Instead of spending summer vacations sitting in air-conditioned movie theaters or playing computer games, 16 students from Denver's Thomas Jefferson and North high schools will get the chance to make their own digital movies and set up their own computer networks.
DigitalCUrrents Summer Day Camp, which runs for three weeks until June 25 on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus, gives students the ability to learn about technology with hands-on projects.
DigitalCUrrents is a partnership between CU-Boulder's Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society Institute, or ATLAS, and the Denver Public School's Computer Magnet Program, or CMP. The CMP gives typically underrepresented students an opportunity to get involved with technology and acquire real-world technology skills.
This year, DigitalCUrrents has doubled, allowing twice as many students to participate. Half of the high school students will design an advertising video and original music soundtrack using state-of-the-art media tools, and the other half will learn how to set up a computer network from scratch. Working with undergraduate students of the ATLAS Institute's Technology Arts and Media curriculum, both groups of students also will study project management and learn how to teach their newly acquired skills to others.
The second week of the camp shifts to the participating Denver high schools, where the students will teach their new skills to 25 middle school students.
"Everyone knows that teaching something is the best way to learn it," said Gary Goodnight, coordinator for the CMP. "DigitalCUrrents gives high school technology students the experience of teaching in the field of their passion."
During the third week of camp, the digital media students will create a recruiting video that describes the camp itself. The video will be designed to attract other middle and high school students to the opportunities of the CMP. The students working on a computer network will use the third week of camp to implement an onsite network for ONE, a Denver nonprofit organization.
The CMP and ATLAS Institute encourage education in technological fields and seek to expand opportunities for all young people to participate in technology.
For more information on the ATLAS initiative contact Lucy Sanders, ATLAS Executive in Residence, at (303) 735-5108 or cuatlas@spot.colorado.edu.