We are not in Kansas Anymore (actually sometimes we are!)

So, you are seeking ideas for school assembly programs and you decide you would like to introduce your school to some real high-tech wizardry, but you are at a loss as to what you can present. Well. join the club!

Electronics and computers have changed the world so fast it makes our heads spin, but also so quickly that it creates a real problem for performers to try and create any kind of high tech program that isn’t obsolete before the end of a single year. 

  Take robots, for example. Everyone seems to like the idea of robots, and indeed, many small, personal sized robots were built back in the early eighties. At that time Mobile Ed created a robotics program using many of these small robots, and that show enjoyed great success. But as time passed the robots began to look more and more dated and old fashioned. Audiences began to wonder why we didn’t have more modern looking equipment. The answer is that, aside from toys you can acquire at most toy stores, no one was really selling anything new. The most up to date small robots available even today are, pretty much, the same ones made back in the eighties! There was little market for small personal robots and manufacturers simply have not produced newer ones. The robots manufactured today are large and very expensive machines suitable for factories but not within the range of assembly performers. We eventually discontinued our program, although, I understand there is a company still offering a similar program, utilizing the exact same technology we abandoned twelve years ago.

  Another option is in the area of video. Several companies use high end video equipment in their assemblies, but, in the end, most of these are little different from simply having the children watch a large television (or several at the same time!).

We opted for a different approach. Mobile Ed offers Lights Camera Action, in which students learn high end television production techniques by actually working in front of cameras and green-screen backgrounds. The result is an exciting, hands on event which produces at the end of the day an actual television program starring the students themselves. This is left with the school on a DVD. This program actually can also make for an end of the year treat as it is just plain so much fun!

We are always looking for new ideas, so if you are aware of high-tech stuff that might make for a good assembly, we would love to hear from you!

Oh, and, yes, we do travel to Kansas! :-) 

Geoff Beauchamp is the Regional Manager of Mobile Ed Productions where "Education Through Entertainment" has been the guiding principal since 1979. Mobile Ed Productions produces and markets quality educational school assembly programs in the fields of science, history, writing, astronomy, natural science, mathematics, character issues and a variety of other curriculum based areas. In addition, Mr. Beauchamp is a professional actor with 30 years of experience in film, television and on stage. He created and still performs occasionally in Mobile Ed's THE LIVING LINCOLN