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April 15, 2002
Attention Campers! Start Your Computers
By Kristen Kennedy
Summer technology camps offer a challenging alternative to poison ivy and bunk bed living. Here's how three programs set up camp to reach kids and adults with limited computer access and training.
Intel's Computer Clubhouse
It's 3:45 at the South San Francisco branch of Intel's Computer Clubhouse, just 15 minutes shy of the time this high-tech classroom opens to kids at a new host site, the Boys & Girls Club of North San Mateo County. Several students, ranging in age from 6 to 12, impatiently tap on the windows that separate the technology center from the game room, while clubhouse coordinator Nancy Curtis and I sit and talk at one of the large activity tables. "They're like kids locked out of a candy store," Curtis says, smiling and looking toward the window, where we see an insistent forefinger-from a body too short to be visible above the glass-point to a fast watch that reads four o'clock, time to open.
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| Clubhouse kids are free to explore their own interests. Yasmin uses creativity software to paint on her own digital palette. |
It's like this almost every day at the South San Francisco clubhouse site, a year-round after school and summer "invention workshop" where kids can design and explore their own technology projects. A free, community-based education program, Intel's Computer Clubhouse network of high-tech centers and mentoring programs is designed to reach kids in underserved communities across the nation and internationally. The first Computer Clubhouse opened in Boston in 1993, and Intel has since opened 40 sites, reaching as far as Cheng Du, China, where a site is scheduled to open sometime this year. Their plan is to develop an additional 100 clubhouses worldwide by 2005.
The South San Francisco Computer Clubhouse is definitely a place for inquiry and creativity. Light blue and violet paint brightens walls that are decorated with colorful computer rendered drawings, and handmade mobiles dangle from the ceiling. The room is equipped with 13 desktop computers organized into stations of two to four machines, as well as audio and video production equipment, complete with a wide selection of editing software. More than 30 digital portraits of Curtis and education director Beth Zacher cover part of one wall, remnants of a drawing contest Curtis spearheaded to get kids using the software available to them. When I visited, mentor Juan Contreras, a graphic designer who volunteered at the clubhouse to encourage other Latinos to get into computer design, was working on a make-your-own-T-shirt contest. He was building a template so kids could upload digital photos or artwork created with The Learning Company's creativity software KidPix. Meanwhile, 10 or so kids worked in small groups, individually, or with a mentor at a workstation, on drawings they were making with the program.
Curtis also encourages kids to set their own goals with a "Goals Set, Goals Met" program, where they outline a project they want to create-either learning a software program, participating in a drawing contest, or for older kids, joining the Tech Team to help Curtis set up before the clubhouse opens. Thirty students participated in the first run of the program, and Curtis held a Digital Designer Banquet, complete with pizza, root beer floats, and achievement certificates, to recognize their efforts. The program was so successful that kids who didn't join in the first time around are asking for projects so they can come to the next banquet.
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| Clubhouse coordinator Nancy Curtis motivates kids to set and meet their own technology goals while learning new computer applications. |
When they're not gearing up for a contest, Curtis' kids are learning about digital photography, creating clay animation videos, experimenting with Macromedia's Flash animation software, and once Curtis and her staff catch their breath to train students on the equipment, working their way into the full-featured audio and video corners. Intel has provided high-end track mixing software such as Sonic Foundry's Acid Pro for the music corner's synthesizer and mixing board.
While South San Francisco's Computer Clubhouse had its soft launch only this past October, neighbors are stopping by to see what the center is about, and parents are coming in to watch their child get a certificate of recognition at the Digital Designer Banquet. Curtis is also recruiting more mentors from the local area and teachers for the summer program, which promises to extend its model of constructive exploration in structured Flash, Photoshop, and audio and video tool instruction. Given the success of programs around the country, South San Francisco's Computer Clubhouse will take root exactly where it's supposed to-in the minds of the kids who visit and the communities that will help them grow.
East Dale Adult Technology Camp
Now entering its sixth year, East Dale Adult Technology Camp attracts over 150 high school student and teacher volunteers, as well as campers ranging from age 40 to 86 for two weeklong summer camp sessions held at the East Dale Elementary School. The camp was the brainchild of assistant principal Diane Burnside, who initially explored the idea of starting a summer technology camp for kids. But when her students' parents came to her asking for technology training sessions of their own, Burnside realized that it was the adults of Fairmont, W.Va., who needed a technology camp a whole lot more than its kids did.
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| Local high school and college students volunteer as technology teachers and tutors at East Daleŭs Adult Technology Camp. |
In addition to providing a much-needed service for the adults of Fairmont, East Dale's Adult Technology Camp offers both high school students and teachers valuable career-building experience. For example, two years ago the state of West Virginia started requiring that high school students graduate with at least 60 hours of work-based experience. Teaching at technology camp helps students fulfill that requirement. Additionally, East Dale Elementary School participates in the Benedum Collaborative, a grant-funded project that draws upon best practices and research to improve West Virginia schools. The hallmark of the Benedum project is collaboration between institutions of higher education and public schools, and East Dale's technology camp is the perfect place for this kind of partnership. Local public school teachers teach in summer camp sessions in return for graduate course credits awarded by the department of education at the University of West Virginia. After completing 40 hours of contact time, normally a combination of classroom instruction, working on the camp Web site, or administrative duties, teachers receive three graduate course credits. Other professional development activities include post-class review sessions where teachers evaluate and share instructional methods.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about East Dale's Adult Technology Camp is the way in which it has brought the local community and the generations together, says camp co-coordinator Donna Peduto. She adds that there's a renewed respect between teen tutors and their students, many of whom are seniors using a computer for the very first time. Differences in age and experience seem less pronounced in this setting, possibly because students, confident of themselves as technology teachers, feel as if they have something of value to share, while adults are hungry for what they have to teach. This environment changes traditional age-related hierarchies in a positive way. As one of Peduto's former students remarked, "I know my teacher has blue hair and a nose ring, but she's wonderful."
