Come Join Us! It's Free!

Join us on October 27th for a fun event that will mix kids, technology and fun! A bunch of awesome youth-serving organizations are getting together to show kids how much is possible when you become a creator - and not just a consumer - of technology and the web. Want to build a website? Make a video? Build a game? Design an app? All of that and more will be possible on October 27th!

Bummed that you’re a parent and not a kid? Don’t worry - our Parent Zone (brought to you by TVO Parents) has been specially designed so that the event will be really fun and informative for you, too!

Event Details:

Who should come: Most activities are designed for kids between the ages of 8 and 14, but the event is really meant to be fun for the whole family! Bring older and younger siblings along.
Date: Saturday, October 27th, 2012
Time: 1 pm - 4:30 pm
Location: Communitech (151 Charles Street West, Kitchener, ON)
What to bring: A laptop! If you don't have one or can't borrow one, please click here to request one and we will do our best to get you set up with one for the day!

What Will My Kid Do at the Event?

This event is meant to be a semi-unstructured, collaborative, creativity-inpsiring experience for youth. There is no strict agenda, because we think just a touch of chaos is good for learning. There will be several activity stations set up around Communitech. When kids arrive, they'll be free to choose where they spend their time. This gives them the opportunity to work on the projects that they personally find interesting. Some kids will float around, spending time at many stations and working on many different things, while some kids will choose to spend the majority of their time working on one project. We welcome this sort of self-directed learning.

Each station will have volunteer instructors and assistants - there to teach the kids how to use the tools, and then to support them as they think creatively and explore the power of technology. More details to come.

About the Activity Stations:

Web Page Maker presented by Mozilla Thimble:

Ever wanted to create a web page? Then you'll want to spend some time at the Mozilla Web Page Maker station on June 23rd. At this station, kids will be able to create their own web pages fast.  Whether you want to start from scratch, update a webpage that looks like it's from the 90s, make your own meme or just play around with Hackasaurus, this will be the station where you turn your ideas for the web into reality.

Video Editing presented by Memplai:

Creating Games with Scratch:

At this station, kids will learn to create a game using Scratch - a programming language with a super kid-friendly interface. Start by recreating the game Fish! and then let your creativity take you from there. Sound tricky? It can be - but it can also be really easy. Let the awesome volunteers as this station be your guide!

Paper Prototyping:

This station will foster the start-up phase of any project a child wishes to create.  Paper, markers, stencils and other craft materials - that's what you'll use at this station to bring your ideas to life! Whether you want to create an app, design a game, make plans for a video, or something else entirely, the plans created at this station will provide framework for turning the most creative ideas into reality!