“We wanted the students to learn how to create digital content for a range of platforms, including mobile devices and digital displays”

Daruma Tech is continuing its support of Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and the Museum of Discovery and Science in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with a new series of workshops for high school students on multimedia digital content development. Students in the workshops work directly with professional interactive media designers from Daruma Tech and get hands-on experience creating content for digital displays positioned throughout the museum.

The workshops were inspired by the museum’s request to Daruma Tech for support in selecting, installing, and deploying their digital displays. Daruma Tech saw this request as not only an opportunity to offer technical expertise on the best equipment for the museum but a new opportunity to advance the museum’s community outreach by offering high-level STEM training to local students.

As a longtime educational partner with FAU and the museum’s APP-titude program, in which high school students earn college credit at FAU, gain programming experience, and create assets for the Museum of Discovery and Science mobile app, Daruma Tech envisioned the new digital design workshops as a way to expand the APP-titude program’s offerings. “We wanted the students to learn how to create digital content for a range of platforms, including mobile devices and digital displays,” said Susan Erickson of Daruma Tech.

In the workshops, students in the APP-titude learn the design, communication, and technical skills needed to produce effective educational content for museum’s digital displays.  This content will appear on two screens positioned above the museum’s information desk and five digital displays positioned throughout the exhibits, and will offer visitors information about the museum’s collections and programs along with information about the free Museum of Discovery and Science mobile app, The two-day workshops let students experience all stages of the professional design process, from brainstorming and creating storyboards and outlines video editing through updating and maintaining digital content. Among the technical skills students acquire are video production with Adobe After Effects, PowerPoint design, and the use of digital signage software for the final production of the assets. Participating students also volunteer at the museum, where they can solicit feedback from museum visitors about the displays and their impact.

The workshops are explicitly designed to align with the museum’s educational mission and communication goals, and the students learn to keep these goals—as well as the needs of the museum’s target audience—in mind as they plan their designs. Thus, in addition to acquiring marketable technical skills, students gain a deeper understanding of and familiarity with the museum’s collections as well as the messages the museum seeks to communicate to the public.

For the museum, the workshops are a way to keep their messaging fresh and relevant while offering a rewarding educational experience for young people in the surrounding community. Daruma Tech sees the workshops as another way to deploy its technical expertise in the service of FAU, the museum and their mission of STEM education.

For more information, contact Rick Griswold at 561-990-1625