Government Technology - December 2008 - (Page DC20)

ADVERTISEMENT High School Goes High Tech Through Unique ECM Partnership Public-private partnership gives high school students a high-tech work experience. W estlake City Schools students are City Schools Dan Keenan was interested in getting a look at software that OnBase too. He and Westlake Mayor Dennis goes way beyond a basic computer M. Clough have had numerous discussions class. And they won’t just be learning about about OnBase, including how the city uses it — they’ll be helping to create it. The school it and how the school district could use it district, which is located about 12 miles west as well. Keenan’s discussions with Hyland of downtown Cleveland, has partnered with eventually led to the learning project. its Westlake neighbor, Hyland Software, on a special hands-on learning project. Learning by Doing Hyland will involve students from WestAn independent study group of eight stulake High School in the creation of a new dents will work to conﬁgure the software. module for OnBase, Hyland’s award-winning “Kids think bigger than we do, and they are enterprise content management (ECM) solu- starving for a way to channel their energy tion. The students will work with Hyland staff into something productive,” said Keenan. on the software conﬁguration process from “They don’t know the boundaries that adults start to ﬁnish. The school system then will seem to face as they get older. Kids still think be able to use the software, which will help outside of the box, which is why they tend to automate the creation and distribution of have so many great ideas.” meeting agendas and minutes. The students will participate in software Hyland has been working on a variety planning, design, implementation and trainof projects with the City of Westlake since ing. They will begin by discovering how moving to the city in 2002. These projects the schools currently handle agendas and focus on how OnBase can help the city work minutes, what the business processes are, more efﬁciently. Superintendent of Westlake and how meeting information is currently captured and distributed. Then they’ll help conﬁgure the solution that will aid the schools in getting the work done more efﬁciently. Students will do much of the work themselves. “That’s what’s really exciting about it,” said Keenan. “It isn’t that students will watch the Hyland team do the work and then just talk about it — it’s, ‘This is how you do it, now go out and do it. And as you encounter different issues and problems, this is the process we use to work those problems out.’” Students will learn how much work goes into creating software and how many steps are involved. “It’s about taking them through the processes, and showing them how everything links together,” Keenan said. “It provides a great opportunity for our kids to understand what happens from software development to project management, all the way through implementing that software and training people within an organization to use it.” Professional Partnership — and Philanthropy Effort The project is an extension of the school district’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) program. STEM works to foster interest among students in STEM-related ﬁelds in preparation for the work world. “Kids are interested in science and technology, but they don’t really see, in typical schooling, how it applies to problemsolving or a career,” Keenan said. “Science fairs and contests are all well and good, but being able to work with a local successful company will really put it into perspective for them.” To bolster the project, the school district decided to extend opportunities initiated through a STEM grant from the Ohio Board of Regents. The grant was speciﬁed for this type of concept at the middle school, and this was a great opportunity to expand it to the high school. Hyland suggested the 20 DIGITAL COMMUNITIES DECEMBER 08

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - December 2008

Government Technology - December 2008 Contents Point of View Four Questions for... On the Scene Big Picture Year in Review Who Controls Your Network? Paper Makes a Comeback Halting Meth Abuse Spectrum Up Close signal:noise Digital Communities Contents Becoming a Digital Community Rethinking 700 MHz Smart Grids: Powering the Future Gearing Up for Crime 2.0 Software Predicts Crime Local Portals on the Red Carpet More Than Just a Pretty Face

Government Technology - December 2008

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