The Future Creators 2013 kicked off on 5th November with 24 bright and brilliant teenagers from the Liberties and surrounding areas of Dublin.
This year the Future Creators group is split almost 50:50, boys to girls, which has really encouraged the project coordinators who are The Digital Hub and the National College of Art and Design (NCAD). In the two previous runs of this programme boys were in the majority.
The participants in this after-school programme are all from secondary schools located in the area or are from nearby schools but are resident in the area: C.B.S, James Street; Mercy Secondary School, Inchicore; St. Patrick’s Cathedral Grammer School; C.B.S. Synge Street and Presentation Secondary School Warrenmount – all in Dublin 8 – and Loreto College Crumlin Road, and St. Paul’s C.B.S, North Brunswick Street. Feedback from the Future Creators tutors and the participants themselves has been very positive to-date.
The group have been getting to know each other and their tutors and the focus of their work during this term of classes has been on teambuilding, social media, blogging, digital image manipulation, stop motion animation, sound editing and flash animation. They have already set up their blogs to record their journey through the Future Creators programme. Following group work using Adobe Photoshop they have created images, which have been printed onto mugs for use during the all important 5.30pm tea breaks.
They have already visited the nearby National College of Art and Design, and will return there for their final class of 2013 which will be a teambuilding session, review of their work to-date and a Christmas party.
Following the Christmas break the group can look forward to tasters on coding, film, and working on their final projects. The group are especially looking forward to a workshop in NCAD’s Industrial Design, Textile and Media Departments, where they will get a chance to experience 3D printing, laser cutting, digital printing and video editing.
Three students that took previously took part in the programme – Paul Kubilius, Mariusz Michalski and Sol Robinson – are volunteering this year. It’s a testament to the programme that they want to volunteer their time to help the new Future Creators. Two of the students are participating in Gaisce – The President’s Award, which is the most prestigious Award programme in Ireland for young people, and their volunteering at Future Creators classes is contributing towards meeting challanges set by the Gaisce award programme.
Read about the last run of the Future Creators after-school digital learning programme.
PLEASE NOTE: This article was originally published on The Digital Hub website. We have republished it with their very kind permission. You can view the original article here.
