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July 15th, 2010 by: Ryan
Summer camp can be educational
By Richard Gillard
CREATING WORLDS— Ken Gorman, the director of iD Tech Camps at California Lutheran University, helps Abigail Cohen, 7, of Woodland Hills create her own 2D video game during a session at iD Tech Camp earlier this month. For more information about the camp, call (888) 709-8324 or visit internalDrive.com.
July 15th, 2010
Posted in: Cal Lutheran University, iD In The News
July 15th, 2010 by: Ryan
UCSD lets teens exercise tech talents
By Dave Schwab
When asked in September how they spent their summer vacations, the students in a high-tech camp at UCSD will be able to answer: “Productively.”
While their peers were home playing video games, students ages 7 to 17 from La Jolla and environs and as far away as Shanghai, China, were busy creating them in iD Tech Camps.
“The idea is to plant the seed into students’ minds that things that interest them can be turned into a career,” said Sultan Rana, iD Tech Camp director from Toronto, Canada. “When they come here they realize there’s just so much they can do.”
In weeklong sessions – some day camps, in-residence – that continue through Aug. 6, beginning to advanced students were building their own 2D and 3D video games, as well as designing websites, iPhone applications, robots and 3D models and animations working in small groups in university computer labs.
ID refers to internal drive, and this is the 11th year in which UCSD has participated in the horizon-broadening youth computer camp program.
Kids are inspired by iD Tech Camp, Rana said. “You have those teachable moments when the kids ask, ‘What made you want to be what you wanted to be?’ And you tell them about the forks in the road and your approach and how you made your (career) decision and that really helps a lot of kids.”
On a tour through Warren Student Activities Center on UCSD campus last week, teens were bent over computer keyboards thoroughly engaged in video game manipulation. And the games being created and played by them were as whimsical and imaginative as they were stimulating and challenging.
Courtney, a pre-teen, was busy originating her own video game involving theft of dinosaurs.
“You can make the game in five days,” she said.
An older student, Sean, said he was getting a lot out of the program.
“I’m really learning a lot about computer programming,” he said. “I get to make my own games, make the characters. It’s all really fun.” The degree of difficulty varied though, he added.
“Making the characters really is pretty easy,” he said. “Programming them is harder.”
ID Tech Camp students can work together or independently and all skill levels are accommodated.
“We make sure, whatever level you’re at, that you’re going to come in and hit the ground running,” Rana said. “We never exceed the ratio of one (teacher) to eight (pupils).”
When students “graduate” from the camp, they also get a bonus: discounts on Adobe, Apple and Microsoft software.
For more information visit www.internaldrive.com or call (888) 709-8324.
Article on lajollalight.com
July 15th, 2010
Posted in: iD In The News, UC San Diego
July 15th, 2010 by: Ryan
NBC 17 visited iD Tech Camps at UNC-Chapel Hill on July 15, 2010.
July 15th, 2010
Posted in: iD In The News, UNC Chapel Hill
July 12th, 2010 by: Elise
Youngsters learn ways to turn hobbies into potential careers at high-tech camp
STAFF WRITER
PRINCETON BOROUGH — As his 9- and 10- year olds peers watched, Theo’s hands flew across his keyboard, jabbing at the “w” key and the spacebar.
Under Theo’s expert command, his hero, “Doughnut Man,” jumped from one slice of toast to the next, shooting any “Pancake Punks” and killer cornflakes that got in his way.
This video game, which Theo programmed from scratch in just two days, is one example of the projects that students aged 7-17 have been creating during Internal Drive (iD) Tech Camp’s eight one-week sessions held at Princeton University from June 20 through Aug. 13. This is the camp’s ninth year in the Princeton area.
Click here to read full article about our summer camps in NJ
July 12th, 2010
Posted in: Adelphi University, Columbia University, Fordham University, iD In The News, New York Institute of Technology, New York University, Pace University, Princeton University, Seton Hall University
July 9th, 2010 by: Ryan
Campers play own creations
By Joanna England
July 9th, 2010
Posted in: iD In The News, Southern Methodist University
July 8th, 2010 by: Elise
CLU camp teaches kids to create video games
By Sigourney Nuñez
Imagine a small, yellow creature with a horn on the crown of its head for a mouth, chomping away on a variety of spinning fruit. Its sole purpose is to eat all the produce that surrounds it in order to proceed to the next level.
That’s the concept behind a video game that Abigail Cohen, 7, of Woodland Hills developed at iD Tech Camp at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.
