Project:
O'Bryant School website

Mike Reilly
mreilly@obryant.boston.k12.ma.us

Mike Reilly teaches Web Master and NFTE (National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship) at the O'Bryant. He received his BS in Business from St. Michael's College in Vermont, and his Master's in Educational Administration from the University of Michigan. This is his first year teaching in Boston. His teaching experience includes 10 years with the Princeton Review, and as a math instructor in Fairfax, VA and Detroit, Michigan. Immediately prior to joining BPS, Mr. Reilly was with Accenture, the world's largest consulting corporation. He is a Cisco certified Adobe Web Design Instructor, and received Honorable Mention as the 2002 NFTE-New England Teacher of the Year. In addition to teaching, Mr. Reilly is developing an advanced web curriculum and developing TechBoston Consulting Group with the TechBoston staff, as well as leading the redesign of the O'Bryant School web page.

Project Information

School:

J. D. O'Bryant High School of Mathematics and Science

Pathway:

Information Technology Pathway/Web Master

Course:

Web Master

Grades:

Grades 11 and 12

Authenticity

Key Questions:

How do we communicate important information about the O'Bryant to our community? How do we make responsible decisions about content for the internet?

Overview:

The O'Bryant School has not had an updated website in many years, and the current Web Master students took on the responsibility of updating it. They understood that they would have to build their knowledge and skills in order to do so, but it became a goal throughout the school year. The site has been redesigned, completely by students, with leadership being the only provision by staff.

Academic Rigor

What Learning Standards and School to Career Competencies are used in this project?

English Language Arts

• Make appropriate and correct use of grammar, punctuation, capitalization and other standard English conventions when editing written work
• Identify, describe, and apply knowledge of the structure of the English language
• Make effective oral and graphic presentations
• Plan, present, and evaluate oral presentations that demonstrate appropriate consideration of audience and purpose
• Participate effectively in debates
• Lead a group discussion

Math

• Use estimation strategies to judge the reasonableness of results of computation and problem solving involving real and complex numbers
• Use estimation when making and interpreting graphs
• Use tables and graphs as tools to interpret expressions, equations, and inequalities

Entrepreneurship

• Develop basic knowledge of money management and entrepreneurship
• Strengthen foundation skills in critical thinking, oral and written communication, math, social sciences, economics, and computer applications

School to Career Competencies

 Communicate and understand ideas and information
 Collect, analyze and organize information
 Identify and solve problems
 Use technology
 Initiate and complete entire activities
 Act professionally
 Interact with others
 Understand all aspects of an industry
 Career and life choices

Applied Learning

How do students apply what they have learned and researched to a complex problem (e.g.: designing a product, improving a system, creating an exhibit, organizing an event)?

Students learn advanced web design and management skills through the TechBoston curriculum, which connects to the Massachusetts Frameworks.

• Stage one was to plan and design the new website. Students used their web design skills to do this.
• Stage two was to develop a strategy to gain input from all aspects of the school community. Groups of students met with administrators, teachers, support staff, clubs, teams, parents, etc.
• Stage three was to fit collected data into the design template.

Through such a process, the students learn a great deal about teamwork, communication, and project dependency. They learn that poor communication leads to gaps in accomplishments and the need to spend extra time recovering from error. They learn that work they do can affect others, and vice-versa, and these affects can be measured concretely. They finally realize that strong teamwork can lead to even faster accomplishment and greater creativity. They can then apply this gained knowledge towards other complex projects involving teams, websites being the first of such projects.

Active Exploration

Classroom Activities

• Students learn advanced web design and management skills.
• Students master HTML, the basic web design programming language.
• Students design templates, planning guides, and layout sheets to facilitate their final product.
• Students design complex web pages using page layout techniques.
• Students learn to create extensions, add media, data, and other objects.
• Students learn to use industry software such as Flash, Dreamweaver, and the Adobe web authoring programs.

Community Activities

• Students planned, designed, developed, and created the new O'Bryant website.
• Students fixed a website design for the Development Leadership Network. This is a non-profit, national coalition involved in community development, making sure those with less power are represented equally.
• Created a template of working non-profit site where website owners can easily create more pages.

Career Activities

• Sub-contracted web design work for a design firm (asks to be anonymous) which focuses on the "communities of color" in New England.
• Business plan competition and presentation: this is first a local competition, then a citywide competition, and finally, a national competition.

Adult Connections

Who from the community, workplace or postsecondary or industry partnership do students work with on the project?

Students work with consultants from the law firm of Peabody and Arnold and other consultants from NFTE: Charles Blackburn, Kenneth Elmore, Jonathan Winnick, Tim Egan, Kristen Kraeger, Adam Curry, Christine Filosa, Jason Duncan, Eve Waterfall. The students also work with clients of the TechBoston Consulting Group.

Assessment

How do you and the students know the project is a success?

Students will receive feedback on the website via email and personal communication from their peers, school staff, school parents, Office of Technology staff, Office of Informational Service staff, and other industry professionals. A group evaluative meeting will be conducted one month after the site has been launched.

Recommended Resources / Sample Products - EXAMPLES

Software or Materials Needed

DreamWeaver
Flash
Adobe Web Authoring Software

Websites Used

http://webdev.obryant (internal site)

Teacher
Developed

Web design templates * Website planning sheets * Meeting schedules

Student
Developed

http://boston.k12.ma.us/Obryant
http://www.developmentleadership.net