I have been associated with the Wilderness Technology Alliance (WTA) for several years. My background includes being in one of the first groups of teachers to be trained for facilitating computer refurbishment, conducting service learning, and, computer distribution by student learners. Currently I teach school at Ocosta Jr/Sr High and I am also the elected Mayor of Westport, Washington.

The mission of the WTA to pioneer character and technology education through service learning has been accomplished under my direction in the Concrete School District and now in the Ocosta School District located in Westport, WA. I can tell you first hand that the excitement generated by this program has helped to keep students in school, give them personal pride from the accomplishment of helping others, and to build team working skills.

Any business or organization that contributes to the WTA ongoing computer refurbishment program is investing in the future of skilled students who will be ready to enter the workplace upon completion of the program. The WTA experience is rewarding both for the student, and the community alike. Non profit organizations and low income families receive the refurbished computers repaired by students on a regular basis.

Please grant your financial support to the Wilderness Technology Alliance for the future success of student learning projects in our community, which is your community too.

Prepared by Heidi Newsome and Jennifer Meisel, June 25, 2004.

For the past three years,  Kennewick High School Multimedia students in Richland, Washington have worked with Monument staff  to create interactive websites hosted by the non-profit organization “Hands on the Land” (http://www.handsontheland.org/home.cfm). This project has been an overwhelming success for the Hanford Reach National Monument and for the students of Sara McReynolds’ Multimedia class.  

The project has benefited both the students and the Monument.  The students had the opportunity to be outdoors and experience various aspects of the Monument. They learned about wildlife, the shrub/steppe ecosystem, and the history of the Hanford site – information that they wouldn’t have learned in the classroom.  Further, because this isn’t a science or biology course, this creative project provides an opportunity to a group of students who wouldn’t ordinarily be exposed to the outdoors, or have a chance to experience and appreciate the natural world.  For many of the students, it is their first trip to a unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System.  It is also their first exposure to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Service’s mission to conserve and protect wildlife and habitat.

The Kennewick High School Multilingual Media students worked closely with Monument staff to create three websites.  To join the class, students had to be bilingual and bi-literate, and able to communicate fluently in at least two languages.  Every media product they created was produced in at least two languages.                   

The first product was a website describing Mammal species of the Hanford Reach National Monument.  During this first year of the project, students were able to learn about the ecology of their assigned species, and also were able to develop a professional product for a real client. The students were motivated to use technology to display a variety of information, make the information accessible, and use care to respect copyrights.  Students drew their own depictions of the animals they profiled, and combined scientific information with original stories, animations or poetry for the site.  This first product, created from scratch, became the model for subsequent years and themes for additional websites.   

The second year, a website describing common bird species seen around the Monument was created.  Birds are conspicuous and visible, therefore, the field trips were very successful in connecting the students with their subject and inspiring them to create accurate and informative website profiles of the species featured.  During this season, even bird sounds were captured with digital recording equipment and added as an extra feature to the website.  In addition to Spanish, this site also had Bosnian translation, and animations in Russian.  

The goal of Hands on the Land is to provide a national network of field classrooms to enhance learning of K-12 students.  The organization links high school technology classes with federal agencies; students then interview agency representatives and develop websites for them.  For this particular project, the Monument staff provided guidance on website content and hosted fall and spring field trips to the Monument for the students.  The students website creations are also linked to the Hanford Reach National Monument website http://hanfordreach.fws.gov.

One of the most valuable life-lessons students learned from this experience was that their work had to be constantly revised and edited until they produced a high-quality product that met the needs of their client.  Further, assignments in this class provided students with marketable skills, and critical exposure to emerging technologies (digital cameras, digital recording, computer software and hardware, etc.)  that they would not have necessarily received in a standard English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) course format.  The instructor, Sara (Sarita) McReynolds deserves recognition for her efforts in continuing to interface with Hands-on-the-Land, her efforts to assist the students with the integration of their website, and the posting of the website on the Internet.  Sarita was tireless in trying to work out technological problems associated with the type of project the students were producing.

For the Monument, the sites created by the multilingual class are currently the only pages of the Monument website that are in languages other than English.  This gives the Monument a source for outreach to non-English speaking populations.

I was very impressed with the program and very encouraged with the results. We are proud to be part of such a fine initiative to help at-risk youth. Thank you so much for the opportunity to make a difference!!

Marina Moreno

Vice President, Web Publishing Sales, North America

Dear Mr. Dickard:

I am an educator of 28 years. Currently, a Principal and teacher at a grades 7-12 alternative school. I have, also, instructed undergraduate teachers' college classes for the last 15 years.

I've seen all the programs that are supposed to be the "new wave," but are the same as some past program, just a new name.

This Tech Camp/Wilderness Camp is one of the most refreshing, inspiring, and motivating approaches I've seen in years. My students are extremely excited and motivated toward goals beyond their previous, highest dreams.

Please review the data and let us show you an even more impressive performance in the following years.

Best regards to you and your family.

Stephen T. Busby

I'd like to take a moment to comment on the extraordinary job Richard did To train the students in Director while he was at the Technology Camp.

I went in to the camp with extremely low expectations on what we would be able to accomplish in just 4 days. My expectations were based on lots of experience--I spent 9 years at Microsoft using Director (starting with its earliest incarnation, VideoWorks) to create prototypes, demos, and products, I've run a multimedia production company for the past 5 years, and I've taught users Director at the high school and college level. So I know what Director's like, and I was skeptical that 100 students with no prior experience and lots of different media could create a professional CD-ROM in so short a time.

