This week, we had the pleasure of having Kristin Harris at Academy Center of the Arts to teach an iPad camp for kids ages 9 – 12. After the camp ended, Kristin wrote a blog post on her personal website and we have featured it here as well. 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. I was very impressed with the work these students were able to do during the week. I have been teaching iPad workshops for a number of years and of course, each has its own unique characteristics. The tools we use are Animatic by Inkboard, Animation & Drawing by Do Ink, Procreate, iMovie and Composer Pro. I love to start my iPad Camp with this question, what does “to […]

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to offer a Procreate workshop at the Academy Center of the Arts. This iPad app is the most robust digital drawing and painting tool I have ever used. What really pleases me is how much kids like it. Don’t be confused; this is a tool for professionals and adults too. Here’s why it so great. Look What I Made Skill building is confidence building. Few things please me more than to see kids (and adults) show me their work and radiate pride at their accomplishments. Here is a gallery view from a student’s Procreate app from last summer. This collection shows not only a mastery of the tool but also the pure joy of creation. Another collection of student work created in Procreate. These young students are obviously not intimidated by this robust app and one image inspires another. Ease of Use Some very smart interface designers worked on this app. I find that with a good introduction to the tools, students are off and running on their own. There are tips and tricks I can add along the way, but most students find their way fairly easily. This is what the […]