This summer the Learning Studio worked closely with students in ACU’s first Summer Academy. High school students from around the country joined us in Abilene for 9 courses that included Digital Media, Film & Faith, and Photography.

Students in select classes worked with faculty and media production specialists for training in photography and audio and video editing. The main photography students with Nil Santana worked with Canon 60D DSLR cameras from the checkout pool. Each student was issued an iPad for submitting content via course blogs and producing final media projects in Dr. Kyle Dickson’s Film and Digital Media classes.

One unique feature of the courses in the first session in June was a 4-day, 2,000 mile visit to three World Heritage sites in New Mexico and Colorado. Fifty students and faculty members toured the Taos Pueblo, Mesa Verde cliff dwellings, and the Carlsbad Caverns producing images and video that would later be submitted as part of digital stories.

Under the clear sky of Colorado, Nil and Kyle also offered an evening of lightpainting that students from all courses were invited to attend.

The Learning Studio was honored to be part of the teaching and support for a group of excellent students. Thanks to Dr. Kristina Davis and the Honors College for including us in their inaugural summer.

Sample Projects

Students from the Film & Faith class analyzed a short scenes from one of the assigned films for the Mise en Scene project. Here are a few of the Hitchcock films they looked at. Images were cut together with audio narration using iMovie for iPad.

The Birds
Rear Window
Strangers on a Train

(*Screenshots from each film were used under Fair Use as an educational, non-commercial use.)