While many teens are busy using the internet to watch videos on YouTube and update their Facebook pages, some tech savvy students at Oxford High School are creating web sites for local businesses and non-profit groups.
‘People hear that we do design work, so they contact us,? said Maria Wolbert, who teaches beginning, intermediate and advanced web design classes at OHS. ‘We have more requests than we can actually fulfill. There’s so much need; so many people contact us.?
Wolbert’s students have designed websites for companies like the Lapeer-based Creative Asphalt (www.creativeasphalt.com) and non-profits such as the Northeast Oakland Historical Museum (www.orion.lib.mi.us/nohm) in downtown Oxford.
‘The students used a number of different skill sets to create the (Creative Asphalt) site. It’s very professionally done,? she said.
Her students are currently working on a site for the K-9 Stray Rescue League, an Oxford group that rescues dogs and finds adoptive homes for them.
‘I want to help students understand the benefit of giving back,? said Wolbert, who’s been with the district since 1997.
The web design program started approximately six years ago with a class for beginners and grew from there based on rising student demand.
Now, OHS offers Web Design I and II along with a Webmasters class for advanced students. Wolbert wrote the curriculum for all three courses.
In Web Design I, students gain an understanding of web design concepts and techniques that are essential to planning, creating, testing, publishing and maintaining web sites.
Web Design II teaches students how to create professional quality web sites and business documents utilizing effective web design principles, planning and practices.
Students in the Webmasters course interact with actual clients at all stages of web production in order to develop professional, quality sites for them.
The knowledge and skills garnered from taking all three classes are a definite benefit for students who wish to attend college and pursue a career in web design.
‘It sets the stage nicely for them,? Wolbert said. ‘They definitely have a leg up.?
Those who successfully complete the Webmasters class receive four credits for it at Oakland Community College.
‘Even if a student isn’t looking to be a web designer, these classes teach them so much about the internet and computers and copyright laws and basic design principles,? Wolbert noted. ‘It teaches students how to think analytically.?
These days technical knowledge is becoming more and more essential for college students as traditional term papers are replaced by web-based assignments and cavernous lecture halls give way to on-line classrooms.
Students who learn computer and internet skills in high school will ‘be that much farther ahead? in college, according to Wolbert.
In addition to the web design classes, Wolbert also teaches a course in Animation & Digital imaging, which is dedicated to manipulating images and creating web animations, and a class called Digitools, which exposes students to a variety of emerging mediums such as voice recognition software, handheld computers, vector image development and video creation software.
To learn more about Wolbert’s classes and view examples of student-designed web pages, please visit www.ohspress.com/wolbert/index.html.