Attention all Advanced Technologies Academy students! Join our new Discord server! That’s right, our academy has a Discord server. It’s by invitation only and you can find the invitation code in our class Moodle website.

Here’s my thinking for why we have a Discord server…

On the Discord homepage it says, “Imagine a place… where you can belong to a school club, a gaming group, or a worldwide art community. Where just you and a handful of friends can spend time together. A place that makes it easy to talk every day and hang out more often.”

I feel like the Advanced Technologies Academy is currently separated into four groups. We are separated by grade level and have very few chances to see each other as a whole group. This will be a tool we can use to bring us all together. After I mentioned this in class one day, I remember a student saying, “This is a very A.T. way of solving this problem”. I couldn’t agree more.

I use a Discord server created for digital media professionals all over the world. These people working in the digital media industry use this server to ask questions about issues they’re having, to post helpful resources they’re using, and to post projects they are currently working on. I have learned so much and have found so many resources I didn’t know about before just by hanging out on this server.

I want to show students websites like this can be used in a professional way. I also want to provide a place for students to practice representing themselves professionally online. I want this to be a place where newer students can ask questions and receive help from older students. I want this to be a place where students can post resources that can be helpful in our classes. I want this to be a place where students can post their digital art projects. This will be a place for the whole academy, even for those who have graduated. I can image students checking in years after graduation and reporting about how they are using what we learned in class on the job.

Of course, I don’t want this to be all work and no play. So, there is a Playground Channel to house all the silliness and memes.

Please help make this a friendly and helpful place by following the expectations set in this server. We will give this a try and see what happens.