The WTA pioneers character and technology education programs through service learning.  Students and volunteers gain work-based learning eperiences by providing valuable technology products and services to their school or local community.   They gain professional skills while producing marketable products that often generate revenue to help sustain the program.  The Alliance typically partners with state education agencies, school districts, community organiziations and other formal or informal teaching institutions to implement its programs.

Traditional education methods teach skills that students may someday use to benefit their lives. Our programs "reverse engineer" learning by first identifying technology products or services that students WILL produce that WILL benefit the student, their school, and/or their community. Students then embark on obtaining the skills necessary to produce these technology products and services. This makes learning relevant and highly motivating.  It also positions the school or community organization at the center of their community.  Successful students return to help teach the technology class.  Many obtain employment from the organizations they served.  Adult teachers take on the primary role of a facilitator; coaching students and volunteers in creating and operating self-sustaining technology enterprises.

Our programs work because the rate of change in technology makes professional competence less determined by what one knows and more determined by how quickly one can learn. High school students are often able to learn technology skills much faster than adults. Thus, high school students have the capacity to outperform people with years of technology experience.  Our programs harness this capacity and apply it to improving the student's lives, their schools, and their communities. This makes learning extremely relevant.  Schools can then keep up with rapid changes precipitated by technology by producing what they consume - teachers and money.  If schools can produce more than they consume, they can grow and self-propagatge!

The wilderness formed many of humankind's greatest virtues including trust, individual responsibility, teamwork, and diligence. All began as survival skills for our forefathers who interfaced directly with the wilderness. These skills eventually became values, which eventually became the archetypes of humanity.

Today most people, especially at-risk children, have little contact with the wilderness. Their friends and neighborhoods often teach them values, which are not always positive.  Many of our programs utilize wilderness-leadership expeditions to build the teams that ultimately manage the student/volunteer-run enterprises.   We then apply these wilderness-derived skills to project-based learning in technology. The combination is amazing!