Workshops

The Winter 2011 semester of the Atwater Library's Digital Literacy Project is well underway! There are eight workshops currently underway! Partner organizations for this Winter include Carrefour Jeunesse-Emploi NDG’s Jeunes en Action, Carrefour Jeunesse-Emploi Sud-Ouest de Montréal’s Jeunes en Action, Head & Hands Young Parent’s Program, HipHopNoPop, Root.Ed, and Westhaven-Elmhurst Community Association's Skills Link. We're planning for more exciting new partnerships for the Summer, so stay connected!

The Carrefour Jeunesse-Emploi NDG’s Jeunes en Action is back at the Library to learn about stop-motion animation! Artist, educator and DLP facilitator extraordinaire Zohar Kfir will be teaching them the ropes of stop-motion animation, as well as filming and editing basics on Tuesday afternoons in March.

The Carrefour Jeunesse-Emploi Sud-Ouest de Montréal’s Jeunes en Action is also back at the Library. After coming to the classroom last December and January to learn digital photography, the group is returning this March for an introduction to Photoshop. They will be creating their own comic books using the images they manipulate in Photoshop. We're excited to announce that this is the Digital Literacy Project's first workshop to be conducted entirely in French by co-facilitators Victoria Nam and Nina Pariser.

HipHopNoPop, a program that teaches youth about the non-violent origins of hip hop, is a new partner for the Digital Literacy Project. Video artist Victoria Nam is working with them on a Video Documentary Project to create a vignette about HipHopNoPop. We're also working with them to create video tools for teaching.

The participants of the Head and Hands Young Parents Program are coming to the library for workshops over the Winter to learn about digital photography and Photoshop. After gathering for lunch in the auditorium, parents are spending the afternoons working on a photo zine project about their experiences as young parents in Montreal. This workshop is co-facilitated by Arwen Fleming and Robin Kelley.

New partner organization Root.Ed visited the library in January for an intensive 1-day workshop on blogging, citizen journalism, and video. The group hung out for an entire Saturday, learning from and interacting with the likes of multimedia journalists and activists Montréal Boban Chaldvich, Nantali Indongo, and Aaron Lakoff. The group is going to be back at the Library for two Saturdays this Winter for some more intensive video work with video artist Victoria Nam!

Another new partner is Westhaven-Elmhurst Community Association's Skills Link. Young adults participating in their Skills Link will be visiting the Library on March 21 for an intensive afternoon in audio recording. Montréal musician James Irwin will lead the group through recording, importing, editing, and exporting audio projects.

Summer may be over but the DLP is heating up for seven new partnership projects taking place this fall!

New partner organizations for Fall 2010 include Carrefour Jeunesse-Emploi NDG’s Jeunes en Action, Carrefour Jeunesse-Emploi Sud-Ouest de Montréal’s Jeunes en Action, Contactivity Centre, John F. Kennedy High School, Quebec 4 H, Trafalgar School for Girls, and the Yellow Door Elderly Project’s Ribbon Social Club!

The DLP is excited to being a new partnership with Carrefour Jeunesse-Emploi NDG’s Jeunes en Action! Youth from the Jeunes en Action program will be coming to the Library on Tuesday afternoons during September and October to learn about digital photo manipulation and video. With the help of new media artist and educator Zohar Kfir, participants will learn the skills to creatively express themselves in using a combination of still and moving images while developing their repertoires of digital media production.

The Carrefour Jeunesse-Emploi Sud-Ouest de Montréal’s Jeunes en Action program is another new partnership for the DLP! Under the guidance of a DLP facilitator, youth from the program will learn new media skills that will strengthen their employment portfolios and broaden their tools and skills for self-expression! The group will begin their workshop with artist and art educator Nilesh Patel, learning digital photography and photo manipulation.

Youth involved in clubs from the Quebec 4 H will be coming to the Library this September for a special workshop on social technology, with a focus on blogging! The Quebec 4 H promotes the personal development of youth in agricultural and rural communities. Approximately 20 youth are set to descend upon the Computer Classroom to learn about the history and varied uses of blogs, as well as how to set up and manage a blog for each of their individual clubs! This is a great opportunity for the youth to share about their unique activities and experiences and communicate with each other. The workshop will be instructed by Zohar Kfir and Arwen Fleming.

