Masters of the Web: Students Create Their High School's Own Inte

Mason French is explaining how he and his team are preparing to build an intracampus Web site for the School of Arts and Enterprise (SAE), in Pomona, California. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Maybe we\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ll choose the account-management system from MySpace, and use the picture function from Flickr, and upload videos the same way YouTube does,\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" French muses.

French is not a professional Web designer. In fact, he\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s not even old enough to vote. He\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s a high school senior and a member of SAEmedia.net, one of fourteen class projects the five-year-old School of Arts and Enterprise offers to its students. Along with the other 430 students in this public charter high school, French is acquiring marketable skills through a curriculum founded on project learning. Teachers originally designed and ran all of the school\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s project classes, which meet daily. This year, however, the students are guiding the process -- not only in deciding what they want to learn but frequently by teaching themselves as well.

Enterprising Education:

School of Arts and Enterprise students Mason French and Bridget Henry flank teacher Eric Edens, coordinator of SAEmedia.net.

Credit: Courtesy of Daniel Huizar

Finding Inspiration

It\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s still early in the semester, and French and his classmates on the design team are deciding on the look of their intracampus site. The school has a Web site, but the students wanted one of their own that would contain school news, calendar listings, homework assignments, and more.

SAEmedia.net project teacher Eric Edens, a first-year educator, is amazed to find how self-motivated his students are -- even the ones who seemed the least engaged. Edens relates the story about one student, a gang member, who was uninterested in researching the Web site he\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'d been assigned.

When Edens talked to him one-on-one, the teen said he knew of another site that might serve as a good model for the school\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s site. The student then brought up the National Football League\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s home page and explained that the student-created site could organize classes the same way the NFL\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s home page lists football teams.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"The biggest trick I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ve found is that kids have to be interested in the project,\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" reports Edens. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"It\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s a matter of helping them, allowing them to study something that they\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'re interested in, but guiding them in such a way that it\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s productive.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"

The Right Tool for Every Job

Though the design team determines the look of the site, the development team is making decisions of its own. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"We\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'re trying two content-management systems, which is what people use to run their Web sites,\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" explains junior Bridget Henry, who leads the development team. The public school has limited means to purchase often-expensive software, so teachers often look to free open source programs.

The students had narrowed the options down to Drupal and Frog; one of these software packages would be the backbone that helps students organize and manage content. Though both programs offer features such as blogging capabilities and customizable site layouts, the students picked Drupal because it allows for a more intricate and complex Web site.

Once the site is up and running, Edens\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s students will turn to their sister project class, SAE Media, which is busy churning out content to post on the site. This newspaper team plans on designing its paper using the free software Scribus and will publish a printed version biweekly. When students want to contribute articles to the site, they can use Scribus to easily convert the content to HTML code, which the SAEmedia.net students will then copy and paste onto the site.

The SAEmedia.net team also wants to link to other student-produced content. For instance, the team plans to link to the video team\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s news shows, which are posted on YouTube. To include student radio shows, the team will convert audio recordings into files in the MP3 format using LAME, an audio encoder, and embed those MP3s on the site using a Flash player. This synergy, reflecting the multifaceted nature of today\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s media, is a key component of the school\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s class projects. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Everything intertwines with everything else,\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" notes sophomore Chelsea Brown, one of three student project managers for the SAE Media class.

The Final Product

At the end of the semester, the students hope to have a live, dynamic campus Web site that includes video links, news articles, radio programming, and a host of other features. And if they fall short of that vision, that\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s OK, too. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"It\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s personal growth that defines the successfulness of a project,\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" says Brown. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"It\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s more about helping us grow and preparing us than having a successful project for the school.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" Ultimately, the true goal is to produce not perfect products but passionate, self-motivated students.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"The biggest skill they\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'re learning is teaching themselves how to do something, really, because I can\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t teach all these kids everything,\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" teacher Eric Edens reflects. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"So most of what they\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'re doing is going out there and finding resources, learning about them, and implementing them. They\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'re really becoming self-learners, which is probably the best skill they can have.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"

