These are some of the physical tools we used in Technical Jewelry Creation, Fall 2011.

2012 brings exciting opportunities

After lots of fun digital media projects in 2011, we are asking ourselves what's next for 2012? Expanding upon new areas like Technical Jewelry Design or Digital Media for PreSchoolers we are looking at ways to capture designers over a larger spectrum. There are standard, core programs that have done wonderfully too, like Digital Animation, Stop Motion Animation, 3D Modeling, and Booktrailers. Where to go in 2012?

We are talking to Montessori schools and Cuyahoga Valley Career Center. Look for our class at CVCC on May 5, 2012, 9am to Noon. It's a digital animation extravaganza! More to come.

Digital Movie Making - Not Drama Class

I have changed the DMM format. We are discussing only film, pix, video, animation, modeling, and all the publishing aspects in MS Movie Maker. We are not filming and then editing our film. This means we are spending more time on the tools and techniques of amateur movie making.

First session, we built commercials from 3D models and pictures. We incorporated SketchUp as well as yahoo images, Last FM, MS Movie Maker, Audacity, and started to discuss CamStudio. The kids really enjoyed the session after they became comfortable with all the different applications. Many of them had never used any of the above. Also, we had some importing issues and we had to bring images into MS Paint. This was a new tool as well for most. I am concerned that students are not using these tools in the classroom!

Second session, we are discussing animation and we'll be importing clips created by other students in Fluxtime into our movies. We are then going to send the clips to CCPL and see if we can connect them to our website.

Video Game Creation Sessions One and Two Notes

In the first session of video game creation, ages 13-18, we created a simple click game with points, walls, added a maze, and customized the game at the end of the session. The students were very adept at this session and created wonderful games with very imaginative endings.

In the second session, we used a game created in Mid Heights as a base. http://sites.google.com/site/digitalanimationforkids/course-materials

We then created our own backgrounds from jpeg images found on Yahoo images to add to our rooms. The students were also tasked to find the error in the game, which they did almost immediately. The error is corrected by adding another room or level to the game. They each had lots of fun making the backgrounds and loved making many different rooms. The door portal to each room was easy to understand and replicate. The best example of adding 'bad' guys to the game came from creating objects that moved immediately after opening the game, assigning collision, and assigning a negative point systemt to them. Some of the kids enjoyed redesigning the sprites as well.

Students really responded to these points of class:

• Adding Resources, Create Background, Load Background from Jpeg saved to desktop
• Fixing error
• Customizing and adding rooms
• Loved the Pokemon angle

Points for Session Three should include more research into Japanese gaming themes. How to create our own Pokemon games?

ESL

I have developed some ideas for ESL classes in enrichment after speaking to several librarians. The ESL I am most interested in developing includes digital animation and is an informal meeting with all levels of computer and language skills. For instance, I would recommend for beginners in English to bring a friend or relative who speaks English and we would create as a team different scenarios in animation. The students would be introduced to computer applications, universal application symbols like cut, copy, paste, we would explore backgrounds, inserting objects, inserting text, recording our creations and saving/emailing them. This could work in club formats as well as a weekly class. I am most interested in teaching this in a train the trainer scenario.

We could also review CSL ...my own version of parents meeting the computer ...or computers as a second language. I have so many individuals who are non-native English speakers dropping children off in my classroom meanwhile some stay and write notes on the class. They are trying to learn the English necessary to navigate the web. This class could also be for adults who are familiar with most computer apps but have not dabbled within some of the latest technologies like blogging, tweeting, pings, etc.

Meeting with OLC

Everyone is interested but how to manage sources, materials, intellectual content, pricing, and schedules. Thinking of reviewing ideas in swing, but hard to find. Is this a product or a service or both? Lots to think about.