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| Diane Burnside and Donna Peduto coordinate East Daleŭs Adult Technology Camp. |
For $90 a session, campers learn how to search the Internet, open and use a Hotmail e-mail account, download files, and word process. More advanced activities include visiting online travel sites to book plane or hotel reservations and learning about what to look for when buying a computer or choosing an Internet Service Provider. During scheduled break periods, teacher Sheila Munchin, the camp's resident cyberchef, selects a recipe from one of several cooking sites on the Internet and prepares it for the group.
If you want an insider's opinion of East Dale's Adult Technology Camp, talk to Al Wainio, an 86-year-old professional student of sorts who's been to every camp session since its inception some five years ago. Wainio initially signed up for camp because he wanted to use e-mail to communicate with his three daughters who live in other states-Florida, California, and Pennsylvania. After learning how to set up an e-mail account and log on for chat, he's now meeting all his daughters online for long talks, corresponding with his two grandsons, and surfing the Internet for health information. And, he adds, "I'm really enjoying my digital camera."
Girls Summer Technology Camps at Marlboro College
It's no secret that young women aren't flocking to careers in high tech at the same rate as young men. A 2001 study from UCLA confirmed that while young women use the Internet just as much as their male peers, they still don't feel confident about their computer skills, with many citing boredom or lack of interest in technology. To help build the next generation of confident, tech-savvy women, Mary Greene, director of community and special programs for Marlboro College's Technology Center, and Lucie deLaBruere, camp director and graduate of Marlboro's master's program in Internet engineering, developed a summer technology institute specifically for girls.
Now entering their third year, Girls Summer Technology Camps at Marlboro College are designed to bring to young women what deLaBruere observes as the "technical confidence and opportunity" she sees in her male students. She and camp faculty members Dawn Everett and Christina Smith developed two weeklong day camp sessions for both middle and high school girls to expose them to technology in a non-competitive, supportive environment, and to introduce them to leadership and networking skills.
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| Middle school girls design and build Web pages while honing their teamwork and tutoring skills. |
"The ultimate goal is to have fun," says deLaBruere. In practical terms, this means that over the course of the week, each girl builds a piece of a Web site dedicated to profiles of women in technology. In the first couple of sessions, campers learn how to use tools found in most schools-digital cameras, sound and video equipment, and scanners, as well as Macromedia's Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop. Once they feel comfortable with their new tools, deLaBruere identifies each girl as a specialist based on which particular technology or application she's good at. And with the help of some newsprint, she posts the name and skill specialty of every girl next to her workstation, a strategy that not only does wonders for building confidence, but also gives each girl a feeling of responsibility for her subject area. For the rest of the week, designated specialists serve as on-site consultants to each other as they surf the Internet, download photos, and build their final presentations.
A key component of both the middle and high school girls camp is the Power Lunch, where local women with careers in technology come to campus for an interview with the girls, who then craft it into a piece for the final Web page. Past Power Lunch attendees included a woman who started her own Web design business in Brattleboro, Vt., and the IT director at Marlboro College. Power Lunch participants also serve as mentors to the girls who profile them online, illustrating an important lesson in networking and building contacts. Additional team-building activities include several off-campus excursions, including a field trip to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and a ropes course, where the group builds trust and camaraderie while completing a physical challenge.
The Internet Tech Leaders Institute for High School Girls, while offering a similar curriculum as the camp for middle school girls, uses this intensive week to also build leadership components into technology skill-building sessions. DeLaBruere sees the girls who attend this session as equity leaders who will help forge a path for their peers as well as younger girls who may one day want to enter male-dominated technology fields. Each girl takes on a specific section of the Web profile project as well as a leadership skill that she can demonstrate in the course of bringing her project to completion. For example, decision making, critiquing and feedback, and productive collaboration are the key skills they learn and then model as they work together to finish their Web projects.
Whether the girls opt for careers in technology as a result of their camp experience remains to be seen. But, as deLaBruere contends, "We can either drag girls into traditionally male careers or we can attract them," and girls' camps like those offered at Marlboro College are generating excitement and attention. As the Internet continues to open up new ways for girls to relate to computers, she adds, we're seeing a whole new population of young women for whom technology is fun, interesting, and, more importantly, suggestive of a future they can play a part in shaping.
Kristen Kennedy is senior editor of T&L
Intel's Computer Clubhouse: Strategies for Success
- A student-centered learning environment based on constructive exploration and problem solving
- Mentors come from a variety of backgrounds and have a range of tech skills.
- Mature, tech-savvy kids can participate in leadership initiatives like the Tech Team.
- Professional development initiatives include regular meetings with local clubhouse coordinators and mentors to develop projects and share best practices.
- Intel recently initiated studies of the long-term effects of the program on kids who participate.
- Pre- and post-tests evaluate students' familiarity with technology terms and comfort level performing basic computer functions.
- Personalized one-on-one instruction is the hallmark of the camp.
- Volunteers are recruited from local high schools and colleges.
- Volunteer teachers receive professional development or continuing education credit.
TechGirls Online
- Girl-focused instruction creates a supportive environment for learning.
- Outcome-based projects establish concrete goals.
- Local women in technology serve as program mentors.
- In- and out-of-lab learning activities build teamwork, networking, and leadership skills.
- Site hosting provided by a local college
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