Meet tomorrow's Web designers

Instructor, August, 2005

They've designed Web sites for a church, a daycare center, and a bike shop. For the past two years, fifth graders at the Lincoln Avenue Academy in Lakeland, Florida, have participated in a program called Community Tech, where they design Web sites for local businesses. Students start learning Web design in second grade, use those skills for curricular research projects in third and fourth grade, and engage in service learning in the fifth grade. "We get to talk to customers and we have to meet deadlines," says Robert L. "We also have to make sure that the site looks like our customer wants it to. I would like to have my own business when I grow up, and Community Tech helped me find out how many different things go into running a business." The very structured program is based on curricular standards, says technology teacher Mijani Lockard. Students work on reading, writing, editing, spelling, and grammar. To see examples of the students' work, visit www.polk-fl.net/laa.

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