Microsoft Donation Benefits Students

By Ann Houston

Thanks to a major software donation from the Microsoft Corp. and help from the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education, Oklahoma’s high school students could benefit from an otherwise costly program. This includes the 23,361 students enrolled in CareerTech Business and Information Technology Education (BITE) programs across the state.

The agreement with Microsoft requires a state agency to oversee the training process to ensure instructors and students receive the greatest benefit from this generous donation. The state CareerTech agency stepped up to that plate, according to Linnie Berkenbile, BITE state program specialist.

Students in any of Oklahoma’s schools who are interested in a career in software development will have an opportunity to learn using the same professional tools used by Microsoft developers, at no cost to the schools. The software usually costs $400.

“Microsoft wants to get people involved and trained in this software, so they will use it,” Berkenbile said. “Part of the agreement was for us, as the coordinating agency, to get the word out to instructors across the state and provide the space for the training to take place. We’ve sent a letter to all teachers and administrators at technology centers and high schools of this opportunity and hope to see many register for the software and training.”

Oklahoma CareerTech BITE students also are benefiting from a program called MSDN® Academic Alliance High School Membership. Through this program public high schools across the state will be able to equip all instructional computers (including those for teachers, students, and labs) with Microsoft® Visual Studio® .NET, Visual Studio 6.0, and other software. The program also provides an array of instructional materials, technical resources, and curriculum development tools to support the faculty.

“This program has allowed our students to have hands-on experience with all the different software operating systems offered by Microsoft and the opportunity to work with the leading software developer technology on the market now,” Berkenbile said. “Schools have a hard time coming up with the money to continue to purchase software each year so Microsoft has joined forces with us to help provide all our students the chance to experience these software tools that might otherwise not be available due to cost,” Berkenbile said.

This is the second year CareerTech has offered this program. “We are very excited about this new offering from Microsoft and see it as a win, win situation for all our schools.”

Teachers interested in providing this programming opportunity to their students will learn how to use the program in a one-day training from Microsoft trainers offered June 15-17 held at the state CareerTech agency in Stillwater.

For more information visit: www.mainfunction.com/teachertour/