Challenging Student Creativity with Great Results: iPad Camp at ACOA

Artwork created in Procreate by iPad Camp student

The last full week in July was iPad Camp at the Academy Center of the Arts in Lynchburg. This was an especially wonderful group of kids. There were 3 boys and 3 girls. That turns out to be a great balance of energy and skills. The girls were older and more focused, the boys were younger and higher energy.  These camps provide kids with an opportunity to challenge their creative problem solving skills by learning media production tools in a non-structured environment. I am most appreciative of ACOA efforts to develop arts/technology programming.

Maier Museum iPad Camp: A Success Story

Five afternoons in mid-June, the Maier Museum at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Va hosted eager and dedicated iPad artist between the ages of 8 and 13 for the first iPad camp of the summer. Surrounded by art treasures from the Maier Museum collection, what better location to inspire students to be creative.

My objective in organizing these iPad camps is to encourage students to become content creators not just content consumers. When I asked the students how they use their iPads, I heard a lot about Minecraft and Youtube. We all know how easy it is to become addicted to the wide range of media at our fingertips with our mobile devices.  My mission: convince students to use their own creative energies and expertise to become animators, storytellers and developers too. Few things make me happier than to see this mission accomplished as successfully as it was that week.

Olivia's wonderful cat with a view of the Flip Boom Cartoon interface.

6 Reasons To Go to iPad Camp

Kristin Reiber Harris

What's So Special About iPad Camp?

I have had the opportunity to work with many kids and adults in a variety of venues exploring the iPad as a tool for creative expression. My schedule this summer includes two weeks of half-day iPad camps at the Maier Museum at Randolph College the weeks of June 15th and June 22nd. The sessions are 3 hours five days in a row, the first week for kids 8 to 12 and the second week for teens and adults. Stay tuned for more dates and venues.

iPad Camp last summer at Lynchburg College  Photo Credit: Lynchburg College

iPad Animation: Lesson One

Kristin Reiber Harris
kristinharrisdesign.com

Flip Boom Cartoon is a fantastic tool for teaching kids how to become animators. I recently spent a lot of time working with middle school students using this iPad tool to create short animations.

Question to Get Started

I like to start my animation workshops with a question. What does "to animate" mean?
What could be more exciting than "to bring to life"...everything from letters to balls and most importantly the students own artwork and stories.

Kids Curate Funny Faces at the Maier Årt Museum

Kristin Reiber Harris


Last Sunday, at the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College, I helped kids curate their own collections from a large group of post cards that had been donated to the museum. They also made these funny faces with post cards we cut up and re-positioned, inspired by the exquisite corpse game of the Surrealists. 

Kids, Art and the World

Kristin Reiber Harris
www.KristinHarrisDesign.com

I Can Do That! A Kids World Art Game

(updated 12.1.14)

 

Inspiration

This summer I participated in a Digital Storytelling Workshop at the Startup Summer Institute at Howard University's Middle School of Mathematics and Science. As a trainer for Demibooks, I was helping students use their app development tool Composer Pro to publish animated interactive stories for iPads. I came to assist Geeta Raj. She is the founder of Global Sleepover and brings years of experience in international development and humanitarian assistance with USAID. She has lived in Afghanistan, Columbia, South Sudan, Albania, the UK, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has degrees in Creative Writing and International Peace and Conflict Resolution.

Check Out These Student Authors and Illustrators Published on iPads

Still feeling the glow of the recent Digital Storytelling Workshop at the Startup Summer Institute at Howard University's Middle School of Mathematics and Science. This program was a collaboration between Global Sleepover and Demibooks to help students develop global awareness and produce interactive books on iPads. Representing Demibooks, I joined Geeta Raj of Global Sleepover for the second week of the camp. The first week she focused on helping the students develop their skills as storytellers and illustrators. She worked with them to craft stories about different countries around the world. I assisted the students with Demibooks Composer Pro. This app for creating apps, let them load their text, illustrations and audio files and add animation and interactivity to their stories and publish their work.

Isaiah King's Cover Artwork

Global Storytelling, iPad Camp and Publishing Student Authors/Illustrators

Kristin Reiber Harris

I joined Geeta Raj of Global Sleepover on Monday, July 28th at Howard University in Washington, DC for the Digital Storytelling Workshop at the Startup Summer Institute

at Howard University's Middle School of Mathematics and Science. This program provided a group of students with the opportunity to explore app design as well as storytelling and interactivity.  I arrived for the second week of the camp on behalf of Demibooks to help the students produce interactive books on iPads. The first week of the camp, Geeta worked with the students writing stories with a focus on global adventures. Each story that took place in different countries with characters from that country featured in the stories.

I was very impressed with the campus. Undergraduate Library, Howard University, Washington, D.C.

