Children of Color Need to Attend WordCamp and KidsCamps
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Posted By: William Jackson on April 03, 2018 Children of Color Need to Attend WordCamp and KidsCamps by William Jackson WordCamp Volunteer, Speaker, Organizer, Sponsor and Advocate Technology camps, STEM camps, STEAM camps and even WordCamps for kids (KidsCamp) are exploding across the nation and even globally. Bursting at the doors with kids wanting to learn to code, program, grow and develop into entrepreneurs, business owners and become million and billionares using tech. The kids that are talented with their minds not with a ball, glove, shoes, sticks, or any other appendage that extends their participation in sports or even entertainment. The 21st century is calling children of color to engage in conferences where their minds are important. The color of their skin does not matter, but the mentality behind it in too many cases does not change. It is ok to be smart and geeky or a blerd (Black Nerd) #blerd. Parents of color need to register their kids, teens, and even young adults for KidsCamp and WordCamp. To learn how to network, collaborate, cooperate and work with the diversity the world has to offer. KidsCamp at WordCamp Miami, WordCamp Jacksonville and WordCamp Atlanta and others is a special time for parents and their children to learn about technology together. The key world is TOGETHER, a world of discovery, unity, innovation, fun and building memories. Parents of color too many times say their child knows more than they do with tech, take the time to do something together! Children are learning about WordPress development, design, coding, java, Podcasting, Vblogging, Microblogging and user skills. The great thing is that kids will walk away from KidsCamp with their very own WordPress.com website. How cool is that!!! Parents must prepare their children to move beyond manual labor jobs (just over broke) and into thought leadership career paths that create leadership opportunities, management opportunties, financial stability and the ability to travel. One of the curses of children of color is that too many do not get out of their neighborhoods to explore the world around them. They seem to be stuck with no exposure to the future. Parents of color possess "techno-fear" while children of color are experiencing "techno-joy." Terms used by the British comedian Eddie Izzard. In my paraphrasing parents with techno-fear are hesitant, fearful, and worry that technology will cause the end of the world. The joy is in children with techno-joy are optimistic about their futures, careers, opportunity to get out of the "hood," and grow beyond the limitations that are set in front of them. Eddie Izzard has stated about tech, "when I get a new machine I think, “Yes! This machine will save my life, I’ll never work again!” Technology allows for the imagination to expand beyond the physical distractions around kids. Too many parents of color want sports and entertainment to be the key, but they do not realize that less than 5% of kids make it to stardom and may even fall into financial ruin, drug dependency, lose educational opportunities and other mental and emotional challenges. Understand that technology is VITAL for children of color to even sit at the table and compete, they must have skill-sets that allow them to understand how technology works, how to apply technology and the process of networking and colloboration. Understanding technology is vital, it builds thought leadership skills, it allows for exploration and innovation to be contemplated and the imagination to broaden the mental reach of children of color. The scariest thing for children of color is to state they have no dreams, no aspirations and no goals beyond just living and surviving. Humanity should be taught first, but children of color are lacking the humanity of seeing the world beyond video games that display sex, drugs, death and repeated stereotypes of people of color. Instead of children of color and families of color being consumers of technology, they should be taught to be producers of Apps, web development, programmers, coding, robotics builders, journalists and more. Technology is helping humans to solve many of lifes challenges, but the challenges are still faced because of lack of direction by parents of color to apply technology so children of color see a better future. We all need to be part of the solution to get children of color to move with a direction of purpose, thought, dreams, goals and intellectualism. If parents do not take advantage of WordCamps, KidsCamps and Tech Camps then their children may continue to be un-exposed, underemployed and unemployable because of the lack of skill-sets that are needed now and in the future. If know one knows them they will be lost in a see of invisibility, networking is key to building a Brand and building content around that Brand. Resources: WordCamp Jacksonville 2018 https://2018.jacksonville.wordcamp.org WordCamp Atlanta 2018 https://2018.atlanta.wordcamp.org WordCamp Central https://central.wordcamp.org/schedule/ If you enjoyed this article, Join HBCU CONNECT today for similar content and opportunities via email! |
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William Jackson
Educational Technology and Social Media Instructor, Edward Waters College South Carolina State University class of 1985 Member Since September 2008 |
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