global digital creativity research & workshops

I was very lucky to be invited by the Cleveratom team to work with them as part of my ‘Work Experience’ within my Year 10 school curriculm - and what a week to be working with them on!

From the 5th through to the 12th July, Hal and Matt have both been working incredibly hard with students of various ages at the Bromfords School - Wickford, Essex on Creative Radio Production. This was in preparation of leading a cross-media production based entirely on the rather topical entertainment superstar ‘Michael Jackson’ as a tribute to his life and work. The workshops the students took part in during the week, led up to a final showcase which was performed to various Year 6 induction groups from accompanying local primary schools.

The final production consisted of a wide variety of highly-talented performances incorporating modern and contemporary dance and vocal engagement which was led in a ‘radio-style’ format by student DJs with a helping hand from Matt and Hal. Below are a few photos and YouTube videos displaying just some of the songs from the fantastically performed, exciting production.

To access ALL performances and visit our YouTube channel: please click here

Hal MacLean and myself were delighted to be invited to UEA (University of East Anglia) in Norwich to deliver a Clay Animation and Music Session to a group of 24 students and staff. The applications we explored and worked with during the session were:

• iStopMotion
• GarageBand
• iMovie
• iTunes

It was the second week of the new UEA Multimedia Course, and the new students did really well.

Cleveratom continue to run digital creativity workshops and training sessions all over the globe, check our our track record in this field.

Here are the completed films produced in under three hours:

 Catterpillar: Play Now | Play in Popup
 Real Deal: Play Now | Play in Popup
 Sunny Day: Play Now | Play in Popup
 Snake: Play Now | Play in Popup

The Cleveratom Team (Alex, Matt and Hal) were delighted to be invited back to the Anglia Ruskin University to work with Ian Ericson to run the 2007 Anglia Ruskin Summer School.

For the past five years Hal and Matt from the Cleveratom team have been involved in the project (2002-2006 under the Ultralab flag as staff at the University). Both Hal and Matt are also part of the Anglia Ruskin Alumni, both students of the University many years back.

This year the challenge was to engage with a group of young people considering University and put them through a two day creative challenge.

Within minutes of arriving the young people were out and about using digital and video camera technology to bond in small groups and make a first attempt film.

At the end of day 1 the young people had learned how to use iMovie, GarageBand and iPhoto and we’re challenged to make a 100 second ‘Point of View’ film, they had one day to do it.

The completed work was celebrated in the Micheal Ashcroft Building Lecture Hall and a DVD was produced and distributed to every participant.

Our team also took time to talk to the young people about University life, expectations and opportunities. An enjoyable experience was had by all, and as ever, some really creative work achieved in a very short period of time.

Here are the movies:

 Phone Camera movie of Hal MacLean talking to the Summer Schoolers...: Play Now | Play in Popup
 Group 1 First Attempt (Training Day): Play Now | Play in Popup
 Group 2 First Attempt (Training Day): Play Now | Play in Popup
 Group 3 First Attempt (Training Day): Play Now | Play in Popup
 Group 4 First Attempt (Training Day): Play Now | Play in Popup
 Group 5 First Attempt (Training Day): Play Now | Play in Popup
 Birdie (Final Version): Play Now | Play in Popup
 Flats 65 - 75 (Final Version): Play Now | Play in Popup
 Handbag (Final Version): Play Now | Play in Popup
 In the Eyes of God (Final Version): Play Now | Play in Popup
 Victimz Inc (Final Version): Play Now | Play in Popup

I’ve spent the past three days working on the BBC Blast Truck in Hatfield, delivering a Film and Camera Production workshop for young people delivering this workshop each day:

The Truck will stop this year in 30 places, Hatfield was the first location. Last year Hamish, Hal and myself travelled with the truck (under the Ultralab flag) working with the local facilitators to deliver the Blast experience, we ran workshops and supported other facilitators to run theirs.

When I arrived at the venue it was good to see a lot of young people crowded round a DJ from BBC Radio 1xtra, clearly enjoying the experience of learning ‘Radio Production’. My own Film Making workshop was attended by 21 young people, we used Sony Z1 video cameras, learned how to shoot, edit and create a film together. After practicing, each group made their first film ‘Surprise’ within the three hours and were then set the tougher challenge for the following two days.

I challenged the young people were then to make a 100 second film entitled ‘Confusion’. The film had to be exactly 100 seconds long, could only have three lines of dialogue and had to be shot is a way which was modern and not traditional.

The films the young people created were very good, considering none had prior experience in film making.

The youngest participant was nine years old, the oldest, seventeen. The abilities of the young people were so good in both iMovie and Final Cut Pro they finished their work in double quick time and were able to visit some of the other workshops taking place on the truck, filming and documenting what else was happening.

Both myself and the team at Cleveratom have lots of experience running film, animation, creative art and photography workshops and were delighted to be invited on to the truck to pass on our knowledge.

Cleveratom wish the BBC Blast team the very best of success in delivering the 2007 national Blast Truck tour to a further 29 locations.

The feature stand exists to simply demonstrate creative use of technology within learning. Last year BETT attracted 27,000 visitors from all over the world to its two thousand stands.Students from King Harold School were on hand to help visitors make podcasts, using the latest chroma key technology from our friends at Reflecmedia.

