WIRED FOR SUCCESS TECHNOLOGY IS INTEGRAL PART OF L.A.'S 'SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE'.

Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer

VAN NUYS - A ``school of the future'' is taking shape inside two beige bungalows parked at a corner of the sprawling, well-worn Birmingham High campus.

The 55 freshmen who make up the prototype High Tech High School Los Angeles - the first school of its kind in the city - are each equipped with a wireless laptop computer.

With their chic, silvery Apple iBooks, they showcase class presentations through multimedia movies and research homework assignments using high-speed Internet access. As the class members discuss current affairs, they tap into real-time Web postings to enrich their dialogue.

They take advantage of a host of software programs to help them brainstorm essays and master math, grammar, spelling and punctuation concepts. They freely exchange e-mail with the help of their teachers to resolve personal problems, sign up for summer classes and get answers to questions they are too embarrassed to ask in class.

``I really felt like we have hit on a concept of the future,'' said Roberta Weintraub, the former school board member who was the driving force behind the project. ``It's really education for the future.''

In the works for three years, High Tech High was launched last September as a public-private venture between the Los Angeles Unified School District and a foundation led by Weintraub, boasting such high-profile supporters as Cisco Systems and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Formal groundbreaking for a brand-new $15 million campus to house High Tech High is scheduled for today, but the project has been under construction since Christmas and is expected to be completed by next May.

LAUSD Assistant Superintendent Jim Konantz sees High Tech High as a laboratory and showcase for what 21st-century education should be.

``Students get an opportunity to not only learn the skills of literacy and computation, but to actually apply those skills and internalize them into their lives. The work they do is built upon those skills.''

What is unique about High Tech High, he said, is the use of technology as a foundation rather than simply a tool for learning.

Architectural renderings show a 27,000-square-foot school that resembles an upscale corporate campus, on landscaped grounds that include ``study gardens'' and an amphitheater. Glass replaces many interior walls to create an airy open environment infused by sunlight.

``The whole atmosphere that will be created will be an innovative atmosphere and a strong learning atmosphere,'' said project manager Joe Peterson.

Portions of the school will be powered by solar panels donated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Entry and exit to the school will be regulated by biometric controls, either through recognition of students' irises or fingerprints.

Skylights, lighting and temperature controls will be computerized to achieve maximum comfort.

``Depending upon the outside lighting conditions, the skylights will open and close,'' Peterson said. ``The little sensors and computer will talk to artificial lighting and tell it it can shut off if there is nice lighting coming from the sun.''

The science embodied in the construction of the school will become part of the curriculum. Taslimi Construction, which is building the school, plans to give seminars on the project, whose progress can be viewed through two Web cams installed at the site.

During a recent visit, English teacher Karen Koven showed off a computer-generated ``virtual tour'' that students Kevin Kaminyar and Petros Dertsakyan created on the historic Globe Theater as part of a class project on Shakespeare's ``Romeo and Juliet.''

``The medium of using the computer excites them into learning more. It's very enticing,'' Koven said. ``They are able to use pictures and sounds.''

Aided by computer technology, High Tech High students learn at their own pace and in their own way.

``It's not like the stress and strain I used to have in regular classes,'' said student Janmark Jamieson. ``The teachers let you go at your own pace but they don't let you slack off.''

Enrollment at High Tech High will be capped at 400 students. When the new campus opens next fall, the school will be operated as an affiliated charter school, free to design its own curriculum but still maintaining its financial ties to the LAUSD.

This arrangement is unusual in the charter school movement, which generally calls for separating from the local district in order to raise student achievement.

``What this demonstrates for the first time is a charter school and a regular school can co-exist on the same campus and be mutually beneficial,'' said Local District C Superintendent Bob Collins, who oversees High Tech High. ``It's a really exciting concept.''

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

Roberta Weintraub checks out construction of High Tech High School on the Birmingham High School campus.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer

Box:

HIGH-TECH HIGH

SOURCE: Birmingham High School

Daily News