U21 Summer School
January 30th, 2010 by MarkEmbracing diversity through creativity, culture and innovation
University of Birmingham, 30th June – 11th July
This summer DigiTales travelled to Birmingham University to run an experimental workshop to create Digi Essays as part of the U21 international summer school with fifty students from around the world.
Local students were joined by people from universities within the U21 network: in China, New Zealand, Sweden, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, India and the US. They came from a broad range of disciplines such as political science, international relations, social sciences, medicine, law, journalism, physics, Chinese literature, sociology, urban and environmental planning, economics, education and architecture. The diversity of the students resulted in an eclectic mix of opinions and angles on the subject of diversity through creativity.
The Digi Essays workshop
The DigiTales team made the most of the sunny weather and beautiful grounds and ran the first session outside. Everyone got to know one another through name games and storytelling exercises. People had been asked to bring a favourite object to talk about.
There were masterclasses in photography, writing and visual art.The DigiTales team were there to encourage the students to gather material and to work in groups on creating a script about their experiences in Birmingham.
In the second week the task was to write about Embracing diversity through creativity, culture and innovation. The essays grew out of the themes and thoughts arising in the summerschool blog. They included an analysis on the English language and it’s position in the world, one talked about marriage and some chose to concentrate on Birmingham. www.u21summerschool2008.com (U21 Summer School blog)
There was time to gather more images and create new ones. Some took photographs and others made drawings and tried out animation techniques. This included creating a talking chicken! Through making around twenty drawings and using a simple digital camera on a tripod, a 2-minute animation was created.
After read-throughs and feedback sessions the scripts were finalised. Then the voiceovers could be recorded. Some chose to record the voiceover in a group, where everyone’s voice could be heard. Once the voiceover was done, the editing could start, and the pictures could be placed to fit the voiceovers.
One person was in charge of doing the editing, but the groups worked together to make the editing decisions. The edit software used was Windows Movie Maker, which comes free on a pc. After adding the pictures, transitions, effects and titles, the films were ready.
All the hard work paid off in the screening where everyone enjoyed each other’s Digi Essay films. Well done to the open-minded, hard-working students for creating such great Digi Essays!