Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The Bus Stops at Heinz Field

Jerome Bettis will be at Heinz Field this afternoon to honor the 21 students from Pittsburgh Public’s Murray Middle School in Mt. Oliver who have completed an 8-week computer camp at Duquesne University. In an effort to narrow the digital divide, his Bus Stops Here Foundation has funded six camps in three years.

The school district selects students based on attitude, behavior, and interest, not just grades or ability, according to Duquesne’s Jennifer Milcarek, who instructs them with the help of ten Duquesne students or alums.

The 6th 7th and 8th graders learn the latest version of Microsoft Office and prepare Power Point digital stories based on interviews they conduct with persons of their choice.

At a computer engineering session, they each construct a computer from the shell out, which they will get to keep.

Jennifer Milcarek says her biggest challenge is to find something the students don’t already know because, unlike older people, they've had some exposure to computers their whole lives.


When she introduces web design at its simplest, she says the students are impatient for the next step.

No comments: