A new generation of innovators have been formally welcomed into the digital community, after completing The Digital Hub’s Future Creators programme. Each participant received a number of digital badges to recognise the range of skills and knowledge they have developed over the past six months at an event to mark the programme’s completion. Digital badges are becoming popular in today’s digital world as an indicator of accomplishment, skill and quality for learners in many fields.
The graduates will have a digital record of their learning journey through Future Creators and they can share this with third level institutions and future employers to illustrate the range of skills and competences they developed in the programme.
Established in 2011 by The Digital Hub, and delivered with the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) and H2 Learning, the Future Creators programme aims to equip young people from the local community with a set of digital and STEM skills, including animation, coding, game-making and design, sound manipulation, music technology, film-making, and electronics.
Speaking at the Future Creators exhibition and graduation event, Fiach Mac Conghail, CEO at The Digital Hub said: “All of us at The Digital Hub are proud of celebrating the success of the latest graduates of the Future Creators programme. Our commitment to innovation, creativity and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) subjects, we hope, will contribute to the personal and educational development of these gifted young people.”
This year’s Future Creators students were given the chance to develop their knowledge and skills through active participation in a series of creative project-based learning tasks. All the students’ work was on display at a special exhibition in The Digital Hub’s Digital Exchange building to coincide with the graduation. This year’s projects included students designing and building a light box, bread-boarding, soldering and coding on Adafruit GEMMA microcontroller using Arduino IDE. Other participants have been involved in building a motorized 3D-printed character called Zelda Breath of The Wild, which has been brought to life using a motor and LEDs.
This year’s Future Creators class consisted of eleven boys and seven girls who took part in the programme, from a variety of schools located in Dublin 8 and its surroundings. The Future Creators programme has a close association with the Department of Education and Skills STEM Policy Statement and Implementation Plan for Schools, by creating a programme that ingrains young people’s creativity at the core.
Pictured above: Future Creators graduate, Cillian O’Sullivan (Aged 14), from St. Paul’s School, Brunswick Street, Dublin 7
Photo by: Peter Houlihan Photography
