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Being Creative Making Websites at iD Tech Camps
I am going to be completely honest with you. I was not too thrilled when I first heard about iD Tech Camps, a summer technology program at Dominican University of California. I am more of the sit-by-the-pool-and-do-her-nails type. So you can only imagine how I felt about having to spend every Monday through Friday from 9am-5pm in a room with a bunch of computers. But as much as I begged my mom to, “please let me stay home,” the more I got convinced that she was not about to budge. So, off I went to “camp." Despite my first reaction, I really learned a lot about designing a website and I also got to learn about and use different software. Some of my favorite ones were Dreamweaver® and Flash®.
With Dreamweaver, I could take any picture off of the Internet or my digital camera and give it my own touch very easily. For instance for one of my websites, on the front page I had a cow. I got the picture off of the Internet, then using Dreamweaver I made it blue and then added stars. All in like five minutes (yes even Ms.-sit-by-the-pool-and-do-her-nails created this that fast!). I thought that Dreamweaver was cool because you could be creative on the computer just like you can on paper.
The other program I really liked was Flash animation. With Flash, I took an ordinary picture off of the Internet or a digital camera and then converted that picture onto different formats and shapes to create an animated slideshow!!! For instance, I took a picture of a Cow off of the Internet and created a slide show where the cow's picture turned into an empty glass, then into a jar of milk, etc.
Besides creating websites really easily, another important thing that I learned was not to be so judgmental and assumptive as to the type of students and or people who would attend these technology camps. Sure the kids were different than I am, but they were all sweet, nice and really smart!!
By Candice
Student at Marin Montessori School
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