TeachCamp 2010

You may know that I've led Microsoft's annual events for high-school aged girls (in SoCal) DigiGirlz for 3 years now. I will continue to do this, plan for 2010 is to host three one-day events (in April) in LA, Irvine and San Diego for DigiGirlz. Also, I will be participating in DigiGirlz events (as an instructor-trainer and as an instructor) in other geographies. An incredible group of community volunteers has been the key to the success of DigiGirlz events.

New for 2010 is a vision to implement a larger initiative for both boys and girls (middle school and high school). The 'big vision' is to create a series of annual events, in partnership with the local technical communities and one university per event, where we teach large numbers of kids technology. The style of the event is based on codeCamp, that is community-driven, with corporate support (Microsoft and more), with community volunteers setting up logistics (registration, schedule, setting up classroom loads, etc...) and teaching.

The first instance will be held in Mountain View on Feb 27 (single day) at Foothill Valley College (site of the hugely successful annual SVCCodeCamp). This is being run by the NorCal technical community. They have decided that their first event will target girls only (300), due to the under-representation of women in technology. I will participate as an instructor-trainer and instructor. Peter Kellner and his wife Tammy (they run SVCCodeCamp) are already on board to help with volunteers as well.

The second instance will be held at UCSD in San Diego the second weekend in July. Llewelyn Falco will co-lead the event with me. We are currently working on curriculum development and are looking for volunteers to assist with this. Jason Frankovitz & Thomas Mueller are also on board helping with curriculum development. As we get closer to the date, we will obviously be looking for a bunch more volunteers.

I would like to run one more instance in SoCal this year. I am looking for suggestions for venue and timeframe.

If you would like to be part of my TeachCamp planning (mailing list), because you'd like to contribute and / or host your own TeachCamp somewhere outside of the Western US, you are welcome to join the conversation too.

If you are interested in helping in any way please send me mail to lynnl at microsoft dot com with the subject 'TeachCamp'