Intensive Workshops

Most conferences are boring. It is often said that the best part of Siggraph is in the halls, talking to your old and new friends, at receptions and in small "birds of a feather" sessions where you can talk, and not just listen.

So we built iDMAa 2005 around a rich collection of intensive workshops, instead of the usual sit-in-the-dark-and-listen sessions. These 90 to 120 minute sessions are limited in enrollment, to encourage discussion. They are led by professionals with extensive experience in the topic area. They are each built around a set of Key Questions (see the Workshops below, for the questions).

Why do we call them intensive workshops? Because they are highly goal-oriented. Each workshop consists of open discussion of a set of key questions, and a quest for useful answers.

Why do they come in two flavors? Presentation Workshops begin with a 20 minute talk, presented by the organizers, to provide information about a novel topic and initiate the discussion. Dialogue Workshops begin with a set of questions. Each person in the group gets a chance to contribute to the development of the ideas in the workshop.

What’s the payoff? The key purpose of iDMAa Workshops is to create new ideas and new collaborations. You should attend these workshops in “search mode” – looking for collaborators with whom you may be able to write and win grants, develop and publish papers.

When you register for the conference, you will indicate the workshops you would like to attend as either Contributor or Participant. We will schedule multiple sessions of workshops as needed to assure that you will have a chance to discuss the Key Questions with others who are actively addressing these issues.

When you arrive at the conference and receive your materials, you will be given a schedule of the workshop sessions that have reserved seating for you, based on your requests. You may attend other sessions on a space available basis.

Quick Reference List of Workshops.

(P) denotes a Presentation Workshop. Others are Dialogue Workshops.

WORKSHOP 1: CULTURAL MEDIA
Organizer: Leslie Lieberman, U. of Central Florida – Women’s Studies

Key Questions:

>> Check back soon

WORKSHOP 2: DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT
Organizer: Ian Gibson, UCF School of Film and Digital Media

Key Questions:

1. What are the key problems associated with storing and managing the digital assets (images, video, audio, scripts, intellectual property, computer generated geometric models, etc.) associated with a digitally produced film, computer game or other media project?
2. What software tools are available to manage the production process, keep track of resources, subtasks and schedules, and facilitate the subsequent re-use of the material (e. g. to produce a sequel)?
3. How can a Digital Asset Management (DAM) System assist in solving the challenging problems associated with technological obsolescence? When, in ten years or less, a DVD player becomes as obsolete as an 8-track audio tape is now, how will we gain access to the data we have stored in the DAM?
4. What DAM software is available, appropriate for academic use, and what teaching materials exist to help in building courses in the area?

Key Links:

University of Southern California Digital Commerce Center
Digital Asset Management: The Art of Archiving
G-SAM Annual Conference on Digital Asset Management
Library of Congress National Digital Library Program

WORKSHOP 3: REAL-TIME INTERNATIONALLY DISTRIBUTED COLLABORATION (RIDC)
Organizer: James Oliverio, Director: Digital Worlds Institute, University of Florida

Key Questions:

1) What are the available technologies and techniques to allow quality real-time collaboration across the globe?
2) What precedents, procedures and people are resources for those wishing to become involved in this area?
3) What are the benefits and advantages, drawbacks and dis-advantages of RIDC?
4) What kinds of opportunities exist for scholarly and creative work in this area?

Key Links:

James Oliverio

WORKSHOP 4: DIGITAL FORENSICS
Organizer: Dr. Carrie Whitcomb, Director
National Center for Forensic Science - University of Central Florida

Key Questions:

1. What are the key new forensic problems that digital media have brought into focus?
2. What opportunities for new forms of research, creativity and employment for digital media graduates are found in the area of forensics?
3. What kinds of courses should be taught to Digital Media students to make them aware of key issues in computer security, digital evidence and forensics?
4. Are their grant opportunities for creative research projects in forensics?

Key Links:

National center for Forensic Science
American Academy of Forensic Science
National Forensic Science and Technology Center
West Virginia University Forensic Identification Program

WORKSHOP 5: TODAY’S MEDIA-CENTRIC YOUTH: A NEW NARRATIVE PARADIGM
Organizers: Michael Niederman, Chair - Radio/Television, Columbia College Chicago; Robert Kenny, Alicia Sanchez: UCF Digital Media

Key Questions:

1) What is a narrative paradigm?
2) What is there about digital media and arts that renders the old paradigm obsolete?
3) Is this a good thing?
4) How can we make it better?
5) What can we do to make students good storytellers in new media? How will they demonstrate their new abilities in objectively measurable ways?

Key Links:

Walter Fisher's Narrative Paradigm
Narrating the Net with the Narrative Paradigm: So What?

