NHS Technology Group Arguing

 For Space In The Classroom

By Eliza Hallabeck

Between making it to school for a 6 am conference with China and developing their own videogame, the Information Technology Leadership Academy students were busy this past school year, and now they are showing their work to the Board of Education in the hopes of creating a new class for Newtown High School.

Although the board did not decide last Tuesday whether to make the program a class or not, Kristin Violette, the advisor for the program and a teacher at Newtown High School, said she was proud of the presentation her students gave.

“I think that it was a success,” said Ms Violet, who was one of the original authors of the curriculum for the program six years ago. She said it started as a grant and it has grown and transformed into a much larger program.

During the May 20 meeting the students demonstrated the work they did over the school year and argued in favor of creating a classroom setting for the program.

“I think if it was turned into a class the program would thrive better,” Patrick Shirley, a sophomore at Newtown High School and a second year member of the after school program, said during a phone interview.

Patrick said the group is largely made up of sophomores, and turning the program into a class would potentially add to the number of students who can attend.

The students spent two hours a week working on this year’s project, according to Patrick. He said he created a commercial and the music for the game.

The video game that was created this year was explained during the meeting as a fun educational video game. It is played on the computer, and can be downloaded from the Aperture Games’ website. This year the students developed a game that allows them to create their own import-export company. The game has a “bank of questions that it runs at random,” according to Patrick. As the students answer the questions, they can progress to import and export with other countries.

 “We’ve been fortunate enough to earn several awards over the years,” Ms Violette said. Last year the group earned first place at the Connecticut Innovation Challenge at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford for web design for the third year in a row.

During the presentation, some students said they want to continue what they have been learning at the higher education level, and other students said they just enjoyed having the ability to be a part of the program.

“The work load is oriented to teachers in the classroom,” said Ms Violette, but the students in the after school program have been able to work at their own pace.

Stephen Wilmarth, who is with The Center 21st Century Skills program through Education Connection, said the students are able to interact with other students from around the world because they face the same challenges. In Connecticut the program serves more than 800 students, according to Ms Violette.

This year the program worked closely with Mr Wilmarth, who was working on spreading the program to China, and the IT Leadership Academy from Newtown High School helped to welcome the teachers from China to the program. With the use of technology the students held conferences with China.

Mr Wilmarth said the “self-assured and creative ability” of the students in Newtown is what the students China are lacking.

The interaction with the group in China also helped the students create a more lifelike character portrayal for the game, according to the presentation for the Board of Education.

The Newtown High School group is the only group participating in this program in the State of Connecticut that does not take it as a class. They have been able to take place in the regional contests because of the way the after school program is run, according to Ms Violette.

If the program were to be changed into a class, Ms Violette said one addition would be having the students use ePortfolios, online social networks that keep track of digital work primarily used for students. She also said with the addition of more students the class could be structured more like a business.

“We could actually break it down into project teams,” she said. The students would work together to form solutions to the challenges.

The students would also have more of a chance to become actively involved, she said.

“They would have more time,” said Ms Violette. “There is always so much to do.”