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.

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.)