In the Thursday July 5, 2012 issue of the Bay Area edition of the WSJ on page A7B, there is an article titled “Children Learn a New Way to Play At Summer Camp That Teaches Tech” by Rachael King which describes the ID (“Internal Drive”) Tech Camps – some of which take place at Stanford. Many private non-Stanford companies run summer camps at Stanford as well as other university campuses.
One of my children attended a similar camp at Stanford in summer 2011 offered by Digital Media Academy – it was a compelling package including a Java curriculum based on Stanford’s popular CS106A course (including Karel the Robot) and overnight accommodations in a Stanford Row House. However, the only really authentic Stanford quality of these camps is the Row House living, dining in one of the Residence Dining Halls and being on-campus. Stanford classrooms are not used (our camp had a computer lab set up in the Row House’s kitchen), the people are migratory (just here for the summer), and the Stanford scholarly culture and atmosphere are missing.
I also say this to differentiate the YCISL program from these summer camps. The summer camps are a marvelous asset to extending learning opportunities when school is closed for the summer; this helps address the deep lull some students may get into when they are not tasked with school work (an interesting puzzle that there is way too much work during the school year, and relatively little during summer). So, I view the 3rd-party summer camps such as those at Stanford as competitors and I need to emphasize the YCISL features that works to our participants’ advantage. I also recognize that Stanford Summer College and EPGY are also competitors, and communicating the differences is warranted.
As for the WSJ article, I wish it had provided more evaluation on how camps such ID Tech helps supports education.