VistaMix

Vistamix is a resource site for teaching stop motion animation, and is a companion site to Bitsyclass.org, which is my low-threshold game development workshop. Both are an outgrowth of my graduate and PhD research and several years of teaching workshops. Everything is meant to be simple to do, requiring basic tools and inexpensive technology.

Often educational endeavors using technology become technology driven. STEM design programs are notorious for this, where there is more emphasis on mastering technology than learning underlying concepts. As an example, it’s possible to teach basic computer programming concepts without using a computer, but most programs fixate on a particular piece of technology as the magic way to engage students.

This costs money, requires expertise – both of which are often in short supply. I am more interested in low-cost, technology de-emphasized educational projects. I teach animation, but the computer is really only a part of a bigger idea of how animation works. It is akin to taking a course where you learn how a camera operates, and you get to take a few pictures, and a course that is on image composition where the camera is a way to accomplish this, and you take a lot of pictures and critique them.

My background is design and motion media based, so I emphasize these things in my work. Design for me is this magic thing that I think everyone can benefit from learning about. Design process works for many contexts. The question is – can we make this engaging by using activities that students want to work on? Is it possible combine all disciplines (including humanities) into a cohesive mix that uses different contexts for solving problems – which is a core idea of design thinking? The answer is, of course, yes to both of these.

What is here are brief notes on my workshops, covering what is needed to run one of these. Hopefully this will be helpful.