Floating on the Digital Cloud

Do you use Google Docs? Store photos on Flicker? Backup computer files on a remote server? Then you're plugged into the "digital cloud"- a private or public network of services or applications that can store information that would otherwise be kept on your computer. A recent episode of "On Point" explored the pros and potential cons of the digital cloud in a thought provoking discussion that included the personal, legal, and business aspects of our increasing use of "cloud computing".

On the plus side, since information stored in the cloud does not "live" on your computer, you can access that information anywhere that you can get a web signal- whether at home, at work, or Starbucks. You can also share that information with others so that multiple people can collaborate on projects and share family photos without having to email huge attachments and keep track of updated documents on each individual computer.

But on the potential con side, when your files are stored by another party, how do you keep control over your information (you've probably heard about the 1984 Kindle debacle where Amazon deleted copies of the book from customers' digital devices because of copyright issues)? What privacy protection rights need to be considered as we put more information away from our hard drives and off into cyberspace?

As "On Point" panelist concede, cloud computing isn't about to go away anytime soon. It will be interesting to see how we adapt the technology and how we adapt to it.

Camper Group Movie- Are YOU Smarter than an icamper?

At icamp, kids spend most of the week working on their own individual projects so they can really explore their own creative interests. By Friday everyone has their own project completed, and our last day of camp is spent working together on a group project that everyone helps with. Here's a group project from this summer- an icamp version of the game show "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?" Campers rewrote the theme song, made a game show poster, and quizzed their instructor on her icamp knowledge. Here's the theme song- sing along!

Camper Music Project and Video

Part of the icamp experience for both instructors and campers is choosing an icamp name. It's like your superhero name for the week. This summer, camp counselor Ellen joined the icamp staff team and picked Ellen in a Melon for her icamp name. All summer we talked about making the Ellen in a Melon song, and returning camper Christian took on the challenge. He made this awesome song and the music video to match- you'll be humming it all week!

Camper Team F1 LEGO Race Car

Before race cars can handle a turn at 120 mph, they are carefully designed to handle the speed and conditions of the track. Elliot used stop-motion animation to show the intricacies of constructing LEGO cars before filming his vehicles in the race.