Trafalgar School for Girls will also be partnering with the DLP for the first time! The youth from Ms. Litvack’s grade 10 art class and Ms. Jarrett's grade 11 North American Literature class will be coming together for a special workshop combining media and digital literacy. In connection with this year’s Media Literacy Week the DLP is offering workshops relating to this year’s theme - Gender and Media Literacy. With the guidance of Skye Maule-O'Brien, participants will learn to identify and break down gender representations in the media and then use their new knowledge to create a poster with a positive gender representation that they'd like to see in the media.

Students from Isabelle Duclose's Ethics class at John F. Kennedy High School will also be participating in a gender, media and digital literacy themed workshop. Skye Maule-O'Brien, Robin Kelley and the participants will identify and break down gender representations in the media and then play with gender stereotypes to create a short video.

The DLP is excited to be working with the Yellow Door’s Elderly Project Ribbon Social Club for the first time. Artist and educator Kristy Boisvert will be leading the group through a basic digital photography and photo manipulation workshop. We hope to have an exhibition of the works created by participants to celebrate their achievements at the end of the workshop!

Seniors from the Contactivity Center will be participating in Sharing Stories: An Introduction to Video Making, a four part workshop taking place during October. This introductory video workshop is designed for seniors interested in learning new technologies so that they can share with other generations. The goal is to combat intergenerational isolation by giving seniors the skills to use the media young people engage with on a regular basis. With the help of artist and educator Nina Pariser, participants will have the opportunity to tell a story, document one's life, and share with their families using video.

Head and Hands Young Parents Program returns for more DLP fun! This fall the group will be visiting the Library for a blogging workshop, instructed by Liz Perrin, expert adult educator and computer course instructor here at the Library! Liz will walk participants through the steps to setting up and managing a blog, and discuss the various uses and considerations involved in blogging!

The DLP is back in action with a full schedule of workshops! We've grown our programming to include several new partnerships and events!

Partner organizations include CFAD, Head and Hands Young Parents Program, Y des Femmes, James Lyng High School, Cote-des-Neiges Black Community Association, RECLAIM Literacy Council and Innovation Jeunes.

This January the DLP began a video workshop series with a new partner organization, the Children’s Community Action Program (PACE). The PACE program, run through CFAD (Continuité-Famille Auprès des Détenues et Ex-détenues), brings kids together for activities and meals every Sunday. Video artist Erin Corbett has integrated her high energy, interactive video workshops with their regular programming, engaging the youth in motion, sound, storytelling and interview activities. The PACE program will screen their final videos both at the DLP Wrap Party and a special PACE Family Event this spring.

The Y des Femmes Montreal has recently partnered with the DLP. With the help of visual artist and web designer Riaz Mehmood, youth facilitators from the Y des Femmes are learning the language of web design and creating their own unique blogs.

The DLP is excited to be working with the Cote-des-Neiges Black Community Association, in connection with their program to develop youth employability skills. Riaz Mehmood, is leading the group through the process of designing and constructing their own blogs.

Our partnership with James Lyng High School has continued this winter in the form of blogging workshops for students. Multi-disciplinary artist and McGill Library and Information Studies Masters student Ryan Hughes, will facilitate an exciting foray into the world of online self-publishing using free blogging platforms.

The DLP welcomes back Head and Hands Young Parents Program(YPP) for a second workshop in digital photography and photo manipulation. Using all new equipment, the participants from the YPP have already learned about camera functions, composition, and have been taking their own tableau photographs at the YPP space. Later this March participants are visiting the library for three workshops in Photoshop, with the end goal of creating their own YPP photo-zines! The workshops are co-facilitated by Jessica Thatcher and Robin Kelley.

Web designer and DLP facilitator extraordinaire Jon Lebensold is back at the library for his third web design workshop series, this time in partnership with youth from Innovation Jeunes. Jon will be teaching the youth about basic web design and helping participants create a blog about the Innovation Jeunes eco-art installation set to take place in Downtown Montreal this spring!

