Elbert Students Help Show Impact of Tech Funding in Georgia Schools

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 say 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 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 Website, 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/

Monday, January 23, 2006

WRITER: Michael Childs, 706.542.5889, mdchilds@uga.edu
CONTACT: Emily Hodge, 706.542.0240, emhunter@uga.edu