For Sunday, February 24, 2008                                  Drummer Column, Gibbs, 824 words

 

Put technology into your education

     It’s that time of year again, parents and students. It’s time for high schoolers to choose their classes for next year. The forms are out, the course descriptions are published, the presentations are being made, kids are running around campus gathering teacher signatures for electives.

     It’s time for me to speak on technology in education, by bailiwick.

     Note an odd paradox riddled with reasons and open for self determination. We have international technology standards, goals, and expectations (ISTE.org) that set detailed and specific guidelines for administrators, teachers, and students. We have national technology standards put forth by Washington, the department of education, and No Child Left Behind. We have state technology guidelines, and we have our own local district guidelines detailed in a ever-evolving 5-year plan.

     However, and this is the crux of the climb, when we get right down to the school site and the classroom, all involvement in curriculum-based technology is voluntary. There are no mandatory tech-centric classes. It is possible for a student to weave his or her way through four years of high school without every sitting in front of a computer.

     It is not mandatory that any specific teacher integrate technology into his or her classroom activities. Tech integration is all voluntary. A teacher can go an entire career here without ever doing a tech-centric lesson plan with students.

     There’s the rub. It’s up to you, boys and girls, moms and dads, to show a desire for better understanding of the academic applications of computers and software.

     What we do have is a plethora of tech-centric electives and a whole new paradigm for how they inter-relate. We are moving in a new direction with careers and technology. With guidance from the state, we have overhauled and rechristened our traditional vocational education program. It is now called Career Technical Education. Our electives are being daisy-chained to create pathways to careers. Interested in business, medicine, construction, art, broadcasting? Students can now participate in multi-year preparatory classes to better prepare them for college and their preferred field of study.

     We have nine (9) computer labs and a mobile lab at Benicia High. We offer yearbook, journalism, graphic design, biotechnology, architectural design, animation, photography, film making, keyboarding, virtual enterprise, web design, and a new and important elective for freshmen – Computer Applications for College.

     It is possible for a student to become a computer whiz kid at BHS. It simply requires personal initiative. It requires self-determination. And it requires an early start.

     Here is where I pitch the first class – a mostly freshman elective – Computer Applications for College. This course, though voluntary, is an essential gateway to proceeding to all the other tech-centric electives at BHS.

     In this class students will be introduced to operating system and network navigation, file and folder management, and the whole bouquet of top-flight software titles we have to offer. Students will explore to the advanced-feature level all of Microsoft Office and all of the Adobe Suite of programs. We’re talking Excel, Publisher, PowerPoint, Word, MovieMaker, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver, Acrobat, and so on.

     With the lessons of this class ingrained into a student’s skill set, they will glide easily into the more advanced classes that specialize in specific applications.

     For example, I teach a challenging and popular elective called Art Production, aka photography and film making. We go deep into these areas. The students who are best equipped to hit the ground running are those who feel comfortable with the basics - how to map themselves around our network to access resources, printers, and scanners; how to save, move, and submit digital work; how to structure folders to build multi-year portfolios of accomplishments, and so on.

     Students who come into my digital photography class as upper classmen without any focused technical experience have a tough go at it. They mis-name files. They lose files. They save in incorrect formats. They submit the wrong files for grading. Presentations crash and crumble because their multimedia resources are in disarray. It also slows the whole course down in the beginning as we address these issues. September through November are fraught with technical difficulties that could be remedied by taking the preferred prerequisite freshman introductory course. These same issues plague the other advanced technology classes.

     As a closing statement, I implore parents and students to plan ahead. If you want computers and technology to play a major role in your high school education, take the initiative to utilize our voluntary tech-centric electives and start early.

     I know many students feel like they are already experts because they spend so much time on their computers at home. Some feel an intro course would be beneath them. Ho. Ho. Ho. I know better from field experience. I see it every day. I know what teens do mostly on computers – they play games, listen to music, watch video, and communicate with friends. That’s important. Now, come play with Word. Come play with Excel. Come play in the major leagues.