Ben Hill County

Ben Hill Technology Camp 2008

Terri Smith, Angela Booth, Katrina Vaughn

Ben Hill County School System offered its first annual Technology Camp this past summer! The camp was held at Fitzgerald High School, June 23-26.The Camp was open to 6-12 grade students. Twenty-two students were selected based on teacher recommendations, academic performance, and the completed application, which required students to submit a t-shirt design. The winning design was used for the Technology Camp T-Shirt souvenir. Teachers involved in the Teachers, Teamwork, and Technology (T3) Grant were also invited-totaling 32 technology campers in attendance!

The Ben Hill Technology Camp was a great way to introduce students and teachers to the Mac laptops the system had just purchased through the T3 Grant as well as digital cameras, digital video cameras, Promethean's ActivStudio and ActiVotes.
Participants learned how to record & edit video clips, create music using Garageband and more. The Technology Camp was a fun-filled, hands-on learning experience for everyone!

On the last day of camp, students shared video presentations they created with the community during "Oscar Night." Oscar Awards were presented to those students who created outstanding videos using their newly acquired skills.

The camp and all the technology supplies were free. However, they did charge $35 to cover food and t-shirts. Lunch and snacks were provided each day, and each participant received a student-designed t-shirt, which they wore on "Oscar Night."

The camp was coordinated by Terri Smith, IT Coordinator and lead by Angie Booth, Media Specialist at BHMS and Katrina Vaughn, 5th Grade Teacher at BHES. These instructors did an excellent job engaging the students and preparing breakout sessions geared for both the students and teachers in attendance.

They hope to be able to offer a second Technology Camp this summer (2009), and teach the students and teachers how to create podcasts!