IT Visit To Disneyland Paris

IT students from The Sixth Form College, Solihull have just returned from a short visit to Disneyland Paris, where they have been rubbing shoulders with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and many more favourite Disney characters.

70 students on the A Level ICT and computing courses, as well as the BTEC IT Practitioners courses were at the popular tourist attraction at the end of last week, where they took in the attractions and attended a series of seminars to support their studies.

The first seminar included learning about the use of CAD (Computer Aided Design), which focussed on the control systems, the way computers control the sound and light systems, the digital animatronics used at the resort and other technical issues concerning microprocessors and fault analysis.

Another seminar looked at the hardware, software and operating systems used at Disneyland Paris, from the theme park itself to the hotels and other amenities in Disney Village.

Finally, the students learned about computer graphics, and how these are developed from the initial brief through to the design. This included the way the park deals with print advertising, computer generated models, website design and e-commerce.

Georgia James-Olner, Deputy Subject Head for Computing and IT at the College, commented: "The trip was a great opportunity for the students to get out of the classroom and enjoy themselves, while still supporting their studies. Everyone had a great time and learned a lot."

IT is a popular subject area at the College. There are more than 400 students studying IT-related courses, with A Levels in Computing and ICT, as well as the BTEC IT courses and the IT Diploma.