The Leland High School Digital Media Program

Leland High School Digital Media Lab.

Introduction.

To better serve the needs of Leland High School students - especially upper division students looking toward college or career goals, support the work of our educational and industry partners, fulfill criteria set by Digital High School or other grants, and provide courses that enrich campus elective options and support existing programs, the Leland High School administration and computer applications department faculty have expanded our course offerings in technology. The J-3 computer lab at Leland has been upgraded to a full-featured Digital Media Lab to accommodate these courses, which include classes in Advanced Placement Music Theory, Electronic Music, Beginning and Advanced MultiMedia Production, and Music Appreciation. Labs in the ITC (Information Techonology Center) are configured to offer courses in office software.

These classes will also articulate with courses from the Central County Occupational Center career programs, interact with new courses in film and animation being developed under a grant from the California Department of Education, and expose students to potential careers in the arts industry that use the modern technologies and skills taught in the lab. For more information about each element of the program, click on the links below.

What Is Digital Media?

Digital Media is now the current term used for a broad-based instruction program involving the five elements of multimedia:

  1. Text
  2. Photos
  3. Graphics
  4. Digital Audio
  5. Digital Video

A digital media computer lab facility has the capability to create, capture, and process these elements, and in addition to the typical networked computer lab with CPUs, Ethernet for printing and file sharing, the lab contains an instructional presentation system with special audio and video controllers and peripheral equipment for mixing and processing projects.

Here are some of the typical activities that students complete in a digital media lab curriculum:

Digital Audio Capture and Processing Create digital audio files for playback during presentations, on the Internet, with audio systems, and for personal handheld devices.
Digital Video Capture and Processing Create video files for use in hand held devices, on web pages, and in presentations.
Creating Computer Graphics Create graphics for use in presentations, publications, and web sites
Processing Images and Photos
Work with images for use in presentations, on the web, in publications, and to complete creative projects using image processing software.
Music Notation and Sequencing Using MIDI Complete musical scores and parts, create original compositions and arrangements, and learn the language and theory of music.
Text and Word Layout Write and edit text on the computer, create text files for use in publications, media products, and websites, and convert text files to pdf documents.
Website Authoring and Maintenance Create html and other web ready text and image files for use on websites.