EHS Multimedia Class Now Innovation Class

When Joe Fatheree and the late Craig Lindvahl partnered on a Multimedia class involving students from Teutopolis and Effingham high schools, it was an opportunity for budding filmmakers and related artists to make movies. Included in those were those who did the artwork, wrote the stories, shot the footage, scored the music, worked on lighting, and acted in the productions. The class later saw Claymation creations and video games; practically anything that was the product of a fertile young mind and could be brought to life on screen.

While the AHA Film Festivals that showed off these works are things of the past, something new has emerged.

The Multimedia class is now the Innovation class. Fatheree and co-teacher Charlie Huber have expanded the range of products to include clothing items, 3D printer creations, and robots.

The Illinois Secretary of Innovation was invited to EHS along with several area business and community leaders to participate in a gallery walk and live workshop conducted by the students.

We couldn't possibly show you everything that's going on in the class, but we hopefully came up with a representative sampling.

Meet Josh Borton and his robot. This photo was taken outside the library and the Innovation classroom at EHS. The robot moves at a pretty good pace. Logistics are a consideration, such as the height of the device and taking steps to make sure it isn't top-heavy. Josh and classmates are working to address those concerns.

Dawson Whitten said he wanted to create a shirt that contained something meaningful. You see the front of his shirt, bearing a favorite Bible verse. The back of the shirt contains the names of those who died while helping others on 9/11. Dawson said it is pretty special when he sees fellow students wearing his shirts.

Tristin Elkin loves vehicles, and working on them. He's found a way to use a 3-D printer to produce parts when the need arises. 

Christian Dison is working on a video game. Those who toured the exhibit had the opportunity to play the game.This is his diagram of the game characters. Christian said the class has shown him and his fellow students "the tools to show what we know and the benefits."

By the way, there is still moviemaking going on. Kylee Beard showed portions of her production, "Silent Hillbilly". She's here with a story board that gave patrons the lowdown on the movie. It's a scary one. We asked her why? She said she likes scary movies.

The day, though, also shared information on other aspects of the Innovation class. Stetson Green is working to develop a prosthetic hand. Ashton Baker and Connor Gebke spoke about their work on city planning with the Chamber of Commerce. Izick Bryan discussed his growth in the arena of public speaking. He described himself as "painfully shy" a year ago, but served as a presenter at the event.

There is Music Composition going on to help address loneliness and a huge increase in teen suicide.

Even the instructors continue to grow. Fatheree discussed the growth in Artificial Intelligence. He said AI is being termed "the 4th Industrial Revolution". Fatheree said there are predictions that technology will eliminate 73 million jobs by 2030, including jobs that young people are being educated for today. He also discussed his work in an organization known as "Ethics of AI in Education."

This won't be our last visit to the Innovation classroom.