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Thank you for visiting my site with tips and tricks and all the tools you'll need for hosting a virtual camp. As you'll notice, each page has a "Background" section at the bottom. I have created this website as an e-porfolio for part of a course for my Master's in Education. The Theory section contains references to relevant literature, stories about my experience building the site, etc. Feel free to check it out by clicking on the arrows if you're interested, but you can host a camp without reading any of that section too.
Happy camping!
We are living in odd Covid times and it's certainly normal to feel a little lost when planning for your first-ever online camp. My hope is that the steps that you'll find here will help guide you through the process. And get this: I actually found planning a virtual camp easier than an in-person one. Why?
- No paperwork
- You can share the workload and don't have to give up a whole weekend
- You can get a full night's sleep
- You don't have to worry so much about many health concerns/dietary needs (obviously doesn't apply to all)
That's secret tip #1. Tip #2 is that your girls won't get excited unless you do. Just because this is likely plan B (yes, I know you'd probably rather actually be camping), it doesn't need to feel like plan B fun. There are many different tools you can use online (see additional tools under Selecting a Platform) that may help you do things you might never have thought possible in person. Guiding from home will also let girls include siblings and other family members if they wish.
This guide was created for Girl Guides of Canada (GGC) Leaders and many of the references and ideas will link back to GGC resources, but it can quite simply be used by Scouting groups, other Guiding groups, youth groups or even parents trying to plan a virtual adventure with family and/or friends.
About Me
My name is Elizabeth Knowles and I am a Guider with two units in Montreal, Quebec. One of them is a Guide unit (ages 9-11) and the other is a multibranch Guide, Pathfinder and Ranger unit (currently ages 11-17). I have been in Guiding since I was 9 years old and love trying new things, exploring different facets of Guiding and sharing in the Guiding sisterhood. I am also pursuing my Master's in Education and am fascinated by how people learn, communities and what holds people back.
Who Am I as an Educator? - an excerpt from blog post assignment #1
As an educator, I’ve mostly worked/volunteered in informal settings. I’ve worked as a tour guide at a space museum, as an intern developing science centre exhibits and creating and revamping scientific workshops for kids. In all those cases, face-to-face learning was the primary method.
However, I have also spent over 10 years volunteering as a Girl Guide Leader with preteens and teens. We have integrated technology here at times and, since COVID, meet and communicate with girls over Zoom. It has changed our interactions quite a bit, but in other ways it’s very much the same. We keep the core key principles and goals, simply shifting the methodology.
With online communication, I’ve been discovering that it’s extra important to include elements of interactivity to keep the girls engaged. This might just be some sort of drawing/doodling to keep their hands busy while they’re listening but could involve them actively participating in the creation of the content. We were successful last week in having them create Kahoot games for each other. It was particularly interesting to see them use technology in their learning. Normally we would have had to provide the content for them to come up with quizzes, but here they had the whole Internet at their fingertips. I think the fact that they searched for it means that they will be more likely to remember it.
In my mind this is true for non-digital learning as well. The more of their own learning students are able to construct, the more likely they are to internalize it and be able to use it later. That’s a tricky balance in the virtual world because I find that oftentimes when I take online training courses, it’s just a bunch of knowledge being thrown at you, followed by some sort of quiz where you can easily pick the answers out of the text or video provided. It’s easy to create and supply, but isn’t effective for learning.
My other current category of learners is adult Leaders in Girl Guides. I am a trainer and now that we’ve moved over to the virtual world during the pandemic, all of our training has moved to Adobe Connect or to Zoom. It’s wonderful to be able to connect with trainees across the country in ways that would be pricey or impractical for in-person training. It has made me become more creative and search for new tools. Breakout rooms seem to provide nice chances for small group discussions and I was able to demonstrate 30 science experiments a while back using a computer and a cell phone. I’m aware of needing to be careful about assuming how tech-savvy everyone is, but it’s inspiring to see some Leaders grow into new skills and tools. We often talk about the growth mindset for children, but it applies equally to the adults learning how they can bring their own new skills to the children they mentor.
Why a Website?
This project involved creating some sort of e-portfolio demonstrating what I have learned in this course (Integration of Technology in Education). A website seemed like a good idea as it is easy for anyone to consult and learn from.
I decided to program this from scratch since this is, after all, a course in thinking about and using technology. I had previously experimented a bit with HTML but was by no means comfortable with it. I figured that by learning something new about technology and using technology throughout the course, it would give me first-hand experience with the topics we were covering.