stephenwinbaum
Communications Coordinator
/ Moderator
Jun 20, 2008, 12:48 PM
Post #1 of 1
(3921 views)
|
|
Summer Camp & New Technology
|
Can't Post
|
|
Some people want nothing to do with it. Others can't get enough of it. That's the new technology of summer camp.
The pro techies maintain that summer camp technology, like video streaming & password-protected e-mail service between parents and children, provide vastly superior communications. Anti techies remain adamant that camp is the last refuge for the natural, outdoor experience for children.
The reality is that there is already a mix of old and new that summer camp people favor and utilize. While cell phones and iPods may be popular with (sub)urban youth, they are generally hands off at summer camp. Parents and camp directors are, mostly, opposed to the concept of a camp population dreamily wandering around while wearing head phones and making wireless out calls.
However, most summer camps have embraced other aspects of the new technology. Thousands have built websites as the preferred way of becoming more visible to parents and children. Powerful directories have emerged to promote and market the online capability of summer camps. Networking sites, like Facebook, have become exceptionally popular ways for campers to commune during the off season, and a successful alternative for camps to promote themselves.
Summer camps have embraced computerized, non-paper administrative methods to maintain essential aspects of business:
- Online background checks for incoming counselors
- Internet registration and camp management systems that administer registrations, process payments, generate comprehensive reports, and manage finances
- Secure online summer camp databases where information is held for retrieval and review, promoting a cleaner, paperless trail and reducing the multiplicity of paper correspondences. This improvement in the carbon footprint also decreases the piles of left-over paper in need of sorting and re-cycling at season’s end
Natural or virtual? At summer camp the reality is an organic combination of the two. Both co-exist sometimes comfortable, sometimes not. But that's reality.
Stephen Winbaum is the Communications Coordinator of MySummerCamps.com
---
(This post was edited by stephenwinbaum on Jul 7, 2008, 9:54 PM)
|
