Empowering Advanced Learners with Digital Academy’s Quest
Islands of Brilliance (IOB) has a long history of Digital Academy Programs (DA). Our DA programs offer our advanced students, ages 14+, fresh opportunities while boosting their creativity, collaboration, and personal growth.
Over the years, DA programs have evolved in response to changes in our external environments (like COVID!) and the changing needs we see in our students. These programs are the most rigorous activities at IOB! They focus on creative technologies and promote self-determination. The newest iteration – the Quest series – maintains this focus while emphasizing a sense of community.
The Wizard Behind the Curtain
IOB knew that awesome changes needed a remarkable innovator to drive them. The newest changes to the DA program were created by and reflect the experience and educational passions of IOB’s Director of Technology, Chris Willey. Chris joined IOB in the summer of 2022 and was immediately tasked with developing our Creative Technologist team – the backbone of our interactions with students. “I'm proud of developing the Creative Technologist team, our culture, and finding ways to share our growth with one another. I've lucked into leading an extraordinary crew of joyous disruptors!”
Chris’ years as a lecturer at UWM's Peck School of the Arts, directing the Immersive Media Lab - an interdisciplinary emerging creative technology research space - provided opportunities for him to teach, develop individual courses, and write an entire curriculum for a major. All of this experience and knowledge certainly prepared him to rework the IOB Digital Academy curriculum!
His background is high-tech visual art and he is passionate about teaching and learning. “Over the years, I've amassed considerable technical knowledge around Adobe Creative Cloud, digital painting techniques, 3D modeling, virtual reality technologies, and creating interactive art using game engines and node-based programming,“ explains Chris. “I'm thrilled to share my ideas and experience with the IOB community.”
“I'm here, on this big blue zoo, to help people share their stories. Because it's our stories that move the walls of culture that need to be moved. I also want to share a newer question that drives me: How do I create learning spaces where people can see one another for their potential?”
Chris is using all that drive and experience to create DA programs that allow our communities (students, staff, and mentors) to see their own growth and gain confidence. He has leveraged his experiences to bring about cutting-edge programs that foster a sense of curiosity while cultivating communities that make lifelong learning cool.
Introducing Quest
Each program in Digital Academy generates a community of creative inquiry where students can grow together. We aim to expose students to the joy of creativity while instilling life-long learning habits.
Our goal is to create programs that help our students leverage a robust set of ever-evolving creative technologies as solutions to externally driven projects and utilize the same tools and processes to express themselves in self-determined goals. In other words, we want to help our students THRIVE in the modern creative workspace.
Helping to fine-tune the program to suit the needs of our autistic students is one of our newest team members, Dr. Kate Siekman, Director of Learning and Outcomes. The current iteration of DA programs is being developed with the student standards from the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) in mind. Through the ISTE lens, our students will gain the following:
Self-awareness
Self-management
Responsible decision-making skills
Relationship skills
Social awareness
There are three types of learning experiences that make up our DA programs. Each is designed to scale with emerging communication technologies and will continue evolving.
Quest:
Quest is currently in development and will be offered soon!
Quest is designed to be a personal pathway to creative growth for our most advanced students. The design of this course follows the research approach Chris used at UWM's Immersive Media Lab. This application-based program empowers our students to take charge of their destiny and embrace their unique talents within a supportive and encouraging community of like-minded learners.
How it works:
Students apply with a specific project or set of goals, and once accepted, meet virtually twice a week, work at their own pace, and share their progress with a group of peers.
The magic of Quest unfolds when we come together online to discuss and give feedback, fostering a supportive community and individual attention.
Students will chart their learning path, explore their interests, and receive personalized guidance from expert mentors twice a week.
It's 100% virtual and happens in three-week blocks. (Quests are three weeks minimum, nine weeks maximum, and guess what? You can always sign up again!)
Side Quest:
Enrolling now! The main goal of Side Quest is to teach students how to teach themselves!
"My experience in Side Quest was "Better than OK! IT WAS GREAT!"
Digital painting techniques were used by a student to create shading on this stock image during a recent Side Quest.
A Creative Technologist leads each quick two-day workshop. Mentors join in on the action and learn alongside the students too! It is pure gold to watch someone with more experience share their associations between the tutorial content and their real-world experiences in other software or similar techniques.
Each Side Quest is based on one of three general topics:
Digital Painting
Character Development
3D
How it works:
Topics occur once a month over two workshops, giving students ample time to explore and use the new technique before the group takes on the same topic again.
To help students choose the best class for them, we've introduced different “Difficulty Levels” for each class: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. For instance, let's say you sign up for an Intermediate Side Quest in Blender. You'll want to be aware of most, if not all, of Blender's Beginner level difficulties to rock your Side Quest.
During the Side Quest, everyone tracks their progress on a digital whiteboard. The first day is about getting structured with the tutorial; on the second day, it's time to shine! Students can continue working on the main tutorial or explore a related topic.
Side Quest adds a gamified element to the mix, where each successful completion earns the student a unique badge. That badge will proudly follow you throughout the calendar year, showcasing your engagement in IOB's DA programs. If you need to brush up on some skills, consider taking our Foundations courses to prepare for future Side Quest programs.
Bonus for Mentors!! Each Side Quest has room for up to two IOB mentors to participate for free! These spots are first-come, first-serve, so if you're interested, you better jump on it by emailing Chris right away!
Collab Quest:
Collab Quest is currently in development and will be offered soon!
Collab Quest is all about collaboration where we spark real-world impact together! We're bringing together students to form incredible dream teams, igniting the power of collective brilliance. Students will join forces and work on meaningful projects that have real-world impact. It's about embracing diverse perspectives, learning to consider everyone's contributions, and connecting with fantastic community partners and organizations. As of this writing, we're planning Collab Quest projects with a bike company called Serpentijn, the Yerkes Observatory, and a Python-coding-based project. Students will be responsible for their own projects but will always be paired with a single partner and a larger group to work alongside.
Quest, Side Quest, and Collab Quest are designed to nurture creativity, foster teamwork, and help us embrace the joy of creativity. Digital Academy is more than just a set of programs; it's a community that fosters boundless creativity and self-determined growth.
“I am committed to empowering our brilliant learners through personalized learning adventures, project-based learning, skill acquisition, and exciting real-world collaborations.” - Chris Willey
IOB offers a ton of options for advanced students to choose from! Rest assured that in each workshop, they'll be surrounded by like-minded learners, caring mentors, and supportive partners.
Are you ready to join us on this incredible journey? Check out our website for all the exciting details, developments, and new opportunities.
A little more about Chris from Chris:
My background is in high-tech visual art. I have a BFA (Drawing at Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design) and an MFA (New Genres at San Francisco Art Institute). Experiences at Apple and the dschool at Stanford have honed my technical and teaching skills, respectively. I'm honored to be an Adobe Education Leader / Innovator. I've written a textbook on Art & Design, some of my creative projects have been published, I've curated exhibitions, and I've exhibited my art projects nationally and internationally.
Oh, and I'm also into backyard astronomy, an amateur gardener, a professional nurturer, and an avid Dachshund fan (yo, check out my mildly internet-famous dog's Instagram account- Barnaby)!
