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Students get hooked on computers -- and stay in school
October 18, 1996
Web posted at: 6:50 p.m. EDTFrom Correspondent Dick Wilson
NEW YORK (CNN) -- New York school officials are using computers to encourage at-risk high school students to stay in class.
It's part of Project TELL, a program designed to motivate students who might otherwise drop out.
The project, run by the Graduate School at the City University of New York and paid for by NYNEX Corp., is designed to "demonstrate that technology can have an educational value for the disadvantaged, low-income, at-risk students," said Helen Birenbaum of CUNY.
"We all know that in today's job market and certainly by the end of the century, anyone who wants to have a good job is going to have to be computer literate," she added.
Project TELL works on several levels. It helps young people learn about computers, introducing them to the guts of the machines and basic maintenance tasks such as upgrading memory. And the program helps students learn by making academic subjects more compelling.
"It helps me have a better understanding of organic chemistry," said Project TELL student Guy Vieux.
The program can also be used to help students cope with standardized tests, a crucial factor for college admissions.
After participating in Project TELL for five years, Bronx resident Jamila Booker is entering her last year of high school. "They gave us a program to help us study for the SAT," Booker said. "It has math, verbal, analogies -- everything that's on the SAT."
Parents are impressed. "These people at Project TELL take time. Once a week they would come to the school and actually teach them DOS and the Internet and Windows and all that great stuff that I don't know about," Jamila's mother said.
With help from Project TELL, Jamila is setting lofty goals. She hopes to attend Georgetown University to study law. Doing well on her college entrance exams will be a first step.
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