Communications of the ACM
Geek Squad Exec: 'what Happens If More of Our Innovators Are Women?'
Best Buy's Geek Squad Summer Academy in action.
Credit: Best Buy
Best Buy's Geek Squad Summer Academy has grown from a one-day, one-city, all-girls camp into a nationwide coed program that will host nearly 10,000 students in more than 20 U.S. states this summer.
Geek Squad partners with different nonprofit organizations, including Girl Scouts of America and Boys & Girls Clubs of America, to plan camps around the United States. "The tech field as a whole definitely needs a different point of view, it needs new innovators, and it needs its innovators to look different from the innovators we've seen in the past," says Geek Squad Academy's Moira Hardek.
The curriculum is designed for students ages 10 to 16 who are familiar but not proficient with technology. Classes cover topics such as creating digital photography, videos, and music, and developing network connectivity.
The Geek Squad camp encourages brainstorming and the sharing of ideas by participants. Hardek says a troubleshooting element is incorporated into every class, and the academy and its partners share the goal of increasing the accessibility of technology to a more diverse audience.
From Network World
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2012 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
No entries found