Reflections on CUE Palm Springs

added on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 7:04 am by Margaret Lim

On Saturday evening, we wrapped up CUE 2009, where the Digital Media Academy provided hour long hands-on sessions that were attended by over 350 teachers, educators and administrators. Course topics included iLife Bootcamp Featuring iMovie & iDVD, Video Editing with Final Cut Pro, Web Production with Dreamweaver and Flash CS4 and Photoshop CS4 for Photographers. Attendees were taught by DMA’s professional instructors, including Tom Wolsky, Beth Corwin, Sandy Novak and Tom Tuttle, all regarded as gurus in their respective areas of expertise.

The following is one attendee’s reflections on her experience attending three DMA hands-on sessions. Linda Muhlhauser is the Digital Media & Computer Concepts Teacher and Webmaster for Murrieta Mesa High School in Murrieta, California on the southwestern edge of Riverside County.

Attending the CUE conference is like being immersed in a swarm of technology bees. The rush of energy and enthusiasm is contagious and exciting! After four years of attending the CUE conference, I have learned to come with streamlined goals of what I and my students would benefit from when I return on Monday. This year, ideas for the infusion of my new interactive writing pad into my curriculum were foremost. Using Wiki’s as a collaborative project will benefit my students in many ways; learning Internet etiquette, researching and reporting from primary resources and collaborating on a website project will be new for most of them. At CUE, the opportunity to learn about many technology tools is available but where is the training and support for all of this beyond CUE? The only one that I saw in the exhibit hall was Digital Media Academy.

Looking towards the future, as Department Chair of Technology at a new 21st Century high school with new monies to spend, I will be choosing hardware and software for our Digital Media programs. CS4 is on the list (the latest version I have is CS no number!), and my anxiety level toward learning the new suite of tools was definitely on the rise. The CUE schedule showed that Digital Media Academy (DMA) was providing mini workshops on Flash, Dreamweaver, CS4 and more. Dedicated to standing in line to get my admission ticket early, I was able to attend three of DMA’s workshops. Through clear step-by-step instructions given by the teachers in these workshops, my fears toward CS4 have been lessened. Obvious to me by the third DMA session, DMA’s CS4 “boot camp” training available in the summer would be exactly what I needed to be an effective teacher in the fall. DMA has caught my eye at past CUE conferences and this summer it will finally become a reality. Thank you DMA for the opportunity to learn!

Linda Muhlhauser
Digital Media & Computer Concepts Teacher/Webmaster
Murrieta Mesa High School
www.mesarams.com (new HS opening in August, 2009)
951-288-7845

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