Digital Media Associate leads technology class at Culler Community Learning Center

calendar icon19 Dec 2016    

Lincoln, Neb.--Michael Reinmiller, the Digital Media Associate for the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts, led a technology workshop project at the Culler Community Learning Center at Culler Middle School through connections he made through Leadership Lincoln.

“Digital Playground” was offered this fall at the Community Learning Center at Culler Middle School. Around 17 students took the course, which taught them video and drawing skills on iPads.

“We did some drawing with the iPads, we did some video, rule of thirds, how to properly frame things,” Reinmiller said.

At the end of the semester, the students came to campus to the Digital Arts Initiative’s lab in Richards Hall Rm. 17 on Dec. 5 to show their final projects.

“Their final project was a video talking about their favorite teachers they had in the past and why those teachers had an impact on them,” Reinmiller said. “Students shot them with the iPad Pros and then edited it in iMovie and added lower third titles. It was good.”

Reinmiller was in a Leadership Lincoln class when he made the connection with a teacher at Culler Middle School, who introduced him to Troy Mack, the school community coordinator at Culler Middle School.

“We came up with what would work and what equipment was available,” Reinmiller said.

Reinmiller taught the class at Culler every Monday afternoon, showing up with iPads and Apple pencils.

“It was cool to walk into Culler Middle School and say, ‘Here’s $20,000 worth of gear, and we’re going to sit here and play,” Reinmiller said. “It really showed that art could be fun.”

Reinmiller hopes he opened their eyes to studying the arts.

“I think it opened their eyes that art isn’t just one thing,” he said. “It can be audio, video, type. It’s endless. I think that really opened their eyes.”

Reinmiller found it to be a positive experience and is open to trying it again in the future.

“It was a positive experience, and I enjoyed it,” he said. “I know they enjoyed it. I’m very optimistic that they got a love for the arts from it.”