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.

Discover the World of Communication at American University

In July I taught two classes at American University's very extensive summer program for high school students, Discover the World of Communication at their Washington, D. C. campus.  Professor Sarah Menke-Fish founded the program and has been the director for over 20 years. I taught for the second two-week session with nineteen courses offered, including Advanced Scriptwriting  and Video Production, The Film Intensive,  Broadcast Journalism, Media for Change, Speaking for Impact and Nature Photography. My classes were Graphic Design and Animation. I was very impressed with the program and want to make sure teachers, parents and students are aware of this opportunity for future summers.

I had not spent much time at AU in my many years living in the area. It was a delightful surprise to discover this beautiful campus. Our classes were held in McKinley Building pictured below.

Creative Ways to Share Art with Kids: Every Picture Tells a Story

Edgar Degas   The Dance Lesson, c. 1879  National Gallery of Art

Engage Kids with Art: Help Them Find the Story
This concept is a great way to share art with children. As human beings we are hard wired to love stories and actually depend on them for our survival. It's how we share information and cultural values. Degas's The Dance Lesson is full of stories. As a docent at the Maier Museum at Randolph College, helping kids see stories in art is something we do all the time.

Finding the Digital Stories
In developing the app ABC.DC: An Art Alphabet, I selected 26 works of art from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. that are kid-friendly and created an animation for each work. With this piece, I wanted to add delicate lines to show her dancing. This simple animation brings the scene to life and encourages a deeper level of involvement with the image. Does this help you find the story in this painting?

  

Robert Peckham's The Hobby Horse is a slice of 19th century American life children will find amusing and curious. Who are the girls? Who made the hobby horse? What's it like to ride that hobby horse?  My toys don't look anything like that. Some kids may never have seen a hobby horse, especially one like this. The time and place may not interest a preschool child, but what will is imagining the fun of riding such a wonderful wooden horse. This master artwork is courtesy of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

#MetKids: Robust Resource for Families and Schools

It is hard, I will reveal my prejudice, not to consider the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC the ultimate art museum. It is the largest museum in the United States and one of the most visited in the world. There are more than 2 million pieces in their collection. In September, 2015 they launched a new digital web-based product, #MetKids. Come with me as I explore this new resource designed for kids between 7 and 12 years old.

Photo Credit: Arad, Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Here is the relatively simple interface for what promises to be a broad and deep offering of treats for families.

American Academy of Pediatrics New Report on Kids and Screentime

Kristin Reiber Harris
KristinHarrisDesign.com

I love my afternoon visits to Elizabeth's Early Learning Center. I stop by Yellow House once a week to spend time with the 3 year olds playing with iPads. I am sitting at a small table with three kids at a time. That's my perfect scenario for this technology. I am right there all the time providing guidance and limiting choices.

Our protocol for each session of three kids is 15 minutes each. One reason is so more of the kids in the class can participate each week. However, it is also a great idea for kids to get used to the idea that there will be limits on access. As a long time media producer for preschool children I have been aware for years that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended kids under two have no screen time at all. For a variety of reasons this just didn't happen in most households with screens. My spin on this, again as a media producer, is to make the best content I could to provide quality screen time when kids were watching. I am working on that now as an app developer.

What I Learn from Three Year Olds on iPads

Kristin Reiber Harris
KristinHarrisDesign.com

I am back in the house, that is the Yellow House at Elizabeth's Early Learning Center. I had been visiting my three year old friends at this day care center for a number of years when my schedule last year made it difficult to get there. I'm back and boy am I thrilled about it.

What's so wonderful about this experience?

It's always fun to spend time with individuals who are happy, friendly and into what's happening right now, whether they are three or fifty.  

I am so respectful of their intelligence. These kids are curious and smart. As a general rule they are pretty fearless, certainly about making mistakes. They spend quite of bit of their day learning by making mistakes. (I do too.) This comes quite naturally.

