Jeff Tech’s IT Academy students, under the direction of Digital Media Technology instructor Sam Ettaro, have been working on creating a website for the Suicide Prevention Team of Clearfield/Jefferson Counties.
It has long been the vision of The Suicide Prevention Team to involve all schools in their service area in their efforts due to the increasing reports of suicides in Clearfield and Jefferson Counties. Jeff Tech has taken the lead in this important outreach project to provide awareness to reduce suicides. The vision of the Suicide Prevention Team is to have an accessible website enabling teens and others to locate resources within their communities that will help in dealing with the impact of a suicide or the attempted suicide of someone in their lives.
“When we as a team discussed the need for a website we also had to find someone willing to take on this as we saw it a daunting task,” recalls Mary Brown, Clearfield-Jefferson County Suicide Prevention Team, Coordinator. “We weren’t sure how to go about finding someone to do this until it was suggested to utilize Jeff Tech’s Information and Technology Academy. Since the school was local and the team wanted to involve our schools with our suicide prevention mission this seemed to be a win-win situation if Jeff Tech was willing to develop the website for us. Dennis Bembenic, our Walk Chair put out the request to Mr. Ettaro and the team waited, but not long. Ettaro jumped on the chance to work with us and invited a few of the team members to visit Jeff Tech and be “interviewed” by his students.
In order to get the project rolling, the students had questions they needed answered to determine the team’s needs. Bembenic and Brown joined Ettaro’s class in the IT Academy for two live interview sessions. “They asked appropriate questions, took notes, heard what we wanted, set a timeframe to accomplish this endeavor and then they were off and running,” Brown remembers. “This was very exciting for all involved, the team was going to get a new, cutting edge website and the students were getting real life experience before being out in the ‘real world’.”
All of the upperclassman in this course, which is housed in the IT Academy at Jeff Tech, participated in this project as part of their on-going curriculum in interactive media and web design. Several of these students were selected to deliver a professional presentation on their suggested web development plan and design concepts. These reviews, which gave the students a real-world business experience, were reviewed by members of the Suicide Prevention Team who joined the students inside the Digital Media Technology Virtual Classroom. Members of the team were able to view these presentations live via the internet up on their big screen display in their board room in DuBois while students presented in live-time, speaking to the group via their webcams, and sharing their designs and business plans through the computer file sharing capabilities of the virtual classroom.
Watching the presentation live via the virtual classroom was not only “exhilarating”, as Brown puts it, but also a new educational experience for the members of the team. Brown feels that all the students should be commended on their efforts. “They did an incredible job,” she said. “We were impressed with the time the students took to learn about suicide and research our team’s efforts. This was very apparent with the website designs they presented.”
Once the website is up and running those looking for information on suicide, more resources, someone to talk to or just to get an update on The Walk will be able to navigate this website with ease thanks to Jeff Tech students and this technology.
Ettaro, who has been working on developing these technologies for the broader use of the entire school feels this could well represent a substantial milestone in development of future educational programs. “This presentation was the first of its kind for us,” he said. “We’re very excited about the possibilities of taking the wonderful educational opportunities that Jeff Tech offers to a whole new level through this virtual classroom environment. I think our students did a wonderful job, were very professional and really impressed their clients!”
He explained that the model they’re working on in the IT Academy will be utilized throughout the school in the future to promote Jeff Tech’s educational opportunities to the four school districts it serves as well as to the broader population for use in Adult Education and general marketing as well.
Members of Jeff Tech administration dropped into the IT Academy and joined the virtual presentation to see the technology in action. Recruiter Jamie Rhed, Adult Ed Coordinator Mike Knobloch, Guidance Counselor April Astorino and Principal John Kimmel all were very impressed with how well the technology worked and the performance of their students.
“I feel fortunate to have had the experience of participating with our DMT students and Mr. Ettaro in this educational endeavor,” said Kimmel. “The Suicide Prevention Team has allowed our students a fantastic opportunity to not only showcase their skills in web design, but also our ability to utilize the virtual classroom as a valuable learning tool. The students who participated were all very professional in their behavior and performance, and showed a high level of skill in both web design and also public speaking. It helps to show that Mr. Ettaro and Jeff Tech are offering truly valuable learning experiences for their students.“
The top three students were chosen by the Suicide Prevention Team, who were also live in the room on webcam, and these students will finish the new website. Senior Jan Barnes (Punxsutawney School District) was selected as the team lead producer based on his development plan and design and juniors JR Barber (Brookville School District) and Jared Strawcutter (Punxsutawney School District) were selected a close second and third place and will serve with Barnes to complete the web development team. The rest of the students will complete their designs for a grade and use in their portfolios.
Kimmel, Ettaro and Jeff Tech English instructor Sheena Smelko will be utilizing this experience as part of their presentation that they have been asked to offer this July at a national teacher conference in Nashville, TN on the subject of successful academic-technical education integration and using today’s digital media tools to get students excited about learning. Students and other instructors at Jeff Tech will be taking part in this live presentation from the IT Academy studios in Reynoldsville while the team presents live in Nashville.
The students working on this project are utilizing the latest technology in the creation of this website. Some of the features of the website will be testimonials, videos of the Annual Suicide Prevention Walk along with information on how to get involved with “The Walk”, help lines and links to available resources.
Members of the team all feel that these students have shown they can rise to a level of professionalism expected in the world of business and be committed to doing what has been asked of them.
According to Brown, “The team looks forward to working with Jeff Tech to host our website and continue to provide the impressive technology that will aid the team’s mission of reducing the occurrence of suicides in the two county area.”
The new site is set to debut in May which is Mental Health Awareness Month. Streaming web video of this virtual classroom presentation is available online at www.jefftech.us and is free to the public to view over a broadband internet connection.