Teens Use the Shine On Coach to Break Down Technology Barriers During Remake Learning Days
Teaching photography to teens through neighborhood Photo Safaris is often a challenge — particularly when you factor in Chicago weather. And this proved to be true this spring when Shine On Chicago participated in Remake Learning Days on behalf of The Chicago Learning Exchange.
Shine On was scheduled to conduct our usual neighborhood photo safari, with teens getting a chance to learn the basics of DSLR photography while exploring a Chicago neighborhood — and in this case, it was at The Plato Elementary School in Oak Park.
We parked the Shine On Coach in the school’s parking lot, and after firing up the generators, we soon had enough electrical power to run the heaters, computers and monitors that are on the coach. That proved to be a good thing, because shortly after our first session started, it began to rain. Cold and bone-chilling, and I could tell none of the 5th graders wanted to leave the Shine On Coach. So instead of forcing the issue, we changed our plans and turned the neighborhood photo safari into a teen portrait session on the coach, with teens taking pictures of one another in different areas of the coach, including on green screen!
Shine On Chicago worked with over 45 teens and pre-teens that day, and shared with them the joy of taking photographs. Check out the gallery below to see how much they loved it!
This event could have been a disaster, if it had not been for the Shine On Chicago Coach. For those who haven’t experienced it — It’s a combination Teaching Classroom and Digital Production Center — on wheels! Which allows us to visit different, resource-challenged neighborhoods and schools and provide those teens with professional DSLR cameras and computers to do photo editing — which means you can do a whole afternoon of photo safaris and never even need to leave the coach, or even the parking lot!
Not only did they learn some basics on DSLR cameras, they used the Shine On Audio Booth to create their own Raps and Beats.
The video they did says it all….
Shine On was scheduled to conduct our usual neighborhood photo safari, with teens getting a chance to learn the basics of DSLR photography while exploring a Chicago neighborhood — and in this case, it was at The Plato Elementary School in Oak Park.
We parked the Shine On Coach in the school’s parking lot, and after firing up the generators, we soon had enough electrical power to run the heaters, computers and monitors that are on the coach. That proved to be a good thing, because shortly after our first session started, it began to rain. Cold and bone-chilling, and I could tell none of the 5th graders wanted to leave the Shine On Coach. So instead of forcing the issue, we changed our plans and turned the neighborhood photo safari into a teen portrait session on the coach, with teens taking pictures of one another in different areas of the coach, including on green screen!
Shine On Chicago worked with over 45 teens and pre-teens that day, and shared with them the joy of taking photographs. Check out the gallery below to see how much they loved it!
This event could have been a disaster, if it had not been for the Shine On Chicago Coach. For those who haven’t experienced it — It’s a combination Teaching Classroom and Digital Production Center — on wheels! Which allows us to visit different, resource-challenged neighborhoods and schools and provide those teens with professional DSLR cameras and computers to do photo editing — which means you can do a whole afternoon of photo safaris and never even need to leave the coach, or even the parking lot!
Not only did they learn some basics on DSLR cameras, they used the Shine On Audio Booth to create their own Raps and Beats.
The video they did says it all….