网站专家：创建高中生自己的互联网

Mason French正在向人介绍他如何和他的团队一起给位于加州Pomona的艺术与企业学校建立一个校际间的网络站点。“也许我们会选择使用MySpace的账户管理系统，借鉴Flickr的图象功能，和模仿YouTube的视频上传”，French若有所思地说。

French并不是一个专业网络设计者。他甚至还没有到投选票的年龄。他仅仅是一个高中三年级的学生，并且是SAEmedia.net的会员，以及十四个由成立五年的艺术与企业学校提供的班级项目中的一个。在这家授予特权的公立高中，跟其他430个学生一起，French从这个项目课程的学习中受益无穷。老师们最初设计和管理所有有这些项目的学校，并且每天见面。但是到了今年，学生成为了过程中的主导：他们不仅仅决定自己想学什么，并且常常是自己教授自己。

寻找灵感

现在一个学期刚刚开始，Frech和他设计组的同学正在决定怎么布置他们的校际网站。这个学校拥有一个网页，但是学生们希望拥有一个自己的网页来保存学校新闻，各种日程，家庭作业等等。

SAEmedia.net项目的老师Eric Edens，教龄一年，惊喜地看到他的学生的进取心如何，以及那些最不上心额人。Edens说起小组中一个学生对研究网页设计并不怎么感兴趣，但是已经被分配了任务。

当Edens与他面对面交谈时，这个小组说他知道另一个网站也许对他们的网站是一个好的示例。于是他打开洲际足球联盟的主页并且解释了这个由学生设计的网站如何能组织班级，就像NFL网站里的足球队名单一样。

“最让我绞尽脑汁的事情就是必需让孩子们对项目产生兴趣，”Edens说。“这样不仅可以协助他们学习自己喜欢的东西，并且指导他们如何有效率的工作。”

找到对的工具

虽然设计组决定网页的外观，开发租仍然要自己做决定。“我们试图用两种内容管理系统，这也是其他人经营网站的作法，”三年级的Bridget Henry说，他是开发小组的组长。这个公立学校仍然会为支付一些价格高昂的软件手紧，所以老师们经常看准那些可以免费开放资源的项目。

学生们的选择已经被限制在Drupal和Frog；有时，一个这样的软件包能支撑起学生组织和管理所有的内容。虽然这两种程序都能提供博客功能和可定制页面的特点，不过学生们还是选择了Drupal，因为它可以提供一些更复杂深奥的网页代码。

一旦这些网页开始运行，Edens的学生们就会转移到兄弟班的项目SAE Media，然后忙于将这些内容发布到网站上。报刊小组计划用免费的软件Scribus设计他们的报纸，并且将发行印刷版的半月刊。当学生们希望去给网页投稿时，他们可以用Scribus很容易的把内容转换撑HTML代码，然后将它粘贴在SAEmedia的网站上。

SAEmedia.net小组也同样希望与其他学生制作的内容链接。比如，他们打算和视频小组的新闻秀交换链接，这样就可以把他们发布到YouTube上。为了搜索收音机节目，小组还会把音频录像带用LAME（一种音频解码器）转换成MP3格式，并且把这些MP3用Flash播放器放在网站上。这样将当今媒介的方方面面作为一种协同作用展示如来是这个学校的班级项目最关键的一环。“个体之间互相交织，”二年级的Chelsea Brown提到，他是三个管理SAE Media班级的人员之一。

最终产品

到了期末，学生们对这个涵盖了视频链接，新闻评论，调频节目和其他特色站点的多姿多彩的校园网站就像期待着一个新生命。况且就算它看上去差了点，那也不错了。“这个个人成长的过程是针对一种项目的成功，”Brown说。“它更多的是协助了我们自己的成长而不是为学校做一个成功的项目。”最终，这个真实的目标将会产生一些热情的，积极进取的学生，而不是完美无暇的作品。

“他们学到的最大的技能便是教会他们自己如何做事，真的，因为我无法教授他们儿童所需要的所有内容，”Eric Edens感慨道。“所以他们目前最重要的就是走出这里，并且去找到资源，并且学会这些资源然后去实践它们。这才是作为一个真正的有自学能力的人的开始，并且很可能是他们所能拥有的最有价值的一种技能。”