Area students to benefit from high-tech partnership

Vanderbilt is teaming up with Lipscomb University and Dell Computers to raise the technology skills of public high school students in Davidson and Wilson counties.

In announcing details of the Dell Student Technology Leaders program in Nashville, Dell CEO Michael Dell said that trainers from Vanderbilt and Lipscomb will teach computer and Internet skills to teachers and students at 10 high schools.

The trainers from Vanderbilt are staff of the University's Virtual School, a continuing education program that has provided technology training for more than 30,000 Tennessee teachers. Both Vanderbilt's and Lipscomb's participants will provide program management, curriculum development, transportation of the Dell Student Technology Leaders lab to each participating school, student assessments and student volunteers for mentoring and training.

As part of the program, student teams at each school will develop technology projects as the lab travels from school to school. Those projects will be entered in a competition at the end of the school year with the winning school receiving a donation of Dell PCs.

A survey of public school students in Middle Tennessee last year showed young people are much more likely to learn about technology and the Internet at home than in school. This program seeks to change the way students receive technological training.

"Young students are eager to expand their computing skills," said Chancellor Gordon Gee. "What they're looking for is help in learning to utilize the computer as a problem-solving tool. We can expand the skill set of students and teachers by employing the Vanderbilt Virtual School model."

Jan Zanetis, assistant director of the Vanderbilt Virtual School, added that, while the Dell program is being implemented in 10 schools, "we hope the idea of setting up technology teams will spread to public and private schools across the state. If any other school wants help, the Vanderbilt Virtual School is ready to work with them to establish a technology team."

The training for the Dell program will be conducted on a Dell TrueMobile wireless computer lab, made up of a TrueMobile wireless cart, with 24 Inspiron 4000 notebook computers manufactured in Tennessee, technical support and necessary software, all donated by Dell.

"Teachers are being asked to be creative in the classroom," Dell said. "With technology like the TrueMobile wireless lab, it's a lot easier to do that. Learning isn't tied to a single classroom or even a single building, and it's all done on an open-standard system, the same technology students will use in the workplace later in life."

The Vanderbilt Virtual School, founded in 1991 with support from the Nashville business community, partners with schools and community groups to make the most powerful use of technology for their organizations. Working with K-12 schools, universities, informal educators and the community, the Vanderbilt Virtual School matches curriculum needs with educational standards and links K-12 classrooms to resources beyond their four walls.