Visitors were able to stand in front of a chroma wall with selected moving image being rendered live behind them straight into Apple’s iMovie software.

Click the right hand news article image to read what reporter Stephen Manning from the TES had to say about the young people working on the Create at BETT stand:

The young people working on the stand worked with the show visitors to film their ideas and then upload the newly created podcast file to the Digital Teacher Network (DTN). DTN remains as a free space for creative teachers to manage their projects online.

All the podcasts created on the ‘Create at BETT’ stand can be viewed on the ‘Create at BETT DTN Project‘.

All DTN project media files work with iTunes, and are therefore available to download as podcasts onto iPod technology.At the other end of the stand young people worked to demonstrate the brilliant iStopMotion animation software and the potential for using creative technology in the classroom. iStopMotion is so simple and easy to use, yet so powerful too. A wonderful piece of innovative software.

Cleveratom was represented on the stand working closely with the team from BBC Blast, Learning Central, Apple, eMap and the BCS. All these partners believe in creative use of new and emerging technology in learning and we’re proud to work along side them.

I’ve enjoyed the past six years on the stand, clicking here will take you back to the stand in 2002 where we explored web broadcasting technologies.

We’ve done something new and experimental on the stand every year since, it has always been staffed by young people. Here is last years article on BETT 2006.

Cleveratom’s Alex Blanc and Jamie Harris were on hand to support visitors wanting to learn more about the potential of enabling technologies. Alex built Digital Teacher Network from Open Source Software and spent a lot of time explaining to visitors how it worked and what they could do with it. Maureen Gurr was on hand to look after the young people, Fiona from Impact also did an amazing logistical job to make it all happen.

Cleveratom staff have also worked closely with David Baugh and BBC Blast to support the young people prior to coming to the show. The training session held before Christmas in the BBC’s 21CC (21st Century Classroom) were a huge success. Creativity and School Learning Space Design Consultant, Hal MacLean reflects on the performance of the young people:

As ever, King Harold School pupils were brilliant! Their enthusiasm, infectious energy and determination to succeed meant that the stand never had a dull moment. Many thanks to Malcolm Burnett for organising the group and being there with them.

Read more of what Hal has to say here.

View Matthew’s Pictures from BETT 2007

View even more of Hal’s Pictures from BETT 2007

Check out some of the podcasts below, also available on the Create at BETT DTN Project site:

 Mountain Report: Play Now | Play in Popup
 Duncan: Play Now | Play in Popup
 Worms: Play Now | Play in Popup
 Domizio: Play Now | Play in Popup
 Man and Girl: Play Now | Play in Popup
 Eating the Sky: Play Now | Play in Popup
 Weather Report: Play Now | Play in Popup

Today the Saffron Walden County High School and Partner Primary Schools came to Ultralab to spend the day with myself and Hal MacLean to work on the DVD case designs of their Summer School project. For this challenge the young people involved in the project learned how to work with the Photo Shop application.

Thirty young people spent the day at the lab, showcasing the work they had achieved over the summer period. The work will go on display to an evening audience at a cinema in Cambridge later this year.

Some of the young people were tasked with making a DVD containing all of the work, this process was done using Apple’s iDVD.

Click here to read about the first time the group of young people were at Ultralab for their training session and challenge setting exercise.

Click here to read about the First Day of the Summer School on August 3rd.

Here is the DVD art created by the groups, while at Ultralab, to reflect the content of their completed films:

Click to expand the images.

Some of the groups also completed a DVD Disc image:

The Summer Challenge, which is set by Ultralab was called “Outside the Box”.

We invite the young people on the project to add comments below to introduce their work before we actually post their completed projects here on the site.

Well done everyone, exceptional work.

Today some of the Ultralab team spent their time working at the big ‘Be Very Afraid’ event at BAFTA. Ultralab played host to a morning celebration of student and children’s digital creativity.

The event was supported by funding from the DfES and showcased stunning digital creativity.

Students from ten schools, colleges and universities invited questions from the visiting guests, BAFTA members, and from the media to discuss their achievements and demonstrate why the audience should be very afraid of them.

Apple Computer provided equipment for the event.

Professor Stephen Heppell managed the celebration expressing his ideas for next steps.

View some of the pictures taken at the event.

For the first time ever the Ultralab Digital Creativity Summer School programme went international. The project went to Northern Ireland, working as part of the peace process with Catholic and Protestant children to see what could be created using the Summer School model over a three day period within a community environment. The results were excellent. The group were the very first to undertake the ‘Points of View 2 (Squared) challenge. The project lasted three days.

Five excellent movies were created in just three days. The majority of the Summer School Researchers in Belfast had never used video equipment and Apple computers before. The movies are fantastic, the films being about bullying, being a young child, the view of a motorcyclist, a mouse and a blade of grass.

“As youth leaders from across the community divide we knew each other but we had never worked together. Ultralab’s summer school gave us that opportunity.” Stuart (Youth Leader)

“The kids were together, focused on making films rather on what divides them” Kelly (Youth Leader).

View some of the pictures taken during the event.

Watch the completed movies here:

 Why Me?: Play Now | Play in Popup
 Biker Boy: Play Now | Play in Popup
 Kiss my Grass: Play Now | Play in Popup
 Mouse View: Play Now | Play in Popup
 Child: Play Now | Play in Popup