Our Classroom Journey

This semester the freshman Advanced Technologies Academy students completed their first academy courses. During the third nine-weeks, the students completed the Introduction to Digital Media course. This course introduces students to key concepts, technologies, and issues related to digital media. Topics include emerging standards, key technologies and related design issues, terminology, media formats, career paths, and ethical issues. The software the students learned was Adobe Photoshop. Below are a few examples of their Photoshop projects.

During the fourth nine-weeks, the students completed the Graphic Design Tools course. This course provides students with an introduction to creative expression and art/design techniques in a digital environment. Emphasis is placed on designing, creating, editing and integrating visual components consisting of bit-mapped and vector-based images, drawings, banners, text, simple animations, and multiple layers. The software the students learned were Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign. Below are a few examples of their Illustrator and InDesign projects.

The students’ final project was a class poster design. The class had to work together to brainstorm ideas for the theme, take and edit photos, choose graphics and fonts, and create the final layout for the poster. Each student participated in one or more of these areas. Once the students agreed on the final poster design, we printed the 24″x36″ poster and placed it on the wall in the classroom.