Students in the School picked the high-tech brain of a leading new-media professional this semester. Dan Seely is president of Pixel Kitchen Inc., a Boulder computer graphics and animation production company specializing in two- and three-dimensional visual effects. His company was an early designer of Web sites and CD-ROM animation.

Thanks to a Freedom Forum Professional-in-Residence grant, the School brought his expertise to the classroom as instructor of the new-media use and design course. Seely also provided training sessions for faculty members on the use of new media as instructional tools.

Fall semester, Rocky Mountain News computer-assisted reporting expert Burt Hubbard was a visiting instructor through the $75,000 grant.

Seely helped students realize the potential and pitfalls of ever-evolving new media. As a new instructor, he said, he particularly found satisfying the "aha’s" heard routinely throughout the classroom as students mastered seemingly daunting technology.

"Hopefully, running a company that produces computer animation for new media gives me an insight into the business of new media. If all has gone well, then I have passed some of that on."

Seely has earned a variety of industry honors, including a Regional Emmy for art direction and several animation awards.