Participants from RECLAIM Literacy were back at the library for part two of their video workshop series. Taking place over three full days in the month of February, video artist Eric Craven took past participants to a new level of filming and video editing with these intensive workshops.

This fall's series of Digital Literacy workshops are fast approaching! The DLP will be working with both new and returning youth and literacy organizations this October and November, on a variety of exciting new media projects.

This spring the peer educators of Head and Hands Sense Project worked with previous Diglital Literacy Project coordinator Miriam Verburg to create an awesome documentary that looks at attitudes towards sex education and sexual health. We will continue working with Head and Hands this fall, this time in connection with Jeunesse 2000, the youth programming and Drop-In Centre.

We're also excited to continue working with students from James Lyng High School. James Lyng High School. Students will work with Lynn Worrell, a video and multimedia artist on a video project. Lynn has a great relationship with James Lyng having done a number of previous projects with them, including a project on hip-hop and literacy.

The volunteers from W.O.R.D (Writing Our Rhymes Down), an organization which teaches literacy through hip hop, will be participating in a web design workshop with facilitator Jon Lebensold, where they will gain valuable skills that can be integrated into W.O.R.D's curriculum, as well as create and construct and independently maintain an official website for W.O.R.D. Montreal.

The DLP is excited to be working with Project 10 for the first time! Youth from Project 10's drop-in program will be participating in an exciting web design workshop, facilitated by Montreal web designer Angela Gabereau. The workshops will focus on basic web design and management skills, with the end goal of conducting a much needed revamp of Project 10's website!

Reclaim Literacy has been tutoring adult learners at the Atwater Library for several years. Earlier this year, Reclaim members participated in 'Making Oral History Digital: Oral Stories and Literacy', an audio recording workshop series. Reclaim will again be working with the Digital Literacy project this fall, this time putting their stories to moving images in a video workshop by Eric Craven.

During Spring of 2008, (on a reduced budget) the Digital Literacy Project organized two workshops in collaboration with the Sense Project at Head and Hands and James Lyng High School. In addition to workshops we also did a series of discussions on youth and new media in collaboration with University of the Streets

Video 2: James Lyng High School
During this workshop, James Lyng students and Matthew Santoro created a short PSA on Bullying.

The Sense Project Video Workshop
In this intensive workshop, participants in the Sense Project, a peer-led sex education program developed by Head and Hands made a short video called Cameron's Condoms. Cameron's Condoms is a talk show spoof with an important message, how to practice safer sex, and how *not* to tell your partner you may have accidentally given her an STD.

University of the Streets comes to the ALCC
In 2008 the DLP was involved in coordinating a series of public conversations on youth and media with University of the Streets. Not familiar with UoS? Check out University of the Streets.

LTHH and Tyndale St.George: Beat-making 101.

Participants at the Tyndale after school program will learn to record their vocals and then beat production basics using a loop making program. This workshop was produced in collaboration with Literacy Through Hip-Hop Montreal

YPP - Digital Scrap-booking

Members of the Head and Hands Young Parents Program will be learning digital photo and photo manipulation techniques on Photoshop while working on a Scrapbook project in which they reflect on their dreams.

Jeunesse 2000-Head and Hands-Video

Lights, camera and action! Three young women from the J2K drop in center decided that they wanted to create a video on smoking cigarettes, or more why you shouldn't smoke.

James Lyng High School - Aisle 666

Students from James Lyng Highschool will be producing a horror movie set at the Atwater Library and featuring a ghostly book. This workshopw as produced in Collaboration with CUTV - Concordia University Television Station.

Westmount high School - "The early Bird" web animation

Students from Westmount High School will be making an web based aniumation using a variation of Flash animation software.

Padua Youth Empowerment Project - Web Design

For the workshops with the DLP, six YEP participants are making a website that will display other works such as writing video, and audio, that they are producing during other parts of their program.

Co-op Collective Vision - Video Production

The Collective Vision Video workshop series took place on Saturdays from 3:30 – 5:00pm and was open to grade 4 - 6 students in the west-end interested in learning more about how video is shot, edited and produced. The class is working together to produce a short work, which will be finished at the end of May. This workshop was developed and taught by Erik Chevrier of Collective Vision.