Of the six participants, four were male and two were female, and their ages ranged from 15 to 22. The average grade completed was grade 9, with credits completed at the advanced, general and basic levels. Literacy and Basic Skills writing assessments placed most of the youths in a range between LBS levels 1 and level 3; only one student was at level 4, with the rest sitting between a high level 1 and a low level 3. Two youths had extensive street experience, and all youths had been suspended or expelled from their former schools. Their primary goals for registering in and completing the project were: learning about digital photography and creative work, improving writing and computer skills, and completing a program.
This learning materials in this package can be used with either conventional or digital cameras. Five new Sony digital cameras were purchased for project and Learning Centre use a week before our pilot phase began. The Day by Day project schedule and learning activity sheets were revised to incorporate the digital cameras; for example, time needed to be built in for students to become familiar with the technical settings and operation of the cameras, and once the project was underway, to digitally process and print their images.
For the instructor and myself, the project co-ordinator, the digital cameras were both exciting to use, and periodically very challenging, in part because neither of us has a strong technical background to draw from. Thankfully, we had a lot of support from the computer instructor at the Learning Centre, and a student in our program who was technically very proficient. The learning curve for all of us was steep and technical glitches sometimes cut into the time available for written work.
If you are planning to use digital cameras in your own project, review the technical requirements sheet. Consider adding an extra half hour to each program day for digital image processing and printing, as required. If possible, the instructor should have the cameras and access to computers and printers a few weeks prior to your project's start date, to experiment and become comfortable with the whole process. Digital cameras allow for a whole range of interesting processing options and learning activities that wouldn't be possible with conventional cameras. Participants found that they could alter the mood of their photographs by changing colours, cropping images, and using a variety of special effects. Unwanted photographs were easily discarded or modified. As well, the immediacy of the digital camera is a very powerful hook for students - they can see the progress in their work from hour to hour, day to day, without having to wait for the photographs to come back from the developer.