Ah, summer camp, the one time of the year where kids leave the house to stay a week or two in the woods. That was my experience at least. Summer camp is supposed to teach kids vital life lessons whereas all I ever got was a shattered toe nail and 58 mosquito bites. I would have done anything to attend a digital summer camp on a computer.
Google will be making this dream a reality starting today with the Maker Camp, “a new online ‘summer camp’ on Google+.” The concept here is simple – noteworthy inventors and makers will join forces with the creative people at MAKE Magazine to host a Google+ Hangout that teaches 13 to 18-year-old kids how to make awesome stuff.
For the next six weeks, a Maker Camp counselor will post instructions for a new project on the Google+ page on Monday morning. The afternoon will then feature a junior counselor meeting up with kids over Google+ Hangouts on Air so those participating can ask questions while sharing pictures and videos of their projects.
It’s a really awesome idea and one that I wish was around when I was a kid. While Google+ follows Facebook’s lead in a lot of areas, it’s these kind of projects that make me most excited for the social network. If Google can keep promoting awesome ideas like a digital summer camp, Google+ will most assuredly become the unique service it was initially promised as. Let’s just hope that Maker Camp doesn’t get any counselors like this:
If you have a kid that should be spending their summer building awesome stuff like rockets instead of playing video games, you can sign them up for Maker Camp at their Google+ page. It does require the child get their own Google+ account which is why it’s limited to 13-year-olds and up.