CCC Online Learning Environment

Participants in Digital Media and Movie Making, a Connecticut Career Choices program, braved a cold winters day and a ninety-minute delay to attend the second quarterly meeting of the year at Quinnipiac University (QU).

Professor Liam O’Brian of QU spoke live from South Africa about a student documentary project currently being filmed in Cape Town and Krugar National Park. They also communicated via the a virtual world, Second Life.

After the Skype presentation, students separated into working groups to prepare their production company for the projects that must be completed in the second semester. Faculty members hosted workshops in Animation, Directing, Virtual Environments, Producing, Production and Web Design.

Quinnipiac students gave participants a tour of the Hamden campus shortly after the breakout groups, after which pizza was provided.

“The tour was awesome,” Mary McCurley, a senior at East Haven High School, said, according to a Qunnipiac press release. “The fact that you have so many professors here who will lecture to high school kids is a testament to their dedication to their subject and teaching in general.”

During lunch, students were afforded the opportunity to interact with faculty and ask questions relating to their options after high school and prospective careers in film and digital media.

Finally, schools presented and selected one animated logo that was produced as part of unit three in the DM3 curriculum. Students and faculty were able to text their vote to an online poll, where Simsbury High School came out victorious to win the award for “Outstanding Animated Logo”.

Steven Maldonado, a senior at Career High School in New Haven, said he enjoyed his time at Quinnipiac, the press release said.

“I will leave here with new skills and techniques,” he said. “It gave me a new perspective on things.”

Participants will use their newly-honed skills to create a public service announcement, a news report, a documentary short, an animated sort and a fictional short; the winning submissions will be posted on http://ctstudentfilms.org.

Thanks to Quinnipiac University for their time and support!

The next DM3 meeting will be held on Feb. 24 at IBM.

(Edited by Alexander Tregaskis - original submission Thursday, 14 January 2010, 02:06 PM)

(Edited by Alexander Tregaskis - original submission Thursday, 14 January 2010, 02:46 PM)

CT Student Film Challenge Now Open!
The Connecticut Career Choices (CCC) Film CCC Film Challenge
Challenge will take place from November 13th to November 16th. Registration for the challenge is now open and will close on November 6th. This statewide film competition is open to all Connecticut high Schools. Independent organizations interested in participating should contact us directly. Selected films will appear at the Connecticut Student Film Festival in May, where the winning submission will be announced. See http://ctstudentfilms.org for more information.

CCC Student Quarterly Meetings Underway
A new academic year has seen the start of the quarterly meetings, which are already a great success! E-Commerce Entrepreneurship met at the University of New Haven, on October 30, where 150 students from 10 schools used CCC's "Build-A-Business" brainstorming cards to compete in a business design competition. Another 150 students from 10 more schools met at IBM Southbury on the 30th for a "Make-A-Movie" design competition in the Digital Media Moviemaking Program. Not to be outdone, 5 schools in the Bio21 program met at Manchester Community College (also on the 30th!) for a working session to learn more about biomimicry and develop product and technology proposals. Prior to these meetings, 150 students from 10 more schools met at IBM Southbury for a "Grow-A-Game" design challenge in the IT R&D. With more meetings scheduled for December and energy building amongst the hundreds of budding designers, the semester looks to be an exciting one!

Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences Update
In September the Academy program kicked off its pilot year at Bethel HS and Metro Business Academy (New Haven), and the results have been excellent! CCC is submitting a grant to underwrite the cost of making the Academy a truly one-to-one computing initiative for all students. With the help of new netbooks, we know that our Academy students will really push the envelop in showing us all what is possible. Stay tuned for more news.

CCC Presents at CECA
CCC was well represented at the recent meeting of the Connecticut Educators Computer Association (CECA) meeting in Hartford on October 26. Presentations featured "Virtual Worlds for Teaching and Learning," "The Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences," "Innovative 21st Century Science Curricula," and "The CT Student Film Festival". Michael, Dan, Carolyn, and Matt were all on hand to share student work and walk scores of session attendees through the amazing work of our 21st century CCC students.

(Edited by Alexander Tregaskis - original submission Thursday, 12 November 2009, 03:40 PM)

Congratulations to students who completed the CCC Film Challenge in November and submitted films within the eighty-four hour production period. All films are now featured on the front page of CTStudentFilms.org. The next challenge is scheduled for March 2010!

E-Commerce Entrepreneurship students from Berlin, East Haven, Lyme-Old Lyme, Hartford Pathways to Technology, Manchester, Nonnewaug, Northwest, and Stonington attended the second meeting of the year at CCSU on December 17th. The students worked on their presentation, marketing, Web design, and digital communication skills in a variety of breakout groups. They also gained some more experience developing theoretical green-themed products and services. The audience at large selected a number of winners for the 30-second commercial challenge and best two-minute business "elevator" pitch.

On December 14th, students in the Bio21 course met at Central Connecticut State University. The students participated in working breakout sessions related to engineering design, digital simulations and prototyping, WordPress skills, presentation skills, marketing and effective leadership. These sessions help to prepare the students for the second phase of their year-long project that begins in January. At the end of the day, selected students from each school presented their biomimicry projects to the audience.

Foundations of Health Science and Technology students from East Haven, Newtown, and Hill Regional Career High School in New Haven have also been hard at work this semester. Participants visited a number of healthcare facilities around the state. Some students took a tour of Hartford Hospital, meeting a variety of healthcare professionals. Other students assisted at the East Shore District Health Department mass vaccination flu clinic. Brookfield will join the FHST students in the second semester.

Students shared their experiences both in and out of the classroom in their online blogs. They also developed a number of projects, including interactive slideshows, public service announcements, and other digital artifacts, which will be included in the students' ePortfolios.
On December 11th, the E3/DMC students from the New Haven Metropolitan Business Academy and Bethel High School met for the first time at Manchester Community College. While working in collaborative groups the students engaged in a challenge to solve a global issue while creating a sustainable world. The keynote speaker was was Laurel Kohl, Education Specialist from the Institute for Sustainable Energy at Eastern Connecticut State University. Laurel gave a presentation about the importance of building a sustainable world. Students will meet again in February of 2010.ip. These sessions help to prepare the students for the second phase of their year-long project that begins in January. At the end of the day, selected students from each school presented their biomimicry projects to the audience.

Ten schools in the ITR&D course also met at CCSU on December 4 to showcase green-theme computer games created by individual students. The top five games, as judged by peers, were pitched by their designers to the full audience, who voted by text message to select the winner. Click HERE to play one of the final games!