WORKSHOP 6: "Digital Media and Arts Curriculum Development: Current Approaches and Future Challenges"
Organizers: Dr. Jeff Rutenbeck, University of Denver, Dr. Chris Blair, Union University, Dr. Marcel O'Gorman, University of Detroit-Mercy

Key Questions:

1. What are considered to be the "foundational" content areas and competencies that underlie strong digital media and arts curricula?
2. What are the best ways to help faculty and staff develop necessary levels of expertise (and acquire new ones) as digital media and arts continue?
3. What various curricular approaches have been developed, where, and with what effectiveness?
4. What are likely to be the driving forces in the development of the "next generation" of digital media and arts programs around the world?
5. What roles should industry play in developing and delivering cutting-edge digital media and arts programs?

Digital Media Studies at the University of Denver
Digital Media Education at Ball State University
E-Crit at University of Detroit-Mercy
Digital Media Education in the United Kingdom
Digital Media Curriculum Development Project at Wake Forest University

WORKSHOP 7: DECONSTRUCTING DELUSIONS: INTERDISCIPLINARY ART AND TECHNOLOGY
Organizers: Beth Berolzheimer/ and Jeanine Mellinger, Columbia College Chicago

Key Questions:

1. When doing interdisciplinary and collaborative work, the artist has to address a diverse audience. Integrating technology with artwork/performance, issues arise about how the audience participates in and/or views the work. Discuss.
2. What is the artist’s responsibility in contextualizing the work for the audience?
3. How much “education” does your audience need to understand the work?
4. Is there a new relationship between the audience, the artwork and the artist?
5. Do we need to identify a new viewing paradigm for such artwork or is there a pre-existing paradigm?
6. As instructors of emerging media artists, how do we integrate these issues into the classroom?

WORKSHOP 8: The Digital Home and its Occupants: How do we get Along?
Organizer: Ron Kovac, Ball State University

Key Questions:

1. What is your dream home and what is a digital home?
2. How do your home and you get along?
3. What are your current uses (A mini-survey)?
4. How can this relationship be made better?
5. How do we make the future now?
6. Research areas of interest?

Key Links:

A Brilliant Future for the Smart Home
Home, Smart Home. ... something about it creeps people out.

WORKSHOP 9: Digital Archives
Pat Fleming, Central Florida Community College

Key Questions:

1. What standards exist for the digital archiving of traditional media?
2. How should we incorporate digital archiving into DM curricula?
3. What entrepreneurial opportunities exist for Digital Archiving projects?

WORKSHOP 10: Introduction to Game Studies
Organizer: Games SIG

WORKSHOP 11: Teaching with Video & Computer Games
Organizer: Games SIG

WORKSHOP 12: Building Games in the Academy
Organizer: Marcel O'Gorman, University of Detroit-Mercy

WORKSHOP 13: Introduction to Machinimation
Organizer: Games SIG

WORKSHOP 14: Entrepreneurial Digital Education: the eCenter
Organizers: Chris Murray, Dan Mapes: Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy

Key Questions:

1) How can entrepreneurial activities be integrated into a working academic organization?
2) What are the win-win opportunities in embedding small businesses in academia?
3) What are the inherent dangers in embedding small businesses in academia?
4) What happens to intellectual property when these things are done?
5) What relationship exists between eCenters and traditional incubators?

WORKSHOP 15: DIGITAL MEDIA IN K-20 EDUCATOIN
Organizers: Bob Kenny, Carroll Blue, Jan Cannon-Bowers: U. of Central Florida

Key Questions:

1. Many colleges of education teach future media specialists and instructional design majors ABOUT media, but never teach them how to MAKE media. What opportunities exist for Digital Media and Arts programs to form partnerships with colleges of education?
2. What should we be teaching teachers, in this area?
3. What are appropriate concepts and skills to teach those high school students who expect to go to college? Do they differ from those we should be teaching the students who seek a quick path to vocational education through two year Associate of Science degrees, or other post-secondary training?
4. What emerging technologies are most likely to be relevant to K-12 education, but are not now "on the radar screens" of most educators?

Key Links:

Association for Educational Communications and Technology
ERIC List of Educational Technology Conferences

WORKSHOP 16: MOBILE MEDIA
Organizer: Dr. Schott Shamp, Director - New Media Institute, University of Georgia

Key Questions:

1) What is a mobile medium? Almost everything is portable these days, but some of it is specifically taking advantage of telecommunications and location-finding technology.
2) What are the hard problems in designing mobile media?
3) What should we be teaching our students about mobile media?
4) How do we equip our laboratories for the support of stimulating experiments with mobile media?

