Adventure Media Producer
Be on the first wave of a new national Boy Scouts of America program to give Scouts, Venturers and Explorers the digital tools to tell compelling stories about their own experiences. Already there have been two national workshops in 2012, one at the Bert Adams Summer Camp near Atlanta and another at Philmont Scout Ranch for adult volunteers. Each volunteer contracts to conduct two workshops of their own with youth in their own councils.
The faculty for the national workshops includes two lead volunteer instructors, Randy Piland, from Elon University and me, professor and executive associate dean emeritus from Indiana University. Both Randy and I are on the ongoing planning committee for this new national program, which includes professionals from the national office of BSA, representatives from Canon and David Carl, chancellor emeritus from the University of Minnesota, who is an expert on instructional systems and teaching methods.
Background
The first national workshops taught adult volunteers methods of digital storytelling. The adults contract to conduct workshops of their own with youth in their councils. The best stories about Scouting are best told by youth. These workshops are designed to teach enhanced methods of storytelling to youth. Youth speaking to youth through stories of their own making will be a terrific recruiting tool for the future.
The national program is in its infancy and is currently called Adventure Media Producer or AMP. There will be a national reward structure, as yet undefined, for the best stories produced by youth across the country. But there is already a Crossroads of America Council storytelling competition planned for fall, 2013. Our council has committed a $100 gift certificate to either the Apple Store or Robert’s Imaging (camera store) for the winners of the youth categories. There will be adult categories too.
The national planning group has structured three categories of youth workshops and is in the process of developing support materials for them. A first level workshop teaches methods of telling a story in a single picture and then moves to telling a story with 8 to 12 pictures. A second level workshop adds the gathering of natural sound and synchronizing an edited soundtrack to pictures. The third level workshop for youth teaches video storytelling. These workshops are designed to be complementary to the Photography and Cinematography merit badges but the AMP program will stand as its own program. A Multimedia Storytelling merit badge has been proposed and is under consideration.