March 2003 — Educator's Evaluation
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CrossTec Corp.'s NetOp School
Located in the heart of the high-tech Washington, D.C., corridor, Forest Park High School is Prince William County's first school to specialize in information technology. Forest Park offers students a traditional academic degree, along with a unique and competitive information technology program with more than 700 of its 2,400 students enrolled. Open to qualified students, the IT program offers an academy setting for standard and advanced certifications in computer networking, digital media and graphics, advanced math and programming.
Forest Park has forged a number of business partnerships with companies such as Microsoft, Gateway, Carnegie Learning, the U.S. Department of Defense and CrossTec
Corp. The purpose of these high-tech partnerships is to influence our curriculum and approach to instruction. Knowing where technology is headed helps us understand how to prepare our teachers and their training, create up-to-date student internships and influence how we use technology in our school. Successful use of technology in the classroom is a precept at Forest Park, and one software program we use to ensure that success is CrossTec's NetOp School.
At the high school level, particularly at a high-tech school like ours, the classroom is where the torture test of teens and teachers determines if the software will survive and add real value to the learning process. Overall, we found that NetOp software helped us in three areas with our networks: instruction, classroom productivity and supervision.
Getting started with the software program was quite simple, and CrossTec even offers free tech support to those who need it. Teachers were immediately drawn to the program's "Attention" button, which freezes all of the computers in a classroom with a single click. The ability to broadcast any screen anywhere was also an instant hit among teachers. Viewing all the student screens at a glance provided feedback for the teachers to keep students on task and temptations to a minimum.
Learn and Serve
Brian Hackett, a social studies instructor at Forest Park High School, is the director of the school's Learn and Serve Program, which focuses on the integration of education and technology. The program also makes it a primary goal to address a technology-based approach to community service. One of these projects involves our teenagers tutoring senior citizens on computers. With NetOp School, the students are able to teach through visual instructions on each computer screen. Now, the seniors are able to track the mouse movements on their individual screens and make requests for assistance that can be addressed by the students.
In addition, our students have used NetOp School to teach elementary and middle school students. We are also excited about the progress that has been made using NetOp School with our special education students. The software provides student volunteers with a tool that has helped to educate all of the community's members. Thus, making the program a valuable asset in reaching our primary mission with the Learn and Serve Program.
See below for more examples of how Forest Park educators use NetOp School.
