind.

What's your recommended way of animating SVG. I've looked at GSAP but I'm curious what you think.
Any recommendations on my portfolio?
What's the best way to handle animating things onto the screen (fade in boxes on page scroll, etc)?
What's your favorite thing/place about Amsterdam? It's definitely on my bucket list of places to spend some time in.

Danny de Vries • Feb 13 '19

No problem at all, thank you for the questions.

Most of the time I don't need a library or framework to do SVG animation, but if you do feel the need to use one anime.js is the way to go.
I would expand on the case study's of your projects a bit more. You could give some more explanation about the project and show more of the process instead of the final result.
Either Intersection Observer or Resize Observer but support is limited.
Amsterdam is a good hub for digital creatives. Lots of agencies and a big network of different people in the creative field. It's still a 'managable' city, everything important is within reach but still big enough to find all different types of new places every day. Zeedijk is a must see!

Rohit Pratap Singh • Feb 12 '19

Hey how should i start career as web developer

Danny de Vries • Feb 13 '19

Can you be a bit more specific? What do you want to focus on? What projects do you want to work on?

Rohit Pratap Singh • Feb 14 '19

As a frontend but i have no idea exactly from where to start n resources..

Danny de Vries • Feb 15 '19

The front-end handbook from 2018 is a nice overview of different types of developers and contains lots of resources for you to get started!

Rohit Pratap Singh • Feb 17 '19

Thank you sure i will refer it n i am learning from free code camp !!!

Rohit Pratap Singh • Feb 18 '19

Downloaded thank you !

Jess Lee • Feb 12 '19 • Edited

Hey Danny! What are your go-to web animation resources? (also a headsup that your Visual Interface Design link is 404'in)

Danny de Vries • Feb 12 '19

Thanks for the heads up!

I'm a huge fan of the weekly newsletters from Val head and Donovan. I also check the feed from Sara Soueidan her blog regularly! As far as books go I would recommend Practical SVG, SVG Animations and Animation at Work.

l2aelba • Feb 13 '19

SVG vs Canvas?

Danny de Vries • Feb 13 '19

Depends on the needs of the animation and the technology behind it. You can go with SVG and CSS without using JavaScript wich you need with the Canvas API. I would say, go for Canvas if you need full-screen animations that loop.

Metarbel • Feb 13 '19

as a student, how do i improve my presentation skills? Especially in creating powerpoint presentation using visuals that make sense

Danny de Vries • Feb 13 '19

From my answer to @lightalloy

I would treat presenting like public speaking, these book recommendations from Notist are a nice way to start. Design is a Job from Mike Monteiro is a good confidence booster.

As far as visuals go: less = more. Always think about the message you want to tell not the aesthetic of the slides, that being said using visuals instead of text is always a good choice when used properly!