“I created him when you pass it, it says, ‘You won, partner,’ ” she said.
Abigail is one of many digital kids across the country participating in the 12th annual camp season hosted by iD Tech Camp. The camp offers six summer programs at universities, giving kids from 7 to 17 hands-on opportunities to explore computer software. It’s the same software professionals use to produce all types of tech projects.
CLU has hosted the program for nine years. The school offers six camp sessions, each a week long.
Participants have the opportunity to create 2-D and 3-D video games, create Flash animation, build robots, develop graphics portfolios and create virtual worlds.
Avery Scanlon was new to the concept of video game designs when he first attended the camp two years ago. The 12-year-old from Thousand Oaks said he now knows a bit more beyond the basics of computer navigation.
“It’s a really good camp; it shows you what you need to know in order to achieve what you want,” Avery said. “Computers can open up a whole new world of imagination.”
The program sets up a friendly and welcoming environment for kids.
“The teachers are very helpful, you don’t get teased here, and if you like computers this is the perfect place to come,” said Matzke Mason, 15, of Ojai, who was working on a virtual map for a first-person shooter game.
Kenn Gorman, program director, said a number of kids who attend the camp have been involved with it for several years. Even the counselors are former iD Tech campers.
Peter Sylvester, 20, a computer science major at CSU Channel Islands, was a camper for five years and is now an instructor.
“You want to make games with them,” he said, “but it’s rewarding when you see kids make games on their own.”
Gorman said the program stresses giving kids the liberty to figure out how to manage the software so that they can be proud of the finished product.
“Once they say they can do this, we just kind of let them go,” he said.
Aside from the technical curriculum, the kids also take time from the day to play games outside.
“I like that we’re not on the computer all the time,” said Julia Cohen, 13, of Woodland Hills. She was working on Flash animation.
At the end of every session, the kids are able to go home with a finished product. All the projects created during the iD Tech Camp can be seen and interacted with at http://basement.internaldrive.com.
Space is available in the three remaining sessions at CLU. For more information, go to http://www.internaldrive.com or call 888-709-TECH (8324).
July 8th, 2010
Posted in: Cal Lutheran University, iD In The News, UC Santa Barbara
July 7th, 2010 by: Ryan
July 7, 2010
By Jason B. Jones
I think it’s pretty well-established that GeekDad writers are in the target market for ID Tech camps. (See earlier posts by: Lonnie Morgan and Corrina Lawson.) With courses on video editing, game design, robotics, iPhone app programming, and more, the appeal seems natural. And when you factor in the ability to splice weeks together with an Ultimate Gaming Weekend … well! My seven-year-old spent last week as a day student in an ID Tech summer camp at Wesleyan University, taking the “Adventures in Game Design” course, and so I thought a brief, hands-on report would be in order.
The two most important aspects of any summer camp are probably safety and whether it’s fun. As to the first: full marks to Internal Drive. Even though there weren’t that many campers, and even though I saw the director at every dropoff and pickup, he still made sure that I knew what the code word was before releasing my son. The student/counselor ratio was about 4-1, so everyone was well-monitored at all times. As for the second, my son had a blast, and is already lobbying to be allowed to stay overnight next year. (Um, no.)
A few specific points:
- It’s a long day for a 7-yr-old. I dropped him off at about 8.45 each morning, and picked him up at 5, and he was pretty tired from all the concentrating.
- That said, it’s not just computers. They played dodge ball, capture-the-flag, and other traditional outdoor camp fare.
- The camps are on college campuses, and so lunch is usually at the college cafeteria. This was *very* popular with the 7-yr-old. Day 2: “Did you know they make mac-and-cheese pizza?”
- The counselors were friendly and well-trained. Most were college students in design or programming, and the director at the Wesleyan camp has worked on visual effects for a bunch of movies you’ve heard of. (He’s on IMDB.com.) The students all thought that was pretty cool.
- “Adventures in Game Design” is the youngest-skewing program, so the 7-yr-old didn’t learn a *ton* of universally generalizable concepts, but he does comment a lot more on aspects of game play and design in his other video games. (For example, he’ll notice the splash screens more explicitly these days.) So I think he learned some things.
- He did enjoy every single aspect of putting his game together, especially incorporating his favorite songs. (Licensing laws will probably be a topic for another summer.) He’s also enjoyed being able to talk about building a game.
- It’s worth acknowledging that the camps are somewhat pricey–although they’re competitive within the education-themed camp market.
