September 8, 2008
TECHNOS QUARTERLY Spring 2002 Vol. 11 No. 1
New Technology High School, Napa, California
The Napa New Technology High School (NTHS) has graduated 361 students since it opened in 1996 (http://www.newtechhigh.org). The school serves two hundred students in Grades 11-12; 69 percent of the students come from the Napa Valley Unified School District, 5 percent from other cities in Napa County, and the remaining 26 percent from surrounding Solano, Contra Costa, and Sonoma counties. For students, Napa New Tech is a beautiful physical environment. It looks like a workplace, not a school. Large classrooms house computer workstations on one side, and project tables throughout. NTHS CEO/Director Mark Morrison calls it “a high-tech, high-touch learning environment.”
Napa
New Tech High Networking teacher Carolyn Ferris works with a student on her
project.
All students take a New Media course that gives them the skills to use powerful authoring and presentation technologies in all their work. Technology is integrated into every class, but the school says that project-based learning, not technology, is the backbone of its “unique learning environment.” The school's official history proclaims: “You won't find any boring book reports at New Tech High - you're more likely to see a detailed Web site with original graphics and links to related sites, or a beautifully designed PowerPoint presentation combining digital photography and original text.” NTHS has been a national pioneer in the use of student Digital Portfolios to give structure and continuity to student work and performance. It is one of the few schools in the country where you can see extensive samples of student work on its public Web site's Digital Portfolio section (http://www.newtechhigh.org/School/Students_parents/portfolios.asp). Seniors do internships in a local business and author Project Work Summaries about their experiences that become part of their professional digital portfolio. Students also are required to achieve eight learning outcomes: technological literacy, collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving, oral communication, written communication, citizenship and ethics, career preparation, and curricular literacy.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of New Technology High School