Back to School Technology Preview...

This year at the IT Academy, students will have the various opportunities to enjoy and learn about all kinds of things!

Here is a list of some of the things we have in store for the Technology Labs:

Poster Mosaic: Each student creates one piece of a whole illustrated poster!
"Campfire Tales": Creative storytelling through digital audio!
Social Justice Social Media: Students bring a cause and learn how to effectively educate others about what they care about!
Self-Portrait: Illustrate your self or your friends in creative ways!
Accessibility and Assistive Technology: Creative journey into how technology can help in many, many ways!

Using AfterEffects in Post-Production: Learn ways to use AfterEffects to adjust the video you've captured and add the subtle visual qualities that can transform the viewer experience. 

Space Text: Moving typography in film using AfterEffects!
Going Green: An exploration of the green movement in technology!
Hack This:  Not that kind of hacking... learn to make technology work for YOU in ways it wasn't necessarily designed for.
Data Visualization: Learn about the unusually fascinating and exciting world of visualizing data!
Audio Equipment Virtualization: Using virtual synthesizers, drum machines, patch cords, and effects racks -- ON A BROWSER! http://audiotool.com/app
Polyvore Magazine Layout: Learn some of the tricks of the trade in magazine page layout, using a super cool and fun website! http://www.polyvore.com/

Commercial Fun! Make short (50 seconds or less) commercials, focusing on storyline and product placement.
How DOES that work? Ever wondered how that worked? Learn some tools to find out!

It's going to be quite a semester! Keep looking out for future updates and see the amazing work of our students as these workshops unfold!

Dear Many Uses Students, Thanks for a Great Audio and Video Day

Ann Tran
- ITA Tech Instructor -

The third day into The Many Uses of Computer Camp started with the students discussing their favorite genre in music. A lot of the students listened to Rock, Oldies, Hip-Hop, and R&B.

Then, they immersed themselves into a free music creation program called "Roc" on aviary.com to compose two measures of rhythm starting with a kick drum, snare, and various other instruments. All of the students, with or without musical background, had their own unique beat. After, they used Sony Acid to add a bass line and record a voice over. In the voice over, the students composed a thank you note to the ITA students and staff for being accepted into the program.

With their audio good to go, the students dived right into Adobe Premiere, a video editing program. After an hour, the students were able to piece the video together with pre-filmed shots of the first couple days of them at ITA!

In only three short hours, the students transformed into music producers and video editors! It was a ton of fun!!

NOTICE: Video coming soon!

Many Uses of Computers Camp 2011: Graphic Design or Photography?

Cristina Lor
- ITA Tech Instructor -

The second day of class was another great experience; were so into their Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator projects that they spent their break time working on them.

The said projects include their “Layers of Me” which was created in Photoshop. In this project, the students had to import their portrait into Photoshop and then add multiple layers, categorized in the folders named “Culture”, “Hobbies”, “Name” in which all text found in the folders related to each of the folder name. They had the chance to change the font size, color, family, effects, and location of each text box.

Their illustrator project revolved around family, but in the form of penguins! In this graphic design portion of the session, the students were to use premade symbols to assemble penguin versions of their family.

Here are some class examples:

During the third hour of labs, the Evaluation unit, the students were given a mini lesson on blogging – capitalize proper nouns such as, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, and utilizing the power of the Enter/Return key whenever a new thought is formed! Once the mini lesson was completed, the students dove into finishing up projects, catching up from the day before, or blogging.

Looking at how fast the students picked up on both of these programs illustrates how the instructors were getting more comfortable with the students, even after only two days!

Motion Pictures Camp - Day 2

Luis Perez
- ITA Tech Instructor -

We started the day off by having one of our instructors, Tony, give a lecture based on the History of Film and how it impacted the United States. He talked about famous stars such as Charlie Chaplin, John Barrymore, and Florence Lawrence. He also talked about what goes into production and the seemingly endless roles and positions to fill, from makeup artists to screenwriters. It all served to paint a more in depth picture of film for the students.

With gained knowledge and practice, students were given more time to finish their "ambiguous dialogues", which required a little bit more filming and quite a bit more editing. During this time each group of students could leave the class room with their assigned instructor to film in a different location or in the same location they chose yesterday. Instructors made sure that the students realized that there was always more they could do, to get that perfect shot. Film is in a constant flux of re-shooting and re-editing.

