Union City high school seniors will finally get the chance to show off the schools’ advanced technology programs. A wireless web design contest sponsored by Sprint PCS was launched at both Emerson and Union Hill high schools on Wednesday.
Sprint PCS, the leader in wireless technology, chose the Union City school district to launch their “Heroes of Technology” contest because of the schools’ interest in technology programs.
“This is a very interesting school district, with the amount of work the school does with technology,” said Sprint PCS representative Kathleen Dunleavy.
“The Union City Board of Education has always supported technology-based educational initiatives and has taken a leadership role in delivering these types of programs to our students,” said Superintendent of Schools Thomas Highton.
The contest, which asks high school seniors to design a wireless web page for their school, was designed by the Center for Children and Technology, a division of the Education Development Center, Inc. a national non-profit organization committed to quality education.
One winner from each school will receive a $1,500 scholarship. The money will be awarded to the winning individual or divided among the team members.
Sprint PCS has also agreed to set up two dates on which the students in both schools will be able to attend seminars on how to turn computer science into a career.
Designing a WAP page
Both Emerson and Union Hill high schools have many technology programs that have taught their students to become familiar with Internet languages such as HTML and JAVA script. Seniors in the schools’ Teen Tech program (which allows students to work after school repairing computers), the schools honors Computer Applications Mentoring Program (CAMP), CISCO program, where students are trained in computer networking, and Computer Application 3 and 4 programs were invited to take part in this contest.
“These students are very literate in html and other graphic designing software,” said technology teacher and webmaster at Emerson High School Ela Meseguer.
However, the students will have to learn to write their websites for this contest in Wireless Mark-Up Language. This language allows websites stored on the Internet to fit onto the smaller Wireless Application Protocol. “If you know one [computer language],” said a CAMP Teacher at Union Hill High School Karen Valentine encouragingly to the students that came to learn more about the contest. “It is very easy to learn another.”
“The students will really be able to learn from it, and the teachers will, too,” said DunLeavy, adding that this will give teachers the opportunity to fine-tune their skills.
Each school received two Sprint PCS wireless phones so that the students could view their websites as they are working on them.
“This is a very small space,” said representative from the Center for Children and Technology Daniel Light, holding up a wireless phone to show the small screen. “You will have to be very creative.”
The five CAMP students at Union Hill High School are taking on this contest as their project for the third and fourth marking periods.
The deadline for the contest entries will be on May 2 and the winners will be announced on June 4.
Entering
“The contest asks the students to perform two tasks,” explained Light.
First, the students are asked to design a four-page design prototype that will be accessed wirelessly on a Sprint PCS handset.
“Being leaders in this technology,” said DunLeavy, “it is exciting to have young talent bringing us new designs.” Next, the students are asked to write a design brief that outlines what the students would have included if they were able to design an entire website, not just a prototype. This brief will also include one paragraph on how the students see someone else using their wireless website.
“This will encourage teamwork,” said Light. “To get all of this accomplished, the students will need kids with all different skills.”
The contest will be judged on how the websites work, how useful the information on the site is and the creativity of the website.
Daniel Mora, a senior at Emerson, will be taking part in the contest. He is hoping to use the scholarship money to go to either Felician College or the DeVry Institute.
Unfortunately, this year, the contest is only open to seniors.
Braulio Ceballos, a junior in Emerson High School’s teen tech, Project SMART and Cisco programs, hopes to be able to enter the contest next year.
“I am only a junior and can’t do it this year,” said Ceballos. “But I am looking forward to do it next year.”
While DunLeavy said that Sprint PCS hasn’t agreed to hold the contest again next year, she said it is something they are thinking about.
“If this year’s contest is a success,” said DunLeavy. “Then we should definitely hold it again.”