Case Study #6
Camp Courage, MN
Description
The Internet and College Preview Program is a special option for about 15 beginners and 10 advanced students as part of a ten-day residential program, "Teen Camp," hosted by Camp Courage in Maple Lake, MN. Camp Courage primarily serves children and youth with physical and sensory disabilities. The Internet and College Preview Program is the result of a partnership between Camp Courage and project DO-IT at the University of Washington.
Instructional and Technical Team
The director of DO-IT provides overall coordination of instruction. A high school math and computer teacher coordinates technical set-up and support. Specific staff assignments are as follows:
- Computer, software set-up and support:
- Rick (coordinator), high school math/computer teacher from Wisconsin
- Kris, college student from Oregon
- Primary instruction and support staff supervision:
- Sheryl (coordinator), Director of DO-IT, University of Washington, Seattle
- Rick
- Kris
- Jerry, college student/Camp counselor from Czechoslovakia
- Lab, instructional assistants:
- Tiffany (intern), returning camper, high school student from Minnesota
- Christin, high school student from Wisconsin
- Camp Courage counselors to help individual campers
- Camp administrator and liaison with Internet program staff:
- Roger
- Guest speakers:
- Connie, staff of a college admissions office in Wisconsin, talks about college types, entrance requirements and procedures.
- Dave, college professor, talks about faculty relationships, role plays with participants.
- Roger, Camp Courage administrator, talks about finding and succeeding in employment.
- Saint Cloud University staff and faculty deliver instruction and discuss campus life.
Goals
Beginning campers develop skills that will help them:
- Use technology to support education and employment (usually 9:30 am-12 + open labs; students can work through the tutorial at their own pace, but topics are discussed as noted in the schedule).
- Prepare for and succeed in college and employment (3 - 5 pm daily + field trip).
Advanced campers learn to:
- Create WWW pages.
- Organize a project and work as a team to accomplish a task.
Materials
A VCR and monitor, overhead projector, computer projection system, and flip chart are used by instructors in the Internet and College Preview Program. Books, printed handouts, videotapes, and electronic resources are the primary instructional materials.
The book New Kids on the Net: A Tutorial for Teachers, Parents and Students is used as a student tutorial for those who want to work in lab sessions by proceeding step-by-step through activities at their own pace and as a student/teacher reference. Daily lab handouts are selected from the tear-out worksheets in the book New Kids on the Net: A NetWork Sampler.
The following DO-IT handouts are provided to each beginning student in a notebook.
- DO-IT Campers
- Camp: Beyond Summer
- Use of the Internet
- Working Together: People with Disabilities and Computer Technology
- DO-IT Pals
- Opening Doors: Mentoring on the Internet
- Disability-Related Resources on the Internet
- College: You can do it!
- Working Together: Science Teachers and Students with Disabilities
- Working Together: Faculty and Students with Disabilities
- It's Your Career!
Short (8-15 minutes each) DO-IT videotapes are shown during the Internet and College Preview Program. They include:
- Camp: Beyond Summer
- Working Together: People with Disabilities and Computer Technology
- Opening Doors: Mentoring on the Internet
- College: You can DO-IT!
- Working Together: Science Teachers and Students with Disabilities
- Working Together: Faculty and Students with Disabilities
- It's Your Career!
World Wide Web materials used in the program include a home page and bookmarks created specifically to facilitate beginning activities; Internet sites from around the world, and Hot Mail, a Web-based electronic mail. Telnet and Internet browsers, and filtering software are used to access Internet resources. Each participant receives a certificate of achievement at the end of the program.
Facility and Computers
Initially, lounges within existing camper residences were used, one for the beginning and one for the advanced group. A donor was found to pay for the rental of fully-configured Macintosh computers. Recently, as a new residence was built for the camp, a daylight basement area was created for a large computer lab. There are one or two campers at each computer station. DO-IT provides adaptive technology and other accommodations for campers who cannot use standard computer devices.
Internet Service
A 56 KB dedicated high speed line is installed to the camp and Internet service is arranged through the local telephone company.
