January 2008 — News
Print this articleClick here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal
Designing Students' Futures on the Web
Virginia teacher empowers students to explore the technological realm
With a classroom of eager-but-apprehensive students sitting in front of her, Debby Martin threw out some ideas that the advanced Web page design students could tackle as a team. Soon the class discussion turned to the fact that teenagers often get a bad rap from their communities, which don't always "get" what they're doing or why they're doing it. "Some of them even mess up and negatively affect the entire community," said Martin, a business teacher at Hampton City Schools in Hampton, VA, which encompasses four high schools.
An educator for the last seven years, Martin was able to pair up the need to dispel those perceptions with a talented group of high school-aged Web designers who sought out nonprofits, schools, and small businesses in the area that were in need of an online boost. The group handled the Web site design (or redesign) from concept to completion for 10 different entities. "Once they put the word out," said Martin, "my students were shocked at the response that they got from organizations in the area."
By creating the sites the students not only proved that teenagers are capable of doing a lot more than just surfing social networking sites online, but it also gave the youngsters valuable "real world" work experience. "Not all of our students are going on to college," said Martin, "and they need to have the technology skills in place in order to compete for entry-level jobs."
Among the lucky recipients were an elementary school, a homeless shelter, a local surf and skate apparel shop, and a Kiwanis business group. A new crop of advanced Web page design students are maintaining the sites, as well as a few others that Martin's class has developed since the initial 10 online presences were created.
"Not everyone has the technology or coding skills needed to create Web sites," said Martin, who funds the initiative via a grant that covers the hosting fees for one year.
Martin's efforts to pair up education with technology go beyond Web site development. She's also been instrumental in working with her local community college to increase the number of technology classes for which dual enrollment is available. For that to happen the courses must first be approved through the state's community college system. Then the instructors must be certified to teach the course. Students who select Martin get dual credit at the high school and college level.
"Last year over 100 students received college credit for classes they were taking at the high school level," said Martin, who plans to offer video game technology courses in 2008, based on the high demand for such skills in the gaming marketplace. She's also training five students to show the school district's Web masters how to use technology tools like Flash, cascading style sheets and fireworks.
