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Capital High School Teachers Take a Lesson From Students: Web-Literate Kids Guide Instuctors in Page Design

Posted on: Tuesday, 20 June 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Steve Powell, The Olympian, Olympia, Wash.

Jun. 20--OLYMPIA - It's every students' dream.

It's near the end of the school year. You are in charge. You actually get to teach the teachers.

Time to get even?

Not for some students in Scott Le Duc's Web development class at Capital High School. They liked teaching the teachers how to build Web sites so parents and others can check on what's going on in class from home.

Junior Caitlin Brown preferred the teachers to the students she has been mentoring much of this year.

"You have to dumb down a little less, and they're more mature," she said of the instructors.

Brown said a couple of the teachers had a tough time learning about how to develop a Web site.

"They had a hard time with what goes where ... but it was cool helping them understand it," Brown said.

Le Duc said the students are used to teaching because the advanced ones teach the beginners in his classes. When the students hit a wall, he comes in to help. The process improves the student-teacher ratio in his classes.

"They show them the ropes," he said of the advanced students. "It's a high-touch, high-tech approach."

Le Duc said the advanced students learn a lot by mentoring. Actually, it's the best way to learn, he said, adding that it shows a higher level of understanding. It's from a Japanese proverb, "To teach is to learn," he said.

Le Duc said about 35 teachers took the three-hour course taught by the students. With the knowledge, the teachers will set up Web sites on their classes. Anyone can then look on the Web and see what's going on in the classes, such as whether an assignment is missing.

"It's better than me standing and delivering" a message, Le Duc said. "And then the teachers looking at me cross-eyed, and saying, 'I don't get it.' "

Le Duc said the teachers had varying degrees of success with the project.

"There was a lot of hand-holding," he said. "The students were very gracious and very positive."

So, no one was sent to the principal?

On the contrary, Le Duc said the teachers loved the class and were excited about how much time they would save putting information on the Web.

Sophomore Ed Skewis said it was easy for most of the teachers because they just had to type in what they wanted to appear on their Web page. It's almost like typing into any Microsoft Word document, he added.

"Showing the teachers how to do stuff was a little strange ... a little weird at first," he said.

What made the situation better was that he got to pick which teachers to teach. He picked ones he knew, so he would feel more comfortable.

Skewis said he's confident teaching others about computers. He has a lot of experience at home.

"I help my mom with computer troubles," he said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Olympian, Olympia, Wash.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Olympian, Olympia, Wash.

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