Mediatech Foundation

I’m pleased to add a new item to our agenda Friday night. Hunterdon County Undersheriff George Muller will provide a tour of the historic jail cell that held Bruno Hauptmann during the famous trial.  Learn more about the amazing, controversial life of Charles Lindbergh.

We’d like to thank George for his willingness to do this tour. The tour will take place around 8 PM, following the panel and flight simulation.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Mediatech Announces Details for 5th Anniversary Celebration and Open House and Second Trans-Atlantic Flight Attempt

EVENT 1: Reliving The Flight of the Spirit of St. Louis
August 7, 2009, Friday night, from 7 to 9 PM at the Historic Court House, 114 Main Street, Flemington (with the large, white pillars in front). Free and open to the public.
7:00 pm. Greeting by Mayor Bob Hauck, who will present a letter from Governor Corzine.
7:10 pm. Presentation: The Flight of the Spirit of St. Louis, moderated by Harry Kazman, Producer, Famous Trials Theater. The presentation will include:
• Rarely seen newsreel footage.
• Little known facts about the flight.
• Introducing Mediatech’s flight simulator pilots: Alex, Alez and Sam.
• An attempted real-time takeoff with the flight simulator.
• A preview of what the Mediatech pilots will face in the 33.5 hour marathon.
7:30 Presentation: The State of Mediatech, by Warren Buckleitner.
7:35 Panel Discussion with Mediatech’s Board of Trustees and Invited Guests. “Mediatech’s Past and Future” with Sandra Borucki, Will Richardson, Jon Pennington and other Mediatech board members. Mediatech has never been busier. Last month, there were 605 visitors who checked out 444 titles, doubling the June numbers. Much of the recent traffic has been due to the increased cooperation with the Flemington Free Public Library who has helped with circulation and staffing. This will be an open discussion, and ideas for improvement are encouraged.
8:00 PM Tour of the famous courthouse jail cells (tentatively planned).
8:15 – 9:30 Reception and Refreshments at Mediatech (down the street at 118 Main Street, 2nd Floor. Enter on the Maple Street door).

EVENT 2: Open House and the Flight Simulation
August 8 – 9, 2009, Saturday and Sunday.
7:30 AM Saturday. Mediatech’s doors will open for the 7:52 AM takeoff. Doors will remain open to the pubic throughout the day Saturday until 11 PM at night. Anyone is welcome to come and watch the flight in progress, use the Mediatech’s computers, and (if the pilots allow are comfortable) try flying the Spirit of St. Louis.
11:00 PM. Doors will close; while the pilots fly
9:00 AM Sunday. Mediatech opens for the remainder of the flight. Public welcome to help and fly.
3:30 PM Estimated landing time. Come and see the buzzing of the Eifel tower and attempt at a perfect landing, on French soil.

Here are some images from our second week of programming camp. We all learned that dogs can “scratch” too, and that everyone’s a goose. If you want to see the projects, visit the link to the gallery in the next post. Congratulations to all our young Scratch scholars.

You can see the finished products from Week 1 of our Scratch page, here:

http://scratch.mit.edu/users/mediatechfoundation

Greetings.
We’re looking forward to seeing you on Monday, July 6 at 9:30 AM for Scratch camp at Mediatech. Note that the second week, July 13, still has few spots open.

PLEASE BRING OR HAVE READY
1. A USB flash drive to save work.
2. An email account for your child. If your child has an email account in advance, it will help. This will be used to setup an account on the scatch website. If you like, we can have your child create a free gmail account.
3. A $5 suggested donation per day (or $25 for the week), to be placed in the donation jar on the front desk. You can drop it in at any time. This is optional. If you have trouble paying, don’t worry about it. This money is used to pay the coaches; any leftovers go into Mediatech’s general bank account.
4. A signed permission slip, with your contact information.