At the end of the first day of training (which ran from 9:30 am to 10 pm), I had completely changed my mind. Richard had done an amazing thing. He had taken a crowd of 100 students (all of whom were labeled "at-risk") that were crammed into a too-small and too-hot room, and gotten them completely enthused on learning how to use Director to tell their stories. For the next 2 days, he had the students (and teachers) listening to his every word, waiting excitedly to see what he would teach them to do next. I have never seen anything like it, in my years at Microsoft or in the education field.

Richard was able to do this because of several things. It was clear that he LOVED Director, Flash, SoundEdit, and the other products in MacroMedia's suite of tools. His passion for the things you could create with the tools available burned within him. Richard also knew the tools inside and out, and was able to explain how to do things simply and easily. Director can be a very complex program, or a very simple one. Richard made learning it simple.

But the most important thing Richard did, and unfortunately I don't see this very often, is that he looked at the people he was teaching, and he tailored his presentation to them. All too often, I see teachers who are experts on their subject matter fail to judge their audience, and the result is disastrous. Richard figured out exactly what his audience needed, and created a course specifically for them.

Because of Richard's enthusiasm, knowledge, and personal interest, the students got hooked. Kids were at their computers from 8:30 am until midnight, working with Director, asking questions, pushing the envelope of what they could do. I was quite impressed.

Impressed enough, in fact, to decide to make some changes in my life. Prior to the camp, I had decided that I would not return to the alternative high school where I had been teaching for the past 2 years. I felt that I wasn't getting enough out of it, and that I couldn't reach my students. During the camp, though, I changed my mind. I decided I would stay at the school to work specifically with the 3 students I had brought. I felt that they had been given a wonderful opportunity to learn some fantastic skills, and they were very interested in continuing to learn. So I feel it's my responsibility to finish what Richard started. Sincerely,

Marc Shor
Excel Alternative High School
Ellensburg, WA

I am a teacher who had the opportunity to take two students to the Mount Rainier Technology Camp put on by Trinity Technology. I want to thank Macromedia for its support by sending Richard Jenkins to train the students at the camp. Richard did a wonderful job. He grabbed the students' attention and kept them learning even though the room was overcrowded and extremely hot.  Trinity Camp allowed two of my students to have experiences they would never have had otherwise. Maria had such a great time she was crying the last day of camp because she didn't want to go home. Juan's English as a Second Language teacher had told me that his use of English improved significantly over the summer. We both think this is due to his interactions with students on the hike at Mount Rainier and at Trinity Camp. Juan and Maria are two students whose lives have been positively affected by this program.  I urge you to consider continued support of this program. It really is making a difference in the lives of these students.

Sincerely, David Willer

Dave Willer
Social Studies Teacher
Mount Vernon High School
314 North 9th Street
Mount Vernon, WA 98273
(360) 428-6100 x2156
dwiller@iris.mtvernon.wednet.edu

I have been a certificated classroom teacher in the State of Washington since 1996. After a 23 year career as an officer in  the US Navy, I obtained a vocational education teaching certificate and began teaching computer technology in 1996 as part of the International Baccalaureate program at Mt. Rainier High School in the Highline School District. Beginning in 2000 I have been a computer instructor & Technical support staff member at Ballard High School in the Seattle School District.

I am writing this letter in support of the Wilderness Technology Alliance (WTA). I have been a member of WTA since 2002. Since completing the initial WTA training program, I have actively made use of WTA annual computer donations to pursue a hands-on computer refurbishing and donation program at Ballard High School. In particular, I have extensively used WTA computers as instructional tools in my A+ curriculum classes. I have also used these computers in my deserving student donation program for students without computers at home. My students and I have also donated technology to the Seattle area Rotary District 5030 Computers for the World project. As an example of my most recent activity, I am presently engaging several students in using the WTA facility in White Center to test out an automated installation program for setting up re-formatted hard drives using only open-source software. We hope to use this protocol to enchance the WTA curriculum by including this installation procedure in future WTA training materials.

In my experience, WTA has been an invaluable resource for the furtherance of my computer training programs for high school students. Without WTA support, I would simply not be able to maintain a realistic or meaningful computer technology program.

John Keithly

To Lou and Neil,

I would like to thank you for all the time you put into the wonderful camps that I attended this summer. The whole summer I was looking forward to the hike up on Mt. Rainier. It was pretty much as I expected, not really grueling for me but I am in pretty good shape. Besides I like the outdoors. I had such a great time. When it came time for the computer camp I was kind of nervous. I don't really know that much about computers, I mean I know how to turn them on and check my email and get to the web and stuff. I never really knew anything about the inside of a Computer until after that camp. I feel that I really learned a lot. I wish it would have lasted a little longer so that I could learn more.  I must say that I am glad that I was able to partake in the whole program! I hope that this opportunity is offered to many people continuing on into the future. Thanks again for all the time and effort. It was greatly appreciated!

Rena White

My Name is Leann Couch, I am employed with the Toutle Lake School District here in Toutle Washington.

I applied for out District to be a part of this program.  When we were selected to be a part of this, I knew the kids that would be the best choices for this, and we proceeded to work with them to prepare them for this great opportunity that Lou was making happen for our kids.

I have seen growth in the 4 students I took, I have seen them pull together when they trusted NO ONE! I have seen them work past bed time and skip breakfast to get their part of the CD ROM completed. This was so rewarding to see these kids grow and learn to trust.

I hope, that if you have worked with children of disadvantaged homes, or have children of your own, you will do what ever is in your power to make this grant happen for Trinity Technology!

I say this because Trinity Technology obviously has a heart for helping kids and I have seen what they can do. My hat is off to the whole team there for all the hard work they have put into making this program a success!

Thank you, for taking the time to read all these comments from all of us that had the privilege of being a small part of this program.

Sincerely,
Leann Couch