The Digital Mirror Camp, sponsored by the English Department and supported by COSI of Toledo and the American Association of University Women, included 20 girls from the Wood County and surrounding areas gathering in late August 2007 for four days of fun and learning on Bowling Green State University's campus.

The camp for girls in grades 6-8 began on Wednesday afternoon and campers spent much of Wednesday and the following two days learning and experimenting with a variety of software including Adobe Dreamweaver and Photoshop, iMovie, and GarageBand. The girls then put their new skills to work developing personal webpages and blogs and filming and editing movies to embed on their websites. Additionally, many girls created their own songs using GarageBand. On the final day of camp, parents were invited to participate in a studio review as campers showed off their digital projects to one another and visitors.

Besides gaining technical skill, camp facilitators English Department Chair Kristine Blair and graduate students Jen Almjeld, Erin Dietel-McLaughlin, Meredith Graupner, and Julie Platt, stressed the importance of girls consciously crafting their own cyber identities. Discussions of safety and privacy are paramount to all technology users and one goal of the Digital Mirror Camp was to make girls aware of how their actions are reflected in the media they use. Besides time spent in the computer lab (with lab time generously provided by the Art Department), campers were treated to a Thursday afternoon trip to COSI of Toledo where they took turns riding the human yo-yo, the climbing wall, and any number of other hands-on science activities.

During the summer of 2005 I worked with high school students from the Toledo area to learn writing, photography, and computer design skills related to newspaper production. As part of the UpWard Bound program housed on Bowling Green's campus, students participated in a variety of classes and got an early taste of college life. Students enrolled in my journalism course practiced interviewing and writing skills, learned to take, edit, and download digital images, and also learned to navigate InDesign software. The students produced two newspapers for their peers during their six-week stay. [Syllabus]

Sample Student Newspapers