TechConnect Keeps Students Plugged In

Story by Matt Kelly
Communications and Marketing Intern

Oklahoma students can now stay plugged into technology preparation education from the sixth through 12th grades through Technology Education, TechConnect programs and their local technology centers.

Officials from the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education have announced a TechConnect pilot program for ninth and 10th grade students. The program is designed to link technology education programs traditionally offered to sixth through eighth grade students with the technical preparation programs offered to juniors and seniors at local technology centers.

The new program is being piloted in 10 school district technology education programs. The school districts and technology centers include Aline-Cleo, Fairview, Waynoka and Northwest Technology Center campuses located in Alva and Fairview; Woodward and High Plains Technology Center, Woodward; Granite and Southwest Technology Center, Altus; Little Axe and Mid-America Technology Center, Wayne; Chandler and Gordon Cooper Technology Center, Shawnee; and Sand Springs, Tulsa East Central, Tulsa Will Rogers, Tulsa Technology Center.

“Only when a student becomes a junior in high school can they attend a technology center to receive training in an area of interest. Those programs are designed for students in the last two years of high school and adults,” Dennis Ruttman said. Ruttman is the technology education program administrator at the state CareerTech agency.

That leaves ninth- and 10th-grade students out of the loop.

“TechConnect is a program designed to transition ninth-and 10th-grade students to the next level of career development,” Ruttman said. “The program gives those students a chance to experience and develop foundational skills in career options at a time students are considering career goals.”

TechConnect instructors are beginning to work closely with the local technology center instructional staff and administration to ensure a successful transition, Ruttman said.

Technology Education has evolved from the 1960’s program called “shop” to what has been known since 1985 as Technology Education for sixth-to eighth-graders. Today more than 29,000 students are enrolled in Technology Education across Oklahoma.

“Technology Education now provides students in the sixth through eighth grade with daily, hands-on experiences. This allows them to focus on becoming technologically literate while exploring career opportunities and mapping out which educational path to take,” Ruttman said.

Designed as a two-year program, TechConnect can be taken in a one-period format referred to as “TechConnect” or a two-period format, called “TechConnect Two” that contains expanded laboratory experiences.

“Students have the opportunity to choose three content areas from 16 career clusters that range from architecture and communications to health science and information technology,” said Larry Bullock. Bullock is a trade and industrial education program specialist at the state CareerTech agency.

TechConnect is structured so that students spend a semester in each of the three courses gaining foundational experiences in the ninth grade and the first semester of the 10th grade. During the last semester of the tenth grade, students pick one of the three completed content areas to fulfill a capstone course focusing on all aspects of the industry. This includes a work-based learning project.

“Students participating in TechConnect are not being trained to build a house,” Bullock said. “We simply want the students to have the appropriate academic foundation and basic employability and technical skills necessary to transition into a full-time technical program their junior and senior years.”

For more information visit the website at http://www.okcareertech.org/ti/techconnect/