Athens, Ga.
– Students from Elbert County High School
and 12 other schools across Georgia
will demonstrate to state legislators the positive impact that technology
funding is having on instruction in Georgia's public schools in an
event called Capitol Tech on Monday, January 30.
The event at the State Capitol building will spotlight
students using the fundamental technology tools necessary to succeed in the
21st century. Students and teachers are eager for their local legislators to
see firsthand how these tools are helping to increase student achievement and
build community partnerships.
Capitol Tech is a collaborative effort between Georgia's
schools and the state's 13 Educational Technology Training Centers (ETTC). The
team from Elbert County
High School in Elberton,
Ga., is representing the 15 school systems in
northeast Georgia served by
the ETTC based in the University of Georgia's College
of Education.
Elbert
County High
School teacher Sue Matthews and five of her
students, Amy Jefferson, Al McCall, Amy Moore, Gregory Power and Cody
Scarborough, will show legislators how they use technology as an important part
of their digital media curriculum.
Their project, There's No Business Like Small Business, is
designed to break down barriers between school and the real world, providing students
the opportunity to incorporate cutting-edge technology as they operate small
businesses at either a profit or a loss.
In the project, the class is divided into companies that
design, produce, market and sell custom-designed, dye-sublimated t-shirts. Each
company is required to use various software/technologies to produce graphic
designs for t-shirts, a company logo, a web site, brochures/flyers, order forms/invoices,
and a digital video commercial that advertises/promotes their company. The companies compete against each other in
the market place to see who can make the most profit by the end of the
semester.
The five students presenting at Capitol Tech represent four
of the companies involved with this project. At Capitol Tech, the students will
share information concerning the positives and negatives of their small
business experience as well as artifacts demonstrating their use of technology.
Other districts' demonstrations will include
student-designed web sites that help students understand curriculum issues,
multimedia projects that demonstrate subject comprehension and projects in
which students collaborate with teachers to produce lessons that effectively
use technology in the teaching and learning process.
The UGA Technology Training
Center has a faculty of 11 educational
technology professionals working with school districts in northeast Georgia to
improve and promote research-based methods of instruction with teachers. Their
emphases include the integration of multiple technologies to enrich the
curriculum and increase student achievement, effective uses of technology to
increase school productivity, and distance learning to provide opportunities
that would otherwise be inaccessible.
For more information on the UGA Technology
Training Center:
http://ttc.coe.uga.edu/
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Note to editors: A photo is available for download at http://ugaphoto.alumni.uga.edu/special/capitol2006elbert.jpg.
Caption:
The team from Elbert County High School representing the UGA
ETTC’s service region on Capitol Tech Day, 2006 on January 30 includes: (left to
right) Amy Moore, Sue Matthews, Greg Power, Cody Scarborough, Al McCall, and
Amy Jefferson.
