GRAPHIC DESIGN CLASSES GO ONLINE

(January 11, 2008) . . .  Technology improves our lives everyday and it is making learning easier, too! At the Indiana County Technology Center’s (ICTC), technology is providing many benefits to students enrolled in the Graphics and Electronic Media (GEM) program by using an online curriculum to supplement the daily class curriculum. Beginning this school year, eSchool Builder, an online instructional delivery option, was offered to the GEM students, to provide multiple opportunities to succeed in this program area.

GEM is a fast-growing program at ICTC that introduces creative graphic design and production technologies such as desktop publishing, photo editing, and illustration. GEM is always working toward the newest and most helpful educational tools that are available.

The idea for an online curriculum was suggested by Mr. Jon Krecota, GEM instructor, and discussed at the annual advisory committee meeting where local business partners, parents, students, and the teachers sit down to discuss how learning may be improved.

Incorporating an online curriculum became a possibility when Mr. Krecota and Mrs. Carol Fry, ICTC Director, wrote a grant to make this new technology a choice for the students that attend GEM classes. The grant helped ICTC fund the development of the curriculum.

With the funds from the grant in hand, ICTC worked with the Armstrong and Indiana Intermediate Unit (ARIN) and their eSchool Builder online curriculum program to create ICTC’s online curriculum. The ARIN eSchool Builder online program is provided to all school districts in the Indiana and Armstrong counties. After Mr. Krecota developed the core curriculum, Ms. McKeever, GEM instructional assistant, worked with the eSchool Builder program to establish the GEM online curriculum onto the eSchool Builder website. This online program allows the ICTC GEM students to log onto the ARIN website with a username and password. Students can access a variety of areas, such as the GEM course information, worksheets, and websites.

Alyssa Deabenderfer, a senior from Indiana High and a third-year GEM student, has positive thoughts about using the new option. Alyssa stated that she appreciates that the online curriculum eliminates books and papers that students carry back and forth to school, and that she doesn’t need to worry about losing any of the papers when she needs them to study. It also helps that you can access the information at home because if you are absent, or forget to bring the packet from home, you can print out the information.

Having the curriculum online also allows students to advance since they are able to connect to the eSchool Builder site from any internet access. Other program areas at the ICTC are learning more about what the GEM classroom is doing and ICTC instructors that are interested will be taking classes to learn more about it. What has been developed so far is just a small stepping stone to all of the possibilities that the ICTC students will be using in the future.

For more information on the ICTC, click here.

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