I love sharing information and helping others build skill sets. That is what education is all about and interactive experiences can be a great way to explore information. 

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

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. 

I Can Do That! 2...the Sequel

Kristin Reiber Harris

After over a year in development, I Can Do That! A Kids World Art Game is now available for download from the App Store. Our mission with these art museum apps is to introduce preschool children to kid-friendly global art treasures. Why? 

Our intentions with these apps is to:

1. engage young children with objects that will encourage a life-long love of art

2. facilitate experiencing diverse global cultures at a very early age

3. extend the reach of a museum to families who may never be able to visit

These are the 10 art objects and the four games included in first I Can Do That! A World Art Game.

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.) 

A New Way of Seeing Things: SEEC Part 3

Kristin Reiber Harris

This is Part 3 (Part 1, Part 2) of a series of articles about the recent seminar Play: Engaging Young Learning in Object Rich Environments at the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center in Washington, D.C. 

I am a veteran art museum hopper. Growing up in Washington, DC I was spoiled with access to an extraordinary universe of art, most of it free. I have had the great fortune to visit art museums nationally and internationally but Washington remains a geographic center of my museum art world. There have been times on a blitz art museum swing I have hit 3 or 4 in one day. I am the first to admit that I don't always linger as much as I could like, even in exhibits that I find incredibly stimulating and informative. One such example was Gravity's Edge at the Hirshhorn. I loved the exhibit but did not linger over each piece as much as I might have liked, distracted by so much to see and do.

Hirshhorn Museum from Sculpture Garden  Credit:Public Domain  Gryffindor

Play and Inspiration at SEEC: Part 2

Kristin Reiber Harris

This is Part 2 (Part 1) of a series of articles about the recent seminar Play: Engaging Young Learning in Object Rich Environments at the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center in Washington, D.C. These articles are not necessarily in the order of events at the seminar. It was such a rich, inspiring event I have not even tried to prioritize my favorite activities.

On Friday morning, day two, seminar attendees were divided into small groups to visit the SEEC preschool classrooms. My group of three headed over to the visit the Penguins. I was accompanied by an educator from the National Museum of the American Indian and a preschool teacher from the Peabody Primary Capitol Hill Cluster School.

SEEC is no ordinary preschool. Founded by the Smithsonian in 1988, it was established to be a model in museum-based education for young children. Their mission statement indicates their purpose is two-fold. One to provide a model educational program that empowers kids to think, explore and express their potential as well as sharing this educational expertise on a national level.

National Museum of Natural History looking across the Mall from the Castle Photo KH

Play and Inspiration: SEEC Part 1

Kristin Reiber Harris

Last week I spent two days at the Smithsonian Castle immersed in exploring play, preschool children and museums. The event was the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center's Play: Engaging Young Learners in Object Rich Environments seminar. The pilot event was attended by 24 educators from both preschools and museums, primarily from the Washington, D.C. area. I arrived with great enthusiasm to both present information about my app development for preschool kids with museum assets and be inspired by other educators working in both museums and early education centers. I was not disappointed.

Smithsonian Castle  Photo:KH

SEEC has been around since 1988, but I only learned about it this year. I have been a frequent visitor to Smithsonian museums my entire life. It was my current involvement as an app developer with museum assets that put SEEC on my radar. A very fortuitous discovery for me. I contacted Betsy Bower, Director, Center for Innovation in Early Learning, SEEC as soon as I learned about them. I wanted to introduce myself and invited her to download the apps I am developing. Thus began the dialogue that brought me to Washington for this event. 

The Jazzy Letter J

A whole new way of looking at the alphabet....letters, animation, music and great art. Coming soon to the App Store, ABC.DC: An Art Alphabet. Check out Jazz J...who knew?

Henri Rousseau,The Equatorial Jungel,  image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art

Kristin Reiber Harris is a media producer specializing in educational media for kids, with a focus on introducing young children to wonderful art from museum collections.  Learn more at KristinHarrisDesign.com.