Program Integration
Internet program participants eat meals and participate in late afternoon and evening recreational activities with the other campers at Teen Camp. Topics for the Internet Scavenger Hunt and other activities support camp and program themes and work within the overall Camp schedule as indicated by the beginning group's detailed schedule below. There is a lot of interaction between students and staff. The names in parentheses only indicate the primary people responsible for making sure that the activity is a success.
Advanced Group Schedule
The advanced group forms a "company" and "hires" Jerry as a consultant. They are "employed" by the beginning campers to create a Web site for their program with pictures, bios and a daily log of activities. Each morning the advanced group reports their progress, makes assignments, and summarize next steps to the beginning group. Under Jerry's supervision, they work throughout the day in a lab separate from the beginning group.
Beginning Group Schedule
Saturday
Computer lab setup completion.
Camper check in.
Sunday
Morning
Camp orientation, breakfast, lunch, and church options.
1:30 - 3 pm
Theme: Using technology to support education and employment
Activities (Sheryl):
- Introduce program, goals, activities, staff, schedule.
- Distribute notebooks.
- Refer to handout provided in notebook and show video, Camp: Beyond Summer.
- Refer to handout in notebook and show video, Working Together: People with Disabilities and Computer Technology.
- Overview use of computers, adaptive technology, Internet: Refer to handout in notebook, Use of the Internet.
- Overview Internet tools, acceptable use, safety on the Internet.
- Introduce WWW; give examples.
- Assign lab work to explore the program WWW home page (Kris).
3 - 5 pm
Choose camp activities or open computer lab (Kris, Christin, Tiffany).
5:30
Dinner
In the evening, participate in Camp activities or open computer lab (Camp Courage counselor reporting to Kris).
Monday
8:30 am
Breakfast
9:30 am - 12 noon
Theme: Using technology to support education and employment
Activities:
- Advanced group delivers daily report and asks beginning campers for bios for the Web site they are creating, telling the beginners the e-mail address where the bios should be sent.
- Review WWW. What exciting discoveries did you make?; what problems did you encounter? (Sheryl)
- Refer to handout and show video, Opening Doors: Mentoring on the Internet.
- Review overview of Internet tools.
- Introduce electronic mail using Hotmail (Kris).
- Discuss etiquette and program expectations.
- For lab exercise, have campers use Hot Mail to
- send messages to DO-IT Scholars, Pals, Mentors (These participants were sent e-mail ahead of time encouraging them to interact with Camp Courage campers.).
- send a bio to the advanced group to be placed on the program WWW pages.
- add to a silly story begun by Kris and e-mail to the next camper to do the same.
12:30 - 1:15 pm
Lunch
1:30 - 2:15 pm
Theme: Preparing for college and employment
Activities:
- Advanced group delivers daily report and informs beginning campers that they will be taking digitized pictures of them to go on the Web page.
- Talk about the fun and value in communicating with peers and mentors (Sheryl).
- Tell about DO-IT Pals, refer to handout in notebook (Tiffany, Kris).
- View video, College: You Can DO-IT! Review handout in notebook.
- Discuss college preparation.
2:15 - 3 pm
Continue computer lab exercises (Kris, Christin, Tiffany).
3 - 5 pm
Choose camp activities or open computer lab (Kris, Christin, Tiffany).
5:30
Dinner
In the evening, participate in Camp activities or open computer lab (Camp Courage counselor reporting to Kris).
Tuesday
9 am - 1:30 pm
Take a field trip to Saint Cloud State University (Roger, Camp counselors). Tour campus radio/TV station, attend college survival skills class, have lunch in student union building, listen to presentation of disabled student services, and visit a dormitory.
1:30 - 3 pm
Open computer lab (Kris, Christin, Tiffany).
3 - 5 pm
Choose camp activities or open computer lab (Kris, Christin, Tiffany).
5:30
Dinner
In the evening, participate in Camp activities or open computer lab (Camp Courage counselor reporting to Kris).
Wednesday
8:30 am
Breakfast
9:30 am - 12 noon
Theme: Using technology to support education and employment
Activities (Kris):
- Advanced group delivers daily report.
- Review WWW and an overview of Internet tools.
- Discuss Telnet and FTP.
- Assign lab work to explore several telnet sites and to download a file using FTP.
12:30 - 1:15 pm
Lunch
1:30 - 2:15 pm
Theme: Preparing for college Activity (Sheryl, Kris, Tiffany):
- Discuss what you learned about college transition from the field trip to Saint Cloud State University yesterday.
