HAL and Microsoft Expand Complimentary Onboard Digital Workshops

[orangearmy]

DW and I took advantage of some of these classes during our recent Panama Canal Cruise (The Magical Mystery Tour). We found them to be informative and fun whether you were a computer newbie or had a lot of computer knowledge. Lots of tips on how to edit photos, blog, and my DW and Brother-in-law created web sites which enabled them to display some of their pictures. On the Westerdam sign up was usually at "Techspert Time" which is also when you could use the computers to look at and edit photos. The classes we attended were always FULL with extra people sitting behind the students. A nice way to spend an hour or two on a sea day.

[SeaBlueSkies]

Holland America Line and Microsoft Expand Complimentary Onboard Digital Workshops

 

More Opportunities to Learn New Skills While Cruising

 

Seattle, May 12, 2009 – Holland America Line’s popular Digital Workshop powered by Windows is adding new workshop sessions to help guests learn social media and new digital skills. Twelve ships now will offer 11 complimentary, hour-long classes ranging from photo and video editing to displaying pictures in digital frames.

“Guests have given the workshops rave reviews since we began offering them on four ships last summer,” said Richard D. Meadows, CTC, executive vice president, marketing, sales and guest programs. “We have worked closely with Microsoft to expand the scope of the program to include more ships and more workshops since our guests enjoy and appreciate the opportunity to learn new skills.”

Sessions are offered multiple times on each cruise so that guests may take the ones that interest them most, or the complete series, at their convenience. Session offerings include the following:

• Put Your Best Face Forward 1: Edit Your Cruise Photos

• Your Away-From-Home Movie: Turn Your Cruise Photos and Videos into a Movie

• Insert Photo Here: Getting Your Photos Out of the Camera

and Into the Computer

• Your Fifteen Minutes of Fame: Learn to Blog About Your Cruise

• Put Your Best Face Forward 2: Advanced Editing of the Cruise Photos

• A Space to Call My Own: Signing Up for Your Own Personal Webpage

• Show and Tell: Sharing Your Cruise Photos via Email and the Internet

• Safe and Sound: PC Safety and Maintenance

• Say Cheese: Understanding the Basics of Your Digital Camera

• That’s a Print: Printing Your Cruise Photos at Home

• I’ve Been Framed: How to Set-up and Use a Digital Photo Frame

Digital Workshop powered by Windows will show even the most novice camera or computer user how to take better vacation photos, make movies and edit pictures using a variety of Microsoft Windows and Windows Live services. Guests will learn how to share all their digital memories through email, blogging and social networking – so friends and family can see where they’ve been cruising even before they return home.

Taught by Microsoft-trained “techsperts,” the workshops are limited to 15 participants per session so that instructors can provide personalized assistance. In addition, instructors maintain “techspert time,” where guests can get their individual questions answered and work on personal program-related projects. Each ship has a dedicated space for the classes, complete with computers, printers and other necessary equipment.

New classes will be added to the existing program by the end of May. Plans are under development to extend the program to ms Rotterdam and ms Prinsendam. For more information, consult a travel agent, call 1-877-SAIL-HAL (877-724-5425) or visit .

 

I go to every workshop that is offered on HAL. I'm hoping that this time they will go beyond the very basics and hopefully have someone there who has more knowledge than I and I don't have that much.

I still find their workshops fun and informative, even though I've probably taken the same one 25 times already on other HAL ships and cruises.

I'd rather go to all kinds of workshops than play trivia for 2 weeks. :)

[SeaBlueSkies]

Most of those class titles sound pretty basic to me, and I wonder if they're geared to very beginners. Has anyone taken one and found them so simplified as to be boring?

 

I've taken every one that has been offered. It depends on how advanced your skills are in digital photography. I have thought in the past that when there are a lot of people there with their cameras to learn about digital photography that they're not all that interested in HOW the CCD works but would rather learn how to take good pictures, edit them and print them or send them.

A lot of people are more interested in manipulating the photos in their software.

I found the classes in the past to be pretty basic for the most part, but it gets more interesting when "students" who are a little more advanced get to ask questions and then it can get very exciting. Sometimes the "student" asking the question ends up doing some teaching and be prepared to be stopped during the cruise by some other "students" asking you questions and for tips.

Lighting is a very important part of taking pictures...digitally and non. You'd be surprised at what a difference holding a white sheet of paper up to "work" the lighting can do to improve a photo.

I also think that most of the instructors kind of tailor the class depending on how advanced the students are. If there is a class of 20 and all of them are familiar with how the camera mechanics work, then they will go into more advanced lessons. They are also very good at helping people out when you see them later on around the ship.

I was on a cruise once where there was the ship's Chaplain and he wasn't a professional, but he loved digital photography and he would give classes. He had his own very good printer onboard and would bring it to the class and if someone would donate something for his ink and paper, he would print photos out for them.

He was the one who taught me for the very first time about artist's canvas and regular ink-jet printers and how you can turn one of your masterpieces into an oil painting, just by using artist's canvas.

We asked him how much the canvas cost and he told us that he would go to a craft shop and buy it by the rolls as it was cheaper and then cut it to size and then use it in his basic Canon printer.

My photo of Curacao at night all lit up taken from the deck of the ship and printed on canvas looks like a beautiful work of art...still hanging in my TA's office.:)

[jtl513]

I was on a cruise once where there was the ship's Chaplain and he wasn't a professional, but he loved digital photography and he would give classes. He had his own very good printer onboard and would bring it to the class and if someone would donate something for his ink and paper, he would print photos out for them.

Could that have been CC's RevNeal?