The students then went back into the labs and added pictures to their videos, along with extra sound effects and titles to get even more hands on with Premiere.

After a given break, students all gathered into one of the labs to be introduced to this year's Blitz. The Blitz is a project that groups of students do along with an instructor based off a theme, and this year's theme is "All Dressed Up, and No Place to Go."

Note: The theme for the Blitz is really only to get some ideas about it, but in the end, the films may stray from the Blitz due to time restrictions :)

In no more than 24 hours time, the instructors will write and direct a film with the help of their student collaborators, all while sticking to their theme. The students have 15 minutes to talk with their instructor to plan out what they wanted to do and how they are going to get it done, whether that meant planning a script or collecting props for the shoot. Either way, the Blitz is sure to cause a very hectic and fun day tomorrow at Motion Pictures Camp!

Many Uses of Computers Camp 2011: The Introduction to Labs, Labs, Labs!

Today was the first day of the Many Uses of Computers Camp for the new cohort of ITA, the class of 2015.

The 30 students began their lab with an introduction of themselves, the ITA instructors and interns, and then continued to learn each other's names with the Drop the Sheet name game.

After the introductions to staff and students, the class was split 15-15 and proceeded to their assigned labs for the rest of camp. This assures that each student can be helped and not lost within a large group.

Upon arriving in the appropriate labs, the students talked about their technology story - what kinds of technology they have experienced working with, and then dove right into learning about the accounts that they would have to navigate with and around for the next four years of ITA: Google, Wisc, and Panda.

Once the students knew what these programs were, they began exploring each one of them as they set them up.

The first day ended with an hour of storytelling, but not the kind where the instructors sit up in the front of the room and read to the students; instead, the students were guided through a memory activity where they were to recollect an event in their life... their 8th grade graduation. This was their first blog post and beginning of the documentation of their next four years at ITA.

Welcome Class of 2015! You will do great things!

2011 Motion Pictures Camp off to a great start!

Today marked the start of the Sophomore Motion Pictures Camp.

In the early morning, students showed up for their first introduction into film making including a range of topics from cinematography to editing to acting. Classes were separated into two halves, so each student could focus in on a particular skill in acting or directing.  

Activities sought to provide the basic opportunities to be creative whether through improv acting exercises or the details of shot composition and the editing essentials of Adobe Premiere. After a short break, the two halves were brought together to collaborate on short "ambiguous dialogues." These are scenes in which all the groups have the same very simple, confusing dialogues and they need to work on their acting and planning skills to make it make sense to the audience. In other words, their interpretation is key to the success of the exercise. We did this in order to not only build their skills, but to create a sense of the team environment, and be a safe outlet for creativity in film making.

It was a lot to digest in a short period of time, but the students were up to the task and getting involved with their projects in preparation for their final films.

We hope we can post some of these dialogues tomorrow, when we expect to have them finished!

Stepping Towards the Future

April Arevalo
- ITA Tech Instructor -

I feel that having the students thinking about speech, dialog, words and how they can be used to express feelings, thoughts, the past and present is a great way to develop clear and meaningful messages in student projects. For me personally being able to write down what has occurred in my life is a huge tool to help me reflect on what I've accomplished, and how I can change my future. Lately I have been thinking about inspirational words and how to incorporate technology to display something positive. I recently thought of doing an "inspirational word" poster in Adobe Illustrator. I think it will be a great way for the students to realize that being creative and original and having fun and is a key part to portraying a strong message.

When students get to create in a way that involves colors and different aspects of "art" they don't necessarily see that a message is being formed. When more than one glance is taken, thousands of messages can be portrayed, ones that they hadn't thought of the first time. I saw this to be true while I assisted in the Mandala Custom Workshop. The students seemed to be creating things that were captivating to the eye and at a second glance deeper messages were shared. There were themes of nature and the beauty of the universe. Projects like this are beginning to open the minds of the students to something more than just doing projects because they have to.

By coming up with clearer messages, I feel the students will appreciate what they are creating a lot more and pursue future creation on their own.