PLEASE NOTE:
1. Friday at 10:30 is Demo day, when we’ll be showing your off your child’s work. Anyone is welcome to attend.
2. Dropoff is 9:30 AM, Pickup is 12:00 Noon.
3. Check the website — www.mediatech.org for any updates. If you have any questions, send me an email at warren@mediatech.org.

We have a great lineup of new games today, game testers. At 11 AM today, UPS delivered an advance copy of the next Harry Potter title, for testing. We’re running it right now in the office, and — so far, so great. We also have Tap It! and others. 3:30 PM, this afternoon.

Did you know that you can check out a video game as easily as you can check out a library book, at Mediatech? And our expanded summer hours make it easier to browse the collection of over 600 titles for Wii, DS, PS3 and more. Drop in & check it out!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR
* June 15, Monday, 7 – 8:30 pm. Facebook for Grownups. Learn what Facebook is, how it works, and how to create your own page. No technology experience required. This jargon-free presentation will be by Michelle Ritger, Supervisor of Educational Technology, Flemington-Raritan Public School District. Bring a laptop (optional). $5 donation.

* July 1, Wednesday, 7 – 8:30 pm. Jersey Adobe Multimedia (JAM) Meeting. Show & tell your work and learn techniques in Flash, DreamWeaver, PhotoShop and others from local experts from around the county. Public welcome, no donation requested. Contact Andrew Kear (akear@comcast.net) for questions.

* July 6, Monday, 7 – 8:30 pm. Introduction to Computers for Absolute Beginners. How do you turn on your computer, get online, search and check email? Come find out with this hands-on session for “the rest of us” — people with little or no technology experience. By Michelle Ritger, Supervisor of Educational Technology, Flemington-Raritan Public School District. $5 donation requested.

* July 6-10. 9:30 AM to noon. Computer Programming Camp for Kids. This one-week, 1/2 day workshop will teach children how to program using MIT’s Scratch language. A flash drive is required to save work, or bring a laptop. Space is limited. To register, call 908-284-2006 between 3-5 pm. For ages 6-up, $5/day donation required.

* July 13-17. 9:30 AM to noon. Computer Programming Camp for Kids. A repeat of the first week.  Call 284-2006 during open hours to register.

* July 27, Monday, 7 – 8:30 pm. Introduction to Blogging. Explore the latest tools, such as Blogger or WordPress to set up your own blog or ask questions about your existing blog to make it better. By Rob Mancabelli, Director of Technology, Hunterdon Central Regional High School. $5 donation.

* August 7. Friday, 7 – 9 pm, Five Year Anniversary Public Meeting. To mark our fifth year, the Mediatech Trustees will host a pubic meeting to show off our accomplishments and collect ideas for the next five years. We’ll also send off two student pilots on a second attempt to replicate Charles Lindbergh’s famous trans-atlantic crossing. They will fly in realtime weather using a flight simulator. Location: Historic Courthouse on Main Street (tentative location).

* August 10. Monday, 7 – 8:30 pm. Introduction to Twitter. Come learn how to “Tweet,” and harness the power of this free microblogging tool. By Rob Mancabelli, Director of Technology, Hunterdon Central Regional High School. A $5 donation is requested.

Start out at the driving school and work your way up to facing other MySims racers and difficult tracks. You can race against a variety of MySims opponents or compete against friends in one-on-one duels or 4 player races. The more races your win, the more you can customize your kart by swapping bodies, changing paint jobs and adding gadgets. You can also add power-ups including heat-seeking jack-o-lantern pumpkins or bubble droppers. In addition, you can personalize your MySim’s appearance with racing-themed clothes and accessories. The DS version of the game ($30) allows up to four players to race each other using local wireless or Nintendo Wi-Fi. Come and give it a try, at 3:30 PM on Friday!

Circulation statistics for Mediatech for 2009:

January            216 patrons          95 checkouts

February          228 patrons         145 checkouts

March              279 patrons         234 checkouts

April                259 patrons         185 checkouts