Key Links:

New Media Institute
Dr. Scott Shamp
Digital Media in the Palm of your Hand
A New Set of Social Rules for a Newly Wireless Society

WORKSHOP 17: COLLABORATION: COLLECTIVE CREATIVE ENDEAVORS
Organizers: Conrad Gleber, School of Visual Arts and Dance, Florida State University And Stella Sung, University of Central Florida

Key Questions:

1. Why collaborate?
2. Is there any guarantee of success?
3. What are some signs of success/failure?
4. What are some keys to seeing/sharing the same goal?
5. What describes a collaboration that is a win/win, win/lose & lose/lose?
6. How does an individual's creative idea survive the process of group mediation and consensus?
7. Who "owns" the finished work? What do you give up for what do you get?
8. How do you document the project for Promo & Tenure?
9. How does the university admin value collaboration?

WORKSHOP 18: THINKING THROUGH COLLECTIVE PRODUCTIONS
Organizer: Craig Saper, University of Central Florida

Lynn Tomlinson will show a short digital project done in a collaboration with a mixed age school group (1st through 4th graders). The Utopia Project can serve as a model for collaborations between digital media artists and students.

Chantale Fontaine will show a short segment from the folkvine.org (interested participants might visit the site in advance of the workshop). This site already serves as a model for collaboration among digital media artists, teachers, and the folk artists' communities.

Key link: www.folkvine.org

WORKSHOP 19: Physical Computing in the Arts
Organizers: Conrad Gleber, Mat Rapaport

“Physical Computing” denotes the use of tangible, moving, blinking objects under the control of a computer, to create art. This workshop reports on experiments in teaching students from the arts and digital media, how to control and configure electronic devices so that they can express their ideas in interactive form by building touchable, solid moving devices.

WORKSHOP 20: DESIGNING CURRICULUM FOR A. S. (Associate of Science) PROGRAMS
Organizer: Sharon Wyly, Valencia Community College

Key Questions:

1. What should we teach - process or programs?
2. Should we prepare students to be specialist or generalist?
3. How can we design a curriculum that serves our students?
4. How can we continue to innovate in teaching so our students become life-long learners?
5. How can we continue to support technology as the cost climb and budgets fall?

WORKSHOP 21: DIGITAL MEDIA AND DISABILITY
Organizer: Patrick Fleming, Central Florida Community College, Ocala, Florida

Key Questions:

1) What should we be doing in our digital media and arts curricula, to inculcate a fundamental awareness of the media needs of disabled people?
2) What national standards and tools exist, as guides, references and requirements in this area?
3) What inspiring projects can we study for success stories and suggestions?
4) What disasters can we cite, so as to motivate people not to look as foolish as the creators of these turkeys?
5) How do we support disabled students and faculty in our own courses?
6) What related research areas need increased support and activity?

Key Links

New Virtual Audio Computer Game for the Blind
Accessible Games
Computer Game Boosts Hearing
Supportive Environments, Assistive Technology, Smart Homes
Digital Media Access Group
Fellowships for Disabled and Deaf Artists (United Kingdom)
Digital Media: Accessibility
Digital Divide Narrows for People with Disabilities

WORKSHOP 22: TRANSITIONING INDUSTRY LEADERS INTO DIGITAL MEDIA FACULTY
Organizers: Chris Stapleton, Stan Walker (both formerly with Universal Studios)

Key Questions:

1. How do you attract the top industry professionals?
2. What tools do you provide to experienced professionals who are novice teachers?
3. What is the "value" for professionals for taking time out to teach?
4. How do you transform life experience to curriculum content?

WORKSHOP 23: GETTING “Professional” WORK FROM STUDENTS
Organizers: Chris Stapleton, U. of Central Florida

Key Questions:

1. How do you motivate students?
2. How do you teach students to self-manage?
3. How do you make a team worth more than the sum of the parts?
4. How do you encourage failure (risk taking)?
5. How do you go beyond teaching students and transform them into professionals?
6. How do you do you manage diverse levels of abilities?

WORKSHOP 24: DIGITAL MEDIA LEARNING IN FORMAL, INFORMAL AND FAMILY DOMAINS
Organizer: Eileen Smith, U. of Central Florida

Key Questions:

1. How do you find problems looking for media solutions?
2. How do I get the participation of my community?
3. Why should I bother with outreach?
4. How do I build partnerships for progress?
5. What are other success stories?
6. How do you create a vision that excites everybody?
7. How do you leverage the power of politics?

WORKSHOP 25: INVENTING REPEATABLE MEDIA INNOVATION INFRASTRUCTURE
Organizer: Chris Stapleton, U. of Central Florida

Key Questions:

1. How do you bring industry together with academia to promote media innovation?
2. How has innovation happened in the past and can we learn from history?
3. How do you get recognition for your accomplishment?
4. How do you get funding for something that has never been done?

WORKSHOP 26: MELTING THE BOUNDARIES OF ART AND SCIENCES
Organizer: Charles Hughes, U. of Central Florida

Key Questions:

1. How do you integrate diverse disciplines for out of the box thinking?
2. How do I bring value to my institutions in funding, publications, publicity, and Intellectual property?