The only genuinely disappointing thing about the camp was that “Adventures in Game Design” uses ClickTeam Multimedia Fusion 2 Developer, which is a Windows-only app that generates Windows-only executables, or files that can be embedded onto web pages and viewed by Windows-based browsers. So, he can’t play his video game at home right now, until I get Parallels or BootCamp set up on one of our Macs. (You can play it here, provided you have Windows and the Vitalize plugin for your browser, which I don’t think anyone does.)
In sum, it was an enormously fun experience, one he’s keen on repeating next year, which I hope will be possible.
Wired: Hands-on experience in a supportive, fun environment. Students use real tools–for example, the older students in some of the video editing and graphic design courses use the same software people designers and editors use in the world.
Tired: Deliverable was pointlessly platform-specific, given the relatively simple games designed by 7-to-10 year olds.
Article as appeared on wired.com
July 7th, 2010
Posted in: iD In The News, Wesleyan University
July 5th, 2010 by: Elise
Summer Learning St. Paul: A tech twist on summer camp
By Ricardo Lopez
With summer in full swing, some students’ breaks include plenty of TV, playing outdoors or trips to the mall. For others, the school break means building robots, creating video games and designing websites.
Through the end of July, tech-savvy students can take part in iD Tech Camp at Macalester College.
Every week, a new group comes in, though some students stay for additional sessions. Last week, 39 students took part.
On a recent Wednesday, two classrooms in Olin-Rice Science Center hummed with activity.
In one, Andrew Lawrenz, 13, of Lakeville plopped down new characters and challenges as he designed a play level for the popular computer game Warcraft III.
In another, Franklin Labovitz, 11, of Minneapolis remotely maneuvered his newly built robot out into the hallway for a test run.
Macalester College in St. Paul is one of 60 schools in the United States and Canada hosting the tech camps, said Karen Thurm Safran, vice president of marketing for iD Tech. It’s the only Minnesota site. The cost is about $800 for day campers, and $1,250 for those living on-campus for the week. The program boasts one instructor for every six campers.
“It’s very rewarding seeing what these students can do,” Thurm Safran said, pointing to the success one past student had in creating an iPhone application that has raised about $20,000 for a hospital. The Macalester camp’s iPhone-app course will be offered later this month..
Ally Huber, 15, of Greensboro, N.C., sat in the back row, next to her brother, in one session. The two have attended the summer camp for nearly four years. As she tweaked a web page she designed, Ally explained she was creating it to promote a 450-page novel she wrote last year.
“I’m interested in self-publishing,” Ally said. “This (camp) is helping me prepare for it.”
Jack Holter may not be old enough to gamble, but with a robot whirring behind him, he was busy programming a blackjack game.
The 15-year-old from Roseville said this was the first time he attended the camp, and he was learning pretty quickly how to use C++ and Java, two types of programming language.
“This can be a job opportunity,” Jack said. “I think it’s good for a possible career path.”
Drew Retherford, the camp director and a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, said his work as an iD Tech instructor has been one of the best jobs he’s had.
“It’s hard to not want to keep coming back summer after summer,” he said.
Ricardo Lopez can be reached at 651-228-5480.
July 5th, 2010
Posted in: iD In The News, Macalester College, University of Wisconsin- Madison
July 4th, 2010 by: Pete-V
Howdy!
It’s (the other) Pete and I am super excited about the awesome stuff that’s been happening at iD Tech Camps all over the country. There’s been so much positive activity that I’m going to blog a whole bunch more to share just a sliver of the good times with our internet audience.
One of the iD Tech traditions is called the “Photo of the Week” contest (POW), where each camp is asked to satisfy a photo prompt and a single winner is chosen. So far, we’ve had three weeks of challenges and three amazing pictures.
POW #1 - Take a photo of your entire camp in a prestigious/ defining location at your school.
WINNER – Colorado State University!
POW #2 – Take a photo of your head and another person’s feet to create the illusion that you are really tall.
WINNER – Vanderbilt University!
POW #3 – The obligatory World Cup assignment! Creativity wins in this open contest.
WINNER – Sacred Heart University!
Stay tuned to see the creative and crazy submissions we get all summer long!
July 4th, 2010
Posted in: iD Tech Bloggers, iD Tech Camps, Summer Camps
July 2nd, 2010 by: Elise
WVIR NBC Channel 29, Charlottesville visited iD Tech Camps held at the University of Virginia on June 30, 2010. Click here to see iD Tech Camps in action!
July 2nd, 2010
Posted in: American University, College of William & Mary, iD In The News, Towson University, University of Virginia
