Media

SEE. HEAR. SOCIALIZE.

There are very few children who aren't tech-savvy and adept at using all the gadgets on the market today. Most of these devices are a big part of everyday life. So at Techie Kids our Creative Tech workshops stimulate a child's creativity, bringing their words, the graphics they create, or music they love together, using technology. These workshops expose children to the following careers to encourage colorful, playful, "out-of-the-box" thinking.

Online Publishing & Bloggin'

Content creation is big business. What is content creation? In a word - JOURNALISM. Long before there were websites people used magazines and newspapers as a resource for news and information. This form of media is known as publishing. With a great number of individuals transitioning to websites for their main source of information, online publishing has become a major career choice for many.

Kids and teens learn the basics, and the importance, of journalism as they create content using:

• 1. Who; why; where; what; when (and sometimes how) - The five questions every good news story must answer.
• 2. Lede or the 'topic sentence' - The most important sentence of any story.
• 3. Lots of quotes - Breaking the article/story text up with interesting, relevant quotes from various people. Kids will interview different individuals and write down exactly what they say.
• 4. Nut graf - The first thick graf (paragraph) of the piece, the core of why this story is important; it contains who, why, where, what, when and sometimes how in its most condensed format.
• 5. Fact-checking - Check the facts. Are the names spelled correctly; what is her title; where did this story come from, etc. Children work together to come up with a fun and exciting concept for a blog then each child is encouraged to write about what they love based on the blog's concept and learned journalism techniques. They can write made up stories or write about things that really happened. Our facilitators guide them in how to gather information, write and select images for the blog.

Video Production

Techie Kids knows kids are creative. We know they watch lots of TV. So, our video production workshops are designed to utilize their creativity to produce their own rockin' videos. Our workshop facilitators teach kids how to write scripts, shoot video, and edit their production for the Techie Kids "Red Carpet Showcase." What's this you ask? It's a special event, on a special evening where we show these special videos the kids have created to their family, friends, and peers.

Online Marketing

You may think kids and teens don't know anything about online marketing. But they do. They do it every day on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. - They are EXPERTS at it. At Techie Kids, we show them how the everyday, run-of-the-mill "socializing" they do online is actually the foundation of a career position in many successful companies today; it's called a Social Media Specialist.

A new national survey from Arbitron and Edison Research titled "The Infinite Dial 2010: Digital Platforms and the Future of Radio," indicates that the percentage of Americans ages 12 and older who have a profile on one or more social networking websites reached almost half (48 percent) of the population in 2010. This is double the number from two years ago (24 percent in 2008).

Techie Kids' online marketing workshop facilitators show kids how to safely use social media sites, including the types of content (pictures and text) they should and should not post. This workshop also includes basics of email marketing, including the development, setup and deployment of email newsletters, postcards, etc.

On-Air/DJ

Disc jockeys, sometimes called "deejays," play music on the radio, talk about the news, sports, weather and even gossip. Sometimes, they make commercials, talk with guests, and tell what's going on in the community. Kids who participate in these workshops will have fun learning that the job is a lot more than just talking on the radio and/or playing music.

This workshop includes on-air interview tips, psa/commercial, scriptwriting as well as mixing and scratching. The facilitators of these workshops give kids guided, hands-on experience with DJ equipment, teaching them how to handle, play and mix records through Serato Scratch Live software.