WORKSHOP 27: APPLIED PROGRAMMING IN DIGITAL MEDIA
Organizer: Steve Teicher, U. of Central Florida

Key Questions:

1. What should we be teaching Digital Media students about programming?
2. How do you incorporate Integrated Development Environments into instruction?
3. What is the role of databases in your web design curricula?

WORKSHOP 28: VIDEO IN BUILT ENVIRONMENTS (V. I. B. E.)
Conrad Gleber, Florida State University, and Mat Rapaport, U. Wisc/Milwaukee

WORKSHOP 29: PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS IN DIGITAL MEDIA
Organizer: Tom Loughlin, SUNY Fredonia

Key Questions:

1. How can digital media faculty be fairly evaluated for tenure and promotion?
2. What constitutes creative work in digital media, for comparison with art, music or other creative disciplines in academia?
3. Should there be a national standards organization for accrediting Digital Media programs?

WORKSHOP 30: THE BIBLE AS A DIGITAL MEDIUM
Organizer: Nelson Saba, Visual Book, Inc.

This workshop presents lessons learned in setting up a digital media company for a very unusual project: animating the bible, and providing it to the public in an interactive form. Nelson Saba created Visible Book, Inc. in 2000 and built an interactive media project involving over 40 animated sequences. To date,over 280,000 copies of the Ilumina product have been sold.

Key questions:

1. How do you go about building an animation and digital media company from scratch?
2. How do you find a publisher for a company with no previous production track record?
3. What would you do differently, after the first successful experience?

WORKSHOP 31: INTERACTIVE PERFORMANCE
Organizers: Jeff Wirth, School of Film and Digital Media, University of Central Florida and J. J. Ruscella, Theater Department, University of Central Florida

Key Questions:

1. What are new ways in which digital media could augment live performance?
2. What kind of organization, circuit, or festival might be established to connect people creating interactive performance?
3. What new technologies need to be developed to take interactive performance to the next level?
4. What are the new applications of interactive performance in the professional world?

Key Links:

Jeff Wirth

WORKSHOP 32: VIDEO GAMES
Coordinator: Erick Dyke, President: n-space, Inc.

Key Questions:

1) What should a student study, if they want to get and keep a job in the video game industry? Do these courses exist around the country, or should we be creating new kinds of courses?
2) What are the challenges facing the video game industry? How is your company addressing them?
3) Is it possible for a young person with a great idea, to start a game company and make a living? What is likely to happen to those who try?
4) Tell us how you got to where you are today. What was your educational background? What was your business experience? What would you do differently if you started over?

Key Links:

Game Developer's Conference 2005
n-space.com
Gamasutra
The Game Creators

WORKSHOP 33: Development of Non-Linear Narrative:
Design and Production Issues for Teaching
Coordinator: Don Barth, University of South Carolina.

Key Questions:

1. How to define the genre?
2. How to define the scope of the project?
3. What are the elemental building blocks?
4. What are the interface conventions and issues?
5. What are the delivery strategies?

WORKSHOP 34: Computer Science & Art in Digital Media

Coordinator: Jennifer Burg, Wake Forest University.

The presentation describes an NSF-funded curriculum project that sought to build bridges between the technical and artistic aspects of digital media. The discussion focuses on key problems identified, lessons learned, and the impact on the resulting teaching materials.

Excerpts from two collaborative dance productions incorporating imagery, sound, computation and mathematics are used to illustrate the fusion of art and science.

1. What works best, and what works worst, when trying to blend science and art in a course for mixed audiences?
2. How can the interplay of science and art inform the brainstorming process for project selection?
3. How can the interplay of science and art enhance the creativity of students across the spectrum from 'pure techie' to 'pure artist'?

WORKSHOP 35: Wireless Technology and Digital Media Pedagogy

Coordinator: Robert Kalwinsky, Middle Tennessee State University.

Each innovation in technology brings a new opportunity to education. Some, like the Internet, are proven and widely used; others, like educational software, have had less success. Still others are new and just beginning to see their first use. In this presentation, experiences and perspectives are presented on the use of one relatively new technology, wireless, specifically 802.11 (Wi-Fi) enabled devices, as a tool for instruction and learning in a digital media class.

1. Does use of wireless technology change instruction and learning or is it merely a tool with limited effect?
2. How do notions of surveillance, new media, and educational setting tie into the notion of collaborative and experiential learning?
3. Are there lessons in the use of technology within other countries (Japan, Finland, Korea) that can assist us in tailoring collaborative efforts in new media productions?
4. What potential enhancements and problems in learning were evidenced during negotiation of the wireless terrain, and how can we help students grapple with both?
5. What are the new areas of research in this field?

Links: