Kyle Dickson

Learning Studio celebrates Year One

Feb 23, 2012 | News & Events

It’s hard to believe but the Learning Studio opened its doors to the campus last March. In that time we’ve seen over a thousand camera and equipment check-outs, are averaging 900 room reservations a month, and have offered dozens of workshops and training sessions for students and faculty.

On March 6th, we’re inviting all faculty and staff to join us in celebrating Year One. You’ll hear from colleagues involved in our work with Cornerstone and Summer Online, digital storytelling classes, the Springboard Challenge, K-12 media training, photography workshops, and FilmFest.

It’s been a full year, and this is just scratching the surface.

Join us for lunch March 6th to hear the whole story and get a glimpse of what’s next.

Short Documentary projects

Feb 1, 2012 | DSLR, Projects, Storytelling

In our first year, we’ve had opportunities to work with some extraordinary faculty at ACU. Nil Santana teaches a range of photography and graphic design courses in the department of Art & Design and has led several of our faculty workshops as well.

This week Nil sent us a video he’s been working on that we knew others would want to know more about. From the tradition of the short-subject documentary, Nil’s visuals capture the time-honored process of binding as the interview with Stan Chapman reflects on the future of an industry.

About the Film

This is a project Nil will be giving students in an Advanced Photography class next fall, so he wanted to produce a sample film himself to help them understand the process.

The video was shot on a Canon 5D mkii with all pans and movement captured as video using a tripod. The only significant change he made to the video in post was bringing it into black and white.

One rule of thumb for students new to DSLR filmmaking is to try to keep the shutter speed as close to 2x the frame-rate as possible. Nil shot everything at 1/60 of a second and 30 frames per second (fps), making adjustments as needed to either ISO or f-stop to maintain that shutter speed.

Most of the wide shots were shot with a kit lens he had (28-135mm) but the striking close-ups of machinery used a fast 85mm that gave him the narrow depth of field.

Finally, all audio was captured in the camera with one of our check-out video mics, though he’s still looking for a better solution when recording on-site.

All editing was done in either FinalCut Pro or Soundtrack Pro.

For more information on DSLR filmmaking or check-out equipment for an upcoming project, drop by the Learning Studio.

Teaching with Digital Storytelling

Jan 31, 2012 | News & Events, Storytelling

One focus of our work in the first year in the new Learning Studio has been digital storytelling. Previous posts have highlighted workshops in May and August where guests from the Center for Digital Storytelling helped ACU faculty and staff understand the value of the approach.

The following interviews from December asked faculty to reflect on the value of teaching with digital storytelling for the first time. Thanks to each of them for their time and energy at each stage of the pilot.

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Digital Storytelling in Psychology

Jan 12, 2012 | Projects, Storytelling, Students

This fall we worked with students from across campus on digital storytelling projects, but one concentration of this interest came from the department of Psychology.

Becca Kester

Dr. Jennifer Shewmaker and Cherisse Flanagan teach courses that welcome psychology majors into the program and then prepare them for careers after graduation. Both teachers integrated storytelling assignments this semester to help students articulate the commitments that drew them to the field.

Student Examples

Adrianna Smith

Student Digital Stories this fall

Dec 19, 2011 | Projects, Storytelling, Students

After two successful workshops we hosted this summer with the Center for Digital Storytelling, we worked with our first groups of students this fall producing digital stories as a part of their courses. These student projects focused on three different areas:

• Two Cornerstone classes from the Honors College explored the potential of first-person narrative in first-year experiences.

• Two Psychology courses introduced first-person reflections on vocation into a capstone experience.

• Finally two other teachers looked at digital authoring as a way to communicate more traditional arguments (Proposing a Solution) or portfolio-type reflections on teacher training.

Thanks to the faculty and students in each of these courses for working with us to better understand the role digital stories play in the broader curriculum here at ACU.

HONORS CORNERSTONE

All of the students produced remarkable stories. The following collection reflects the flexibility of the form to capture a wide range of experiences.

Brance Armstrong