We are introducing video into the curriculum ( Graphic Information Technology, Arizona State University). Several students are getting up to speed on Premiere and have produced some videos for the college. ( http://vimeo.com/31663179 ) . GIT is all about creating content and video needs to be part of the mix! http://photo.asu.edu
Another session done! This one involved middle school. It was great to teach science and technology via photography. And as always, great fun to show off what Photoshop can do.
We just concluded out Prime the Pipeline grant and it was great. Educators and students demonstrated the photography and video they did and proudly showed their Rich Media PDFs containing their stills, video and audio. They had a great time going “deep” into Photoshop, InDesign and Acrobat Pro ! I will be posting the final video compilation of their images at http://photo.asu.edu – check it in a few days.
And now… time for Finals….
This community event turned out better than I could have imagined. We had people sitting in the floor to hear this presentation by Rick Miller. Although I have brought in Adobe and others before, this really brought home to me how important it is to connect students with the real industry tools they will encounter.
It’s also good for students to hear from others than their teachers from time to time. Adds cred to what we teach them : ) I am planning to do this several times a semester.
Today we take for granted ways of communication that were considered technically advanced just 20 years ago. An understanding of word processed documents, spread sheets and basic presentation software is considered baseline knowledge for a productive workforce and is currently utilized by K-12 educators. The current challenge is communicating effectively and in a way that encourages retention.
Increasingly complex computational science and engineering concepts need to be communicated to those we are educating in a rich multi sensory manner in an effort to engage and inspire further learning activities in these disciplines. The challenge today is that teaching materials have not kept up with current cultural approaches to gaining attention that are evident in the commercial and entertainment world.
Getting attention in today’s incredibly information rich world is akin to a competitive event. Educators need to develop media rich ways of presenting information in an effort to stimulate further interest in the areas of science and technology.
I am working on a summer seminar for K-12 educators to teach them new rich media ways to reach their students. We will focus on InDesign, Photoshop and Acrobat. We will create documents that contain audio, video, images and forms as a way to leverage current technology to connect with their students. I look forward to sharing my results with all the AEL’s – perhaps in San Jose? : )