2:15 - 3 pm
Continue lab exercises (Kris, Christin, Tiffany).
3 - 5 pm
Choose camp activities or open computer lab (Kris, Christin, Tiffany).
5:30
Dinner
In the evening, participate in Camp activities or open computer lab (Camp Courage counselor reporting to Kris).
Thursday
8:30 am
Breakfast
9:30 am - 12 noon
Theme: Using technology to support education and employment
Activities (Kris):
- Advanced group delivers daily report.
- Review overview of Internet tools.
- Discuss history and use of Gopher, URL format of Gopher sites.
- For lab, have campers explore a gopher and telnet site.
12:30 - 1:15 pm
Lunch
1:30 - 2:15 pm
Theme: Preparing for and succeeding in college
Activities:
- Discuss self-advocacy.
- Refer to handout in notebook and show video, Working Together: Science Teachers and Students with Disabilities.
- Panel (Kris, Tiffany, camp counselors) shares experiences and give advice regarding moving away from home (housing, social services, etc.), transitioning to and succeeding in college.
2:15 - 3 pm
Continue lab exercises (Kris, Christin, Tiffany).
3 - 5 pm
Choose camp activities or open computer lab (Kris, Christin, Tiffany).
In the evening, participate in Camp activities or open computer lab (Camp Courage counselor reporting to Kris).
Friday
8:30 am
Breakfast
9:30 am - 12 noon
Theme: Using technology to support education and employment
Activities (Rick, Kris):
- Advanced group delivers daily report, demonstrates Web site, and asks for input from beginning campers.
- Give technical overview and discuss options for connecting to the Internet.
- Discuss WWW search engines.
- For lab, have campers use several search engines using the same key words and compare the number and quality of matches.
12:30 - 1:15 pm
Lunch
1:30 - 2:15 pm
Theme: Succeeding in college
Activities (Sheryl, Dave):
- Review legal right to and typical accommodations on college campuses.
- Discuss how to best work with college faculty to achieve college success.
- Hear views from a professor (the job of a professor, relationships with students, advice for working with professors).
- Refer to handout in notebook and show videotape, Working Together: Faculty and Students with Disabilities.
- Campers role-play with professor, introducing themselves as new students in his class and discussing accommodations.
2:15 - 3 pm
Continue lab exercises (Kris, Christin, Tiffany).
3 - 5 pm
Choose camp activities or open computer lab (Kris, Christin, Tiffany).
5:30
Dinner
In the evening, participate in Camp activities or open computer lab (Camp Courage counselor reporting to Kris).
Saturday
Theme: Using technology to support education and employment
Activities (Kris, Sheryl, Rick):
- Advanced group delivers daily report and demonstrates completed Web page.
- Wrap up Internet content; Q&A.
- Compete in pairs in the Internet Scavenger Hunt.
12:30 - 1:15 pm
Lunch
1:30 - 2:15 pm
Theme: Preparing for and succeeding in employment
Activities (Roger):
- Refer to handout and view video: It's Your Career!
- Discuss the value of work experience before college.
- Summarize guidelines for resume building and writing.
- Discuss how to find and apply for jobs and other work-based learning opportunities.
- Provide advice for succeeding on the job.
- Share personal experiences and advice (Kris, Camp counselors)
- Program wrap-up, distribute certificates to participants (Sheryl, Rick, Kris).
2:15 - 3 pm
Open lab (Kris, Christin, Tiffany).
3 - 5 pm
Choose camp activities or open computer lab (Kris, Christin, Tiffany).
5:30
Dinner
In the evening, participate in Camp activities or open computer lab (Camp Courage counselor reporting to Kris).
Sunday
8:30 am
Breakfast
Lab take down (Rick, Kris, Christin, Tiffany).
Campers leave between 9:30 am - 12 noon.
Meet individually with parents to discuss Internet experiences, Internet access from homes and schools, and participation in DO-IT Pals (Sheryl).
Camp Contact Information
Camp Courage Internet & College Preview Program
Maple Lake, MN
Courage Center Camping Department
3915 Golden Valley Road
Golden Valley, MN 55422
612-520-0245
camping@MTN.org