YOUR WEB☺YOUR WORLD
CLUB DREAM VACATION
By Donna Cameron, 2009 ITP Thesis Candidate in computer and web technology, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.
Abstract: The virtual vacation club, \”Club Dream Vacation\”, is an education project which supports using Google Maps, Google Earth and Google Docs to create an imaginary dream vacation in the public school classroom/ computer lab. Club Dream Vacation uses the free Google web ware to promote a better understanding of the Earth and it\’s geography, of the ancient art of maps and mapmaking, of the Earth and its diversity of communities, of the Earth and a shared experience in the community of the participants. I hope that, through this, the importance of technical literacy will become a priority in our schools. Club Dream Vacation is a new project designed to improve geography and social science skills of children in the classroom, K-5. The project is run in a school computer lab, possibly as a geography lesson or a social studies lesson. The Project Director is Donna Cameron, faculty, NYU TSOA Special Programs. The project advocates teaching children in this context about the web, the earth’s geography, geagraphy itself as the study of humanity to the earth and life on earth, their own dreams as earthlings, their future and present selves. It asks participants to plan a virtual vacation in several well-defined sessions of 1 hour each, and is designed to be tailored to meet the needs of the particular school in which it is run. Unlike many computer lab projects, it advocates making a product- a vacation scrapbook in this case- and downloading it from Google Docs upon completion. This gives a student the potential to share at home, with mom and dad, and amongst themselves in the classroom or the lab. In this way, it promotes technology literacy and inter and intra generation communication with new technology and consumer web browser tools.
