December 2006 — Features
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2006 Innovators
:: ALL HANDS-ON TECH
Innovator: Jana Hambruch,
Dunbar High School (FL)
Breakthrough: IT vocational training
With a $3.3 million Magnet School Assistance Program grant from the US Department of Education, Dunbar High School in southwestern Florida was able to launch the Academy for Technology Excellence, an initiative that provides high-end technology training and experience to high school students.
Specifically, the ATE program offers students in grades 9 to 12 hands-on instruction from highly qualified, certified instructors. Seniors in the program even get their own computers. All ATE students have the opportunity to acquire up to 13 nationally and internationally recognized IT certifications during their time in high school. The academy also offers honors credit and meets the requirements for the Florida Gold Seal Vocational Scholarship.
WELL TRAINED Dunbar High’s
ATE program provides students with
professionally recognized IT certifications.
The program was the brainchild of Jana Hambruch, project director for the Office of Zone and Attractor Programs at Dunbar. Though Hambruch designed the program to mimic the real-world training students would encounter as full-fledged IT professionals, the academy works just like any other school. There are classes. The classes are taught by teachers. The teachers give homework.
What’s different about the ATE’s curriculum is the learning environment. Departing from the typical chalkboard-oriented classroom, students learn in laboratory facilities that have been completely renovated and outfitted with such devices as LCD projectors, Smart Technologies Smart Boards, custom computer desks, ergonomic chairs, high-end computers with removable hard drives, and LCD flat-screen monitors. The academy also is implementing cutting-edge technologies, including VMware virtualization technology and Dell PowerEdge servers.
Last year, 100 students enrolled in the program, and 59 of them earned at least one IT certification. Of those 59, 30 students earned two or more certifications. The school’s most prolific student, junior Sam Williams, was able to earn six technology certifications in one year.
By the end of the year, Dunbar students were asked to participate in a joint venture with LearnTV, a student-operated educational TV station in Lancaster, SC, through which the students shared their expertise in a series of television programs about technology.
The ATE continues to grow. Current enrollment is approximately 125 students. Hambruch says the school’s ultimate goal is to enroll a maximum of 360 students and to offer a waiting list for others who want to attend.
The ATE’s grant runs out at the end of next July. Hambruch says she will focus her efforts on sustaining the program without the aid of federal funds. Possibilities include donations from individuals or organizations, and sponsorships from some of the corporations already supporting the school: Cisco Systems, Gateway, Microsoft, and the Computing Technology Industry Association.
:: STUDENTS CONNECTING STUDENTS
Innovator: Dru Urquhart,
Spruce Creek High School (FL)
Breakthrough: School management system
DRU’S CREW Urquhart’s students
helped her develop CreekConnect.
During the summer of 2002, Dru Urquhart, computer programming teacher for Spruce Creek High School in Port Orange, FL, set out to build an online gradebook program that would relieve teachers of excessive paperwork and recordkeeping. It was a big job, so she enlisted the help of students in the school’s technology club. “If students are allowed to work on a project such as this,” she says, “the pride and ownership is authentic and life-enriching.”
It took about a year to write the initial software, build and set up web and database servers, and carefully choose a secure method of encryption and account access. But by the time CreekConnect was introduced schoolwide in August 2003, it had evolved into a total school management system.
“Writing software is an enormous undertaking, yet the rewards are great,” Urquhart says. “The program has helped so many teachers, students, and parents communicate.”
What makes CreekConnect so special? First, when parents and students open accounts, they are the only ones who can see the individual student records. An e-mail component of the system permits parents, teachers, and students to communicate with each other through comments and questions. Another feature enables students to find their grade point averages. For any class, a student can enter a grade, then the system recalculates, showing that grade’s impact on the GPA. Most impressive, all of this information can also be accessed by a cell phone.
“This is a win-win situation for our students and our school,” Urquhart says. “Our students are learning and applying high-end programming and database skills while developing a cost-free program that can be used by our entire school.”
There are currently 217 staff and faculty members, 2,683 students, and 1,590 parents using CreekConnect. Teachers use the program for tasks such as inputting grades, creating seating charts, and collecting assignments electronically. Students use CreekConnect as a student planner, to submit assignments, to check grades, and to communicate with teachers. Parents are given the same access as students, with the exception of being unable to submit assignments. The student technology team has also developed a handful of CreekConnect modules for the different departments around campus, including the attendance office, the dean’s office, and the media center. All of these modules work together to assist with management of information throughout the entire school.
The system is maintained by Urquhart and a small group of third- and fourth-year computer programming students, who help write changes and additions to CreekConnect based on community input. “We get ideas almost daily from teachers, students, and parents on how to make the program better,” Urquhart says. “We will just continue to take these ideas and implement the ones that are possible.”
