Welcome to the Home of the 2013 Racquet Up Summer Computer Camp: RU Connected
RU Connected is an intensive two-week summer technology camp focused on creating powerful learning experiences that are hands-on, social, curiosity-driven, and fun. Camp participants will learn about a range of free web-based tools--for screencasting, searching, annotating, photo editing, collaborative writing, cartooning, and more--and explore their potential to turbocharge learning and creativity around the theme of "Deception: Seeking and Speaking the Truth."
This year's RU Connected camp starts on Wednesday June 26th and runs through Tuesday July 9th.
This year's RU Connected camp starts on Wednesday June 26th and runs through Tuesday July 9th.
RU Connected has been chosen as a Winner of the 2013 Digital Media and Learning Summer Youth Programming Competition!
We are thrilled beyond words to be selected as a winner of this year's DML Summer Youth Programming Competition. This annual competition is sponsored by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, administered by Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory (HASTAC), and carried out in collaboration with Facebook, the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), and Mozilla.
In June, 266 organizations in 41 states submitted applications. These organizations included libraries, community organizations, advocacy groups, museums, non-profits, cultural organizations, youth-serving institutions, and arts organizations. And all 266 applications looked terrific! (See the complete list here.) From among these 266 terrific applications, 16 were chosen as winners and awarded a total of $150,000. And RU Connected made the cut! (See descriptions of all 16 winners here.) We are incredibly grateful and proud! Huge thank-you's go to all our supporters, our Racquet Up families, our awesome RU Connected campers, and all the volunteers, donors, and helpers who make Racquet Up and its programming possible. And huge thank-you's to the organizers and sponsors of the 2013 Summer Youth Programming Competition--for recognizing and supporting our collective efforts. Thank you! |
Check out what our campers are saying about RU Connected 2013!
My favorite activity was making the hoax website. When I first was making my hoax website I did not know what i was going to do, so i kept starting over. But then it became easier. My most favorite time at RU Connected camp is when we made quilts. It was my favorite time because I have never made a quilt before and it was very fun for me. Camp has taught me many different thing that my school didn't teach me. So coming here was a great idea and for me to do better on my computer skills. |
I learned how to make a hoaxes website. I learned what a hoax website is and that it's a false website and gives false information. And when I made my website it was very fun and maybe I will teach my family. In the RU Connected camp I learned a lot about technology. RU Connected was a great experience for me. I got to learn new things and meet new people. My favorite thing to do here was make a hoax website. It was very fun getting to make your own website. The hardest challenge for me was finding time to keep working on my hoax website. I think the thing I will remember the most is making websites. |
RU Connected is a great camp for kids to learn new things about computers. Over the weeks I have learned that computers are tools. I could really use these tools in school and for school projects etc. But my favorite activities that we worked on in the RU Connected camp is with the hoax websites. I liked this activity because you know it's really fun and also you can use this tool later in life for your business or something. To me i think that the hardest challenge in RU Connected Camp was to get up early in the morning and be on time everyday. But overall I had a great time at the RU Connected camp and I would totally come here again. I would recommend this to other teens and kids because they could learn something and teach others what they know and learned. |
My favorite activities in RUConnected were making a hoax website and the challenges. They are my favorite things because I got to make a website and that’s something new to me and the lightning challenges made me have to think and challenge my brain and I learned new things when I did the challenges. I also learned how to type faster from all the typing that we have been doing. Making a website was fun as well because I got to make a website about something or someone no one understands and that is teachers. No one understands teachers because on the first week of school they will act nice to you but then the second week of school they will act mean to you. So making a website about teachers will help students understand teachers. I liked the challenges because they made me feel like I was back at school and I will get to use all the stuff I learned when I’m writing an essay. |
Over the last few weeks at RU Connected I think I have learned more about computers. At RU Connected we did hard challenges. For me the hardest was the distances. My favorite part about RU Connected is when we did the optical illusions. If I didn't come to RU Connected I think I would never have learned how to use Google Docs or "search image" on Google. I wouldn’t know how to use Pixlr or Animoto or ChartGo. But now that I know I plan to use this in the near by future. We also read a book called Gathering Blue. It was boring at first then when we kept reading it got more and more interesting. My favorite activity in RU Connected was the challenges. |
My favorite activity was the lightning challenge rounds. It made me work hard. The challenges were hard but fun at the same time. The best part was when you learned how the winner found the answers. My favorite activity in RU Connected camp was when we did the Skype calls with the guests. Also it was fun when we did the quilts. The most useful thing the camp did to help me in the future was learning about steganography and cryptography. The hardest thing we did was the day 6 Group Lightning Challenge. |
The thing I learned at this camp was some websites you visit can be fake, made up, or just a hoax. |
The most important thing I learned over the past few weeks is that it's not hard to work with computers if you are pointed in the right direction. The thing I learned that will be most useful in the future is learning how to make and edit websites, make slideshows, upload photos, and search efficiently. My favorite activities in RU Connected were learning about hallucinations and reading and discussing Gathering Blue. The hardest challenge for me in RU Connected was finding information for our publicity project. |
I've had so much fun in RU Connected. I’ve learned so much too. I learned how to make websites and how to tell if a website is true or not. I also learned how to make slideshows and how to record audio. And the coolest thing I learned is that you can search for people by their photo on google. I’ve had so much fun. |