Lessons Learned from Seven iPad Camps

This camp was my 7th iPad Camp of the summer but my first specifically as a trainer for Demibooks. Emboldened with a wealth of experience working with students 8 to 13 (some adults too) I had a grasp on what could be accomplished in this short period of time. Earlier in July, I spent two weeks working with students at Linkhorne Middle School in Lynchburg, Virginia. Our sessions were only 3 hours long for four afternoons a week. The students had been able to write, illustrate and produce stories that incorporated a variety of interactive components and animation. I appreciated that we would have a lot more time with the students at this camp and I saw the benefits of this extra time.

What We Learned at iPad Camp

Kristin Reiber Harris

I am in the middle of a new series of iPad camps for Lynchburg City Schools. Here are a few thoughts about what I learned during 4 sessions of iPad Camp sponsored by the Daura Gallery at Lynchburg College in June. You will see lots of samples of student work and get an idea of what they learned. Some students came with some experience with animation or video, but many did not.

iPads As Creative Tools
I am even more convinced iPads are incredible tools for stimulating creative problem solving and critical thinking. The students at the four sessions at Lynchburg College ran the gamet from kids as young as 8 (by just a few days) to a retired college professor. There was a broadcast media professional, an artist, four sets of parent and child and high school students. This rich tapestry of participants produced an wide variety of work, as you can imagine.

These creative experiences with technology reinforce the value of being a content creator, not just a content consumer. 

Artist Nugent Kos used Procreate to paint this beautiful spider web for her interactive Composer Pro project.

iPad Camp Lives!

Kristin Reiber Harris

We are in the middle of the last week of our 4 session iPad Camp at Lynchburg College, sponsored by the Daura Gallery. It's been a blast. Each week there are two sessions offered, one for kids 8 to 12 in the afternoon and a second session for teens and adults in the evening.

I am helping Ryan and Callie work on Composer Pro  Credit: Lynchburg College

Why are we doing this?

My objective with the camp is to demonstrate what a great tool the iPad is for stimulating creativity and give the students an opportunity to play and experiment. I introduce four apps that I have found to be very accessible to kids and adults and get them rolling on creating their own media projects. The apps we are using are FlipBoomCartoon (animation), iMovie (video productiton), ComposerPro (book/game apps) and Procreate (art). It is very gratifying to see the students just take off and jump in.

Getting Ready for iPad Camp

Kristin Reiber Harris

Yeah, iPad Camp!
I am very excited to be preparing for four sessions of iPad Camp sponsored by the Friends of the Daura Gallery at Lynchburg College. There will be two 3 hour sessions a day, the first for students 8 to 12 years old and the second for teens and adults. Each camp lasts for 5 days. I have been pleased with the response and registration and am really looking forward to getting things rolling on Monday afternoon.

Lynchburg College Dell, Lynchburg, VA  Credit:Imaginegod614 Wikipedia CC

My objectives for the camp are primarily three fold:
     1. introduce some well-tested tools for creative media production; 
         animation, video production and interactive books 
         It's important to remember this is about process, not everyone will have 
         a completed project at the end of 5 days. However, they will know how to do it.
     2. support an exploration of those tools through the students original projects
     3. walk the students through the steps professionals use to create media; 
         a good idea, planning with storyboards, asset creation and production
         (Learn about my work as a professional media producer on my website.) 

iPads, Flip Books and Animation

Kristin Reiber Harris

I Love Animation

I love watching it and I especially love making animations. Some of the coolest people I know are animators. I have enjoyed sharing this enthusiasm with others for many years. iPads add a twist to the process with a new set of tools and great portability. I recently did an animation workshop for elementary age kids using FlipBoomCartoon. Now I have a chance to offer this same opportunity to my students at Lynchburg College.


What Tools Will We Use?
My Drawing 1 students will be using iPads next week. This is a first for me to be able to offer beginning drawing students access to art making tools on an iPad. The college just got 30 iPads last semester. They will be using FlipBoomCartoon to make animations and Procreate for drawing. If we have time, I'd like to see them bring gesture drawings from Procreate into iMovie to create an animation of stills.

Life Wrangling 31 iPads

Kristin Reiber Harris

Last May I was invited to be the technology coordinator for the eArts Initiative at Lynchburg College. I develop iOS apps, have been an adjunct professor in the Art Department at the college and had actively pursued iPads for my Va Governor's School of Math, Science and Technology media production class. I was thrilled to be involved. The result, thanks to the Virginia Foundation for Independent College and those at LC who procured the grant, was an array of technology tools for education which included the 30 iPads I would shepherd through the Fall semester. (The 31st is my own.)

As a media producer I had found iPads wonderful tools for creating and distributing media. I was looking forward to being able to share this enthusiasm with my fellow faculty members at the college, students in Gov School, LC students and the kids who participated in the art workshops at the Daura Gallery.