Bromley Learning Alliance Summer School Celebration Evening 2006

Hal MacLean and myself spent this evening with the young people and their families from the Bromley Learning Alliance 2006 Summer School, in Bromley. We headed down to celebrate the animation work created by the young people over the summer months.

The challenge which was set back in July this year was to create a modern day comic book, in animation, photography, sound and film. The ‘tough task’ was called ‘Twist of Fate’ and had ‘no right answer’, as ever. The young people are giving an induction session to the technology and project, they then return to their collective schools over the summer to undertake the challenge.
We have been working with Merril Haeusler (Director) of the BLA since her days with SEEVEAZ (South East of England Virtual Education Action Zone). It was refreshing to see Merril at the event, and hearing her relate back to the early days back in 2000 when she first launched the project with us. If it had not been for the investment by Merril both financially, and more importantly her belief in what young people can do with creative technoloies I really do question where we would be today. As my last official presentation event for Ultralab (1990 - 2006) it was nice to be in the company with Merrill, who was at my first ever Ultralab (1990 - 2006) engagement back in 2000, at the Millennium Dome in London (Read about it here).

We’ve come a long way since that early project, travelled the world, impacted on broadcasters, governments, education establishments and policy makers. We still have a lot of work to do, together.

So here they are, the creative comics created under the banner of ‘Twist of Fate’ by the tallented young people of the Bromley area, enjoy:

Bromley Learning Alliance preparations

Hal and Matt attended the Bromley Learning Alliance centre to round up and celebrate the work that the children were doing over the summer in their ’summer project’.

Without a doubt these were films of a very high quality, and were made by children still in primary schools (mainly).

The challenge was ‘A Twist of Fate’ and had to be a nine section piece of work combining different genres into a video ‘comic’ show.

We were absolutely delighted with the interpretations of the task, which once again reinforced the notion that the technology we are inviting people to use is empowering them to say something, rather than daunting them in its use.

Well done, Bromley – superb work!

We’ll be arranging the grand celebration event over the next few weeks and look forward to seeing you there.

Bromley Summer School kicks off with Hal MacLean

Hal spent the day in the Bromley area working with partner schools on their Summer programme of activities. Bromley Learning Alliance, the organisation behind the initiative hires in Ultralab (1990 - 2006) each year to set the summer challenge for young people with their region. Previously to working with the BLA Ultralab (1990 - 2006) worked with SEEVEAZ (South East of England Virtual Education Action Zone), BLE’s staff moved from SEEVEAZ when SEEVEAZ reached the end of its natural working life.

It was SEEVEAZ that helped pioneer the first ever Ultralab (1990 - 2006) digital creativity summer school back in 2000 so Ultralab (1990 - 2006) are pleased to continue the working relationship withe the BLE team.

Hal worked with a group of 30 young people in the morning, and 30 in the afternoon.

Hal set the young people their Summer Challenge, which is to make a modern day interactive comic.

Initially Hal taught the young people how to animate and here are the first movies created in just one hour on the training day: