Fall Week 2

This week the students spent their time getting to know each other playing a "highly sophisticated" version of Bingo that we've titled PNG-O. The game boards are filled with squares that have descriptors that could apply to people such as "Has blue eyes" and "Can Swim" and the students are to go around asking other students and the PNG Mentors if they fit that description. An "X" and the name of the person who fits the description is placed on the square. Five in a row earns them PNG-O. A prize is awarded for each PNG-O attained. The prize will more than likely be candy.






Next the students were given the choice between three similar projects. An old West styled "Wanted" poster, a "missing pet" poster, or an "alien invasion" headline and photo page.

PNG Fall 2011 - Sign Up Now!

Elmwood Park Public Library is proud to announce a brand new session of Project Next Generation, the technology-for-kids class sponsored by the State Library of Illinois.  PNG has been around for years but now with upgraded equipment, a remodeled classroom and some fresh new ideas we're ready for the best PNG session of all!

It is totally free to participate, but there are a limited number of seats so make sure you click here to sign up right away!

The new session will start October 17th and run Mondays from 4pm-6pm for 8 weeks (December 5th).

We'll be doing activities like recording and sampling music as well as new twists on old favorites like making movies and mashing up photos in Photoshop!

So make sure you don't miss out!  Follow this site or ask your librarian to stay up to date with the last about PNG @ EPPL!

PNG Week 7 - Art Direction

Our songs are pretty much in the can, now it's time to compliment them with some album art!  The kids were given the task of coming up with an artist name, album name and track title and then designing the cover of their forthcoming CD.

Take a look at some of the great work done by our Mentor Molly!

Next week we'll compile all of our artist's tracks into PNG's first Mix CD.

PNG Week 6 - Musicology

This week the crew swsitched gears from video to audio.  Our students tried their hands at song-smithing using Mixcraft 5.  The results were... mixed.

Some students took to making songs like fish take to water.  Others took to making songs like fish take to sushi.  Fortunately we kinda saw that coming so we introduced our less musically inclined students to Mixcraft's Loop Library.  Simply drag and drop some samples together and you have an instant song!

Here's an example of a work in progress from one of our more industrious students.

PNG Week 5 - The Editing Room Floor

The masterpiece has been shot.  The film is in the can.  Now it's time for our prodigious mini-Spielbergs to craft the footage they shot into an actual movie, like a sculptor removing excess clay.

This year we are using Mixcraft 5 to edit our movies, which is a bit unorthodox, but using this software to edit our movies will give the students plenty of practice for when we switch over to creating our musical masterpieces in the next unit.

Everyone is putting together their own movie at this point, but we'll post the Mentor edit here soon.

PNG Week 4 - Lights Camera Action!

This week the PNG students dove head first into filming their movie!


We decided to recreate part of the famous library scene from the movie Ghostbusters.



The kids did a great job and the end result will be viewable on YouTube soon.  In the meantime, here's a clip: