St Malachy’s College has built a new and exciting Creative Digital Hub for North Belfast to enable the expansion of a new Key Stage 3 Creative Digital Curriculum for the young people in the area.
With global technological advancement, the need for young people to develop and improve their creativity and digital skills has never been greater. The digital skills sector now forms the backbone across numerous industries, including Health Services, Financial services, ICT and Creative Industries. Furthermore, third level education is making rapid progress in the areas associated with creative and digital technology, so our young people need to be ready for what lies ahead.
In the brand new Creative Digital Hub, students from St Malachy’s College, Dominican College, Fortwilliam, Boy’s Model and Belfast Royal Academy will have the opportunity to be creative and learn important and transferable digital skills that will enable them to open new doors, embrace new and exciting career paths and opportunities, and increase their awareness of the importance of the skills needed for 21st century employment.
This involves learning to design and program their own robots and 3D games, creating 3D worlds, images and models that they can check out using Virtual and Augmented Reality Headset technology, learning graphic design with digital drawing tablets, learning animation, dabbling with Artificial Intelligence, and exploring and participating in the ever growing world of Esports. The hub is also being used to enhance the teaching and learning across other subjects by providing teachers with the opportunity to use new technology in their lessons whilst being fully supported as they do. This helps build confidence and improves digital skills within their own disciplines and subject areas.
The James Kane Foundation has provided funding to support the establishment of the Digital Hub over the next 24 months, specifically to:
- support staffing costs of new North Belfast Digital Hub
- support the development and delivery of teaching the current curriculum in a new way, making use of the model classroom.
- support the creation of a new project-based digital curriculum including use of Industry standard software ‘Unreal Engine’ to create 3D animations and games, and the use of coding and robotics.
- support the establishment of a working relationship with industry and academia