Author: wmelnick

Media Arts and English high school teacher who loves using technology to enhance learning and engage students. Experiments with online learning and teaches in Brightspace.

Sheridan College

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sheridan

Sheridan College programs:

sheridan arts

Ryerson University Media Programs

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Ryerson admissions

Ryerson University

is located downtown Toronto and is the destination of many Westdale graduates. It has the following programs relevant to Digital Arts:

Creative Industries

Image Arts: Film Studies

Image Arts: Photography

Journalism

RTA School of Media: New Media

RTS School of Media: Media Production

RTA School of Media: Sport Media

Some programs admissions are based on academic performance, and some include portfolios. Here is an example of the 2014 portfolio requirements for the Image Arts: Film Studies program RYERson portfolio request formFilm

Little Brother

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little brother

Cory Doctorow’s book is an action packed, fast-paced sci-fi that mixes mystery,  intrigue, terror and friendship. With shades of 1984, but with a closer to home feel, the book follows the missteps of a group of friends that are suspected of terrorism in their own home town after a disastrous explosion. The group are young gamers and are able to circumvent the “gait recognition” security cameras of their high school to skip out and play the scavenger game Harajuku Fun Madness. They use their gaming expertise to build an underground resistant to the evil government.

You can download the book for free here

Eleanor and Park

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This is a love story. I am saying this up front because, even though the story is solid and has some twists and turns, it is ultimately a love story. It is certainly an unlikely love story. It starts out, after all, in a high school bus on the way to school. Park gets stuck sitting beside the “new” girl. Theirs is not a relationship born out of conversation, rather a shared open comic book or a mix tape.  What seems as a casual beginning becomes a matter of life and death as time goes by. Rainbow Rowell carries you along and it is easy to associate your own experience with young love. A good read for the romantic at heart.