Eight girls from two Denver high schools will design and maintain a "blog" -- a Web page that combines elements of a diary and a community bulletin board -- to discuss images of women in the media during a summer program hosted by the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The DigitalCUrrents Summer Day Camp runs from May 31 to June 17 and will include students from Thomas Jefferson and Denver North high schools. The program is a partnership between CU-Boulder's Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society and the Denver Public Schools' Computer Magnet Program.
Also known as weblogs, blogs contain periodic time-stamped posts written by a "blogger." Subject matter is chosen by the blogger and many blogs offer visitors the opportunity to leave public comments, which can create a community of readers.
During the first week of the DigitalCUrrents camp, the girls will create a blog focusing on positive and negative images of women in the media. The students will choose specific discussion topics for the blog, which will be designed for use by slightly younger girls.
With help from CU-Boulder faculty and graduates of the ATLAS Institute's Technology Arts and Media curriculum, the students will study project management and learn how to teach the skills they acquire to others.
In the second and third weeks of the camp, the eight camp participants will teach their new skills to a group of about 20 middle-school girls. They all will work together to complete the blog application and will continue to post to the blog throughout the fall as part of an after-school club.
CU-Boulder's ATLAS Institute and the DPS Computer Magnet Program encourage education in technological fields and seek to expand opportunities for all young people to participate in technology. The Computer Magnet Program gives typically underrepresented students, such as the minority student body at Thomas Jefferson and Denver North high schools, the chance to learn real-world technology skills.
For more information on the ATLAS initiative, contact Lucy Sanders, ATLAS executive in residence, at (303) 735-5108 or e-mail cuatlas@spot.colorado.edu.