Cruinniú na nÓg 2020

In response to Covid-19 restrictions, our planned, in-person workshops with young people to create a virtual newsroom had to be redesigned for the online world.

Using Zoom as a platform, we met with two groups of young people aged 10-15 years to create news stories of their lives over lockdown. We recorded the sessions and then dropped them into a virtual news studios using Adobe After Effects.

Below is from the promotion of the project:

Become a broadcaster for the day! Through the use of the newsroom setting, participants will explore their environment and present the world, as they know it, through their unique perspective.  With the view that most young people use apps like TikTok and Snapchat to communicate, this project will show more sophisticated processes of technologies that are used in a professional setting. The project aims to develop critical thinking practices, empowerment of voice, self-confidence, team work and social well-being using a frame-work of themes such as cyber-bullying, climate change, social media dependency and mental health issues through the lens of how their worlds have changed.

The day will be broken into two sessions:

Session 1: Role allocation, breakout sessions to set out news stories and practice interviewing, capture footage.

Session 2: Rejoin the session for the compositing process, where backdrops are removed, graphics are selected, ticker created and music added. Participants will have the opportunity to see a preview of their finished segment on the day.

Cruinniú na nÓg 2021

Again in 2021, we had to design and deliver the workshops online. We created a short and punchy workshop that would be an introduction to app development as well as content development.

Keeping best safeguarding practices in mind, we decided to cartoon the young people so that they could be the storytellers of the app but we weren’t using their actual photographs.

Below is the information released for the event:

Born in Co. Donegal, in 521 AD, Colmcille is one of Ireland’s most well-known historical figures.

But who was he? Why do we still remember him 1500 years later? You might be surprised to discover that he was much more than just a saint! For example, did you know that one of the earliest copyright infringement disputes in the world involved Colmcille, and led to a battle that resulted in around 3,000 casualties? Or that he once chased the Loch Ness Monster away after it had bitten a swimmer?

But what if Colmcille was around in 2021? What might he think of the world as we know it? How might his story have turned out? Would future generations still remember him?

How do you fancy taking his story out of the history books, and telling it yourself through a mobile app that you can carry around in your pocket, get your friends to download and share with your aunt in Australia?

The ‘Discovering Colmcille’ event is an interactive digital media workshop involving fact-finding, storytelling, digital design and ultimately the creation of an app, focusing on the main events of Colmcille’s life.

‘Discovering Colmcille’ will take place over Zoom as two separate workshops:

1. 5th June 2021
   Introductory session. The group gets to know one another and exchange what they already know (if anything – no previous knowledge required!) about Colmcille. Group discussion to collectively agree on the most important elements of Colmcille’s story, and how the finished app should look.
2. 12th June 2021
   Participants bring Colmcille’s story to life in their own words, captured and presented in a mobile app by cartoon versions of themselves, gaining an insight into what is involved in mobile application development.

Each participant will received a download link to the finished app.