alice-teacher Digital Media Academy?

[Sandy Graham]

Don, I have a 7th grade student who is about to finish the book. Other than the chapter on recursion which he struggled to fully get his brain wrapped around, he did amazingly well and created beautiful, elegant and impressive programs. His family's budget is very tight, though. He would have to have complete scholarships to get to go to a camp. He has two siblings with dwarfism which complicates family life and uses finances for medical bills. I'm not sure his parents would allow their young son to travel alone, either. He is the first student I've ever had that I really thought could work for Pixar or Disney someday.  I'd love to show you samples of his work, but he wanted to tweak the programs before he'll let me share them. I invited him to study straight java to take the AP test as an 8th grader, but he only wants to study animation. 

Any suggestions for
1.) scholarshipped summer camps, maybe with a chaperone, too? I'm thinking with his computer programming teacher!!
2.) What he should study next, even an on-line course?

Thank you!!!

Sandy Graham
Sent from my iPhone

On May 11, 2013, at 3:53 PM, Don Slater <dslater at andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:

> Online education has its place, but it is not a cure all, and will not work for all learners… You make some valid points, but there are a lot of reasons why people choose to send their children to camps, especially during the summer… I will only highlight a couple… Camps on college universities allow students to start experiencing the college experience, to check out what it is like to be part of a college that they are interested in attending, to allow college faulty and admissions officers to et to know the student, so that when an admissions package shows up from that student, the student has work form that college in the portfolio, possibly a recommendation, at least a face to go along with the name.
> 
> Thanks,
> Don Slater
> 
> On May 10, 2013, at 12:38 PM, "Gamez, Enrique A (3012)" <enrique.a.gamez at jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:
> 
>> Not to alienate anybody, but I'm a big fan of on-line education -- that's
>> why I was originally attracted to "Alice" in the first place.
>> 
>> At $1K/week, I'd rather steer more kids interested in these same technical
>> topics to either iTunes U or, if they need a bit more feedback, fxPHD
>> (which is much cheaper with eminently qualified instructors).  The video
>> podcasts by Standford Univ. on iTunes U are my favorite for free iOS
>> development training, for example.  They provide the fundamentals although
>> the more advanced videos are somewhat dated now.  There's about 30 hrs of
>> free instruction!  fxPHD is more based on the creative digital arts than
>> on programming, but at much less cost provides homework review by the
>> instructors.  I'd also look through the MIT OpenCourseware catalog for
>> those teens who are self-motivated.
>> 
>> MIT OCW = http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
>> fxPHD = https://www.fxphd.com/fxphd/courseInfo.php
>> iTunes U = https://itunes.apple.com/us/genre/itunes-u/id40000000?mt=10
>> 
>> You don't need an iPad to take iTunes U courses but if you do have access
>> to one, teachers(!) can create content:
>> http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/
>> 
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> -enrique
>> 
>> 
>> On 5/10/13 3:54 AM, "Don Slater" <dslater at andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:
>> 
>>> A friend of mine was asking about Digital Media Academy for her high
>>> school age son.
>>> 
>>>    http://www.digitalmediaacademy.org
>>> 
>>> Does any one have any thoughts / experience with this group?
>>> 
>>> Thank you,
>>> Don Slater
>>> 
>>> 
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