At Hoban, a private school in Akron, technology classes are electives students don’t have to take to graduate.
Chris Fahey teaches technology related subjects and is the co-webmaster for the Hoban website. He said, during students’ freshman year, in collaboration with their English classes, students get an introductory technology class where they spend a class period every week in the lab.
“We teach them all the basics of Microsoft Office, so they get some time with Word, Power Point, and using Microsoft Publisher to make newsletters or tri-fold brochures,” Fahey said, “things that we think they are going to need as they go though the other classes that they are going to run into, because everybody takes it and we know we are not missing anybody.”
Apart from the English mandatory technology skills class, students at Hoban are offered classes such as digital imaging, computer graphics and desktop publishing, website development and television production — which are all taught by Fahey.
In these classes students learn about the different types of websites and audiences, and they also learn how to use Adobe Dreamweaver, InDesign and Photoshop before creating their own sample websites, and employing these skills into their school’s newspaper and yearbook. Their teachers tell them that the skills acquired in the classroom are enough to put them straight into the job market.
“We explain to the kids: the skills you get in this Photoshop quarter, you can call a photography studio and ask if they want someone to help to edit their senior pictures, for example, you have the skills, you can walk out of this classroom and get a paying job doing it on a part-time basis. So they have the skills if they are serious about going into any of these fields.”
Things aren’t much different in the Akron Public schools.
When I visited Firestone high school, a school whose technology program is focused on interactive media in the junior and senior year, Chris Pashke’s students were on computers working on musical public service announcements.
Every year his class enters a website development competition with Northeast Ohio Software Association. A student he teaches, who recently revamped the school’s website, won the competition two of the three times he entered. The first time he won, it was with a portal that takes users to viral videos and online games. The next year, the portal idea was focused just on gaming. The objective of the competition is to create a site that people will want to come back to. The site has to be interactive and operational on multiple Web browsers and mobile phones
“These students were the only ones last year able to get their site to work on every kind of phone: Android, BlackBerry and iPhone,” Pashke said. “I think that was a major component to them winning.”
In addition to website building, Pashke teaches students computer animation, videography, photography and sound editing.
Recently, Pashke sat down with a history teacher to create a video learning tool. The two used clips from war movies to show history students what war looked like during the 17 and 1800s. Pashke said bonus points are being offered in other classes to kids who make videos these days.
When the Information Technology program started in 2001, every school wanted computers.
Barbara Williams was teaching ROTC at Garfield in 2000. The director of career education knew she had a computer background and asked her to teach the up-start technology course at Ellet in 2001, which makes her one of the first teachers in the district to teach an IT program. Williams worked at Ellet for seven years.
The initial program was set up with modules or computer-assisted learning tools. The students would sit at one of 19 computers separated into groups of networking, programming, multimedia and troubleshooting. Ideally, students would spend 2-3 weeks on one subject, take a test and move on to the next.
Williams said things didn’t exactly go as planned. Students would get behind. When the time came to test out of a module, they couldn’t. The problem was students would get bored of the computer learning and not having a teacher help there to train them. Williams would be somewhere in the classroom helping another student learn a completely different module or fixing a computer. This system also required each teacher to be proficient in all four areas of study.
“We’ve now learned that modular education at the high school level is not enough to keep students entertained,” Williams said. “So we started changing things.”
Today, there are six teachers teaching at the six schools that offer IT programs. The district-wide IT program started in 2003. By that year, the curriculum was restructured to allow teachers to focus on teaching one main subject at the junior and senior level. For the first three years, there were no seniors in the classes. They had to work up to that level.
Akron Public Schools follow IT Works, a curriculum written by the state of Ohio. And the Four areas it requires the school district to cover are programming and software development, information services and support, network systems and interactive-media production.
Within those units, there are different concepts that have to be covered. And the technology education is integrated into the student’s regular class work. All credits go towards graduation.
Until last year, Joshua Grove taught programming at Kenmore for six years. The curriculum was sensitive to the different technological backgrounds the students came from.
Kenmore is the only school teaching computer programming. East is the only school teaching networking. Firestone and Ellet teach multimedia techniques, while Garfield and Buchtel teach repair and troubleshooting. Grove said he taught using project-based learning. That means students learn through completing projects.
“In career education, there’s a huge emphasis on teaching concepts and having students learn by completing a project, “ Williams said. She sees lecture as one of the weakest ways of learning.
Students in Grove’s programming classes complete a high-end programming project with java, C++ or HTML. Students also helped with the school’s new webpage. Some students rebuilt old computers from scratch. There was also a project where students would set up an entire network system for a company or strictly for class.
Williams said one project her IT students get excited about creating is the senior DVD. Students photograph the senior class, get some video and compile it into a feature. Then, the class sells it to whoever wants to buy it.
Students start freshman or sophomore year and continue the program until senior year. In the first year, students get familiar with computers. They are responsible for learning what all the parts of a computer do. Teachers go as far as to take the computer apart and ask the students to reassemble it. Other lessons range from hardware knowledge to Microsoft Office.
During their junior year students can travel to other schools offering whatever area they prefer. Classes are in three-hour blocks. Right now, Linda Cottman, technology teacher at East high school, says there are four seniors scheduled for her programming class. Pashke’s senior class is has 15 students. Grove said Buchtel and Garfield have enough upper classmen for small tech-help groups that travel the building helping teachers with issues.
“The good thing about the programs is that in every one of those high schools, those senior-level students, regardless of what their background is, assist the building tech coordinator,” Grove said.
There was a recent computer virus outbreak in the district. The virus was traveling between the computers in the schools and computers in students’ homes. Currently, students are not allowed to plug flash drives or phones into the computers. This isn’t the only restriction administrators have put on the computers.
Williams sees YouTube as a good resource. Tutorials on different software can be found there. But the site is blocked along with all social networking sites. Williams wishes teachers were able to teach students how to utilize those sites professionally. Even popular professional networking site Linkden is blocked in the district.
Teachers find material online they could incorporate into lesson plans. They also used smart phones and clickers to take polls and class quizzes. Most schools in the district have Smart Boards and clickers. Pashke still lets his students use the modules when they need additional, “interactive” help learning things.
Some students who don’t do well in their conventional classes thrive in career education programs, Williams said.
There’s an exam based on the IT standards that juniors and seniors have to take and pass it before they graduate. In his eight years teaching the program, Pashke has only had one student not pass the test. That student still graduated, but was not endorsed by the state in computer technology like students who pass.
Pashke’s first group of students ever to take the classes is graduating college this year. One student is currently working as a website designer, and he has a few students who major in computer engineering and some in art.
“Today, you have to have a little bit of knowledge about everything,” Grove said. ‘No one wants a programmer who doesn’t know how to load paper in a printer. And no one wants a hardware guy who can’t type.”