About GenYES
A Unique Organization
Generation YES helps schools tap into the power of students to provide solutions to the problems of technology integration. Generation YES is led by Dr. Dennis Harper. Dr. Harper has been an international leader in the educational technology field for more than 35 years. He wrote the first college text on computer education, RUN: Computer Education while a faculty member at the University of California. Dr. Harper has taught in universities around the world and has been instrumental in bringing the first computers into schools in numerous countries. These experiences led Dr. Harper to develop the GenYES model.
Philosophy
Students represent more than 90% of the K-12 education population, and they likely possess 95% of the technology expertise in the school. Unquestionably, they are 100% of the reason that schools exist. However, they are often left out of the equation when we plan, discuss and implement educational reforms. The technology innovations of the last several decades have unquestionably not been integrated into most schools in a way that anyone is satisfied with. Why is this so? We believe that it is because the largest group of stakeholders in the process has been ignored - the students.
The question is how to harness the students' technology expertise and at the same time, expand their learning opportunities. This scaffolding method, of taking what a student already knows, and building on it, is one of the basic tenets of educational theory, and has been proven time and again in research and in practice. How to take this theory and make a real working model out of it was the heart of a Technology Challenge Grant application submitted in 1995 by Dr. Dennis Harper, the Technology Director of the Olympia Washington School District.
Having students help out with technology is not a new idea. However, the goal of this grant was to document and prove that students could do more than just provide free labor and fix computers. Student projects could be authentic, meaningful improvements to the school technology goals - if the students understood what the school technology plan was, and were taught about pedagogy and learning. These projects could empower the student to participate in their own learning, and impact the learning of other students. Students could be part of the school-wide goals of infusing technology into the school, and therefore become full stakeholders in the process.
Around the same time, the realization was setting in that traditional methods of professional development were not working for technology in the school setting. After-school workshops and in-services promised great things, powerful hardware could be purchased, and endless new versions of software could be upgraded, but rarely was there adequate support when teachers actually tried to use the technology.
Putting together the immense need for on-site, just-in-time technology support with the untapped resource of students who need authentic projects is the basis of the GenYES program today.
Generation YES helps schools tap into the power of students to provide solutions to the problems of technology integration. Generation YES is led by Dr. Dennis Harper. Dr. Harper has been an international leader in the educational technology field for more than 35 years. He wrote the first college text on computer education, RUN: Computer Education while a faculty member at the University of California. Dr. Harper has taught in universities around the world and has been instrumental in bringing the first computers into schools in numerous countries. These experiences led Dr. Harper to develop the GenYES model.
Philosophy
Students represent more than 90% of the K-12 education population, and they likely possess 95% of the technology expertise in the school. Unquestionably, they are 100% of the reason that schools exist. However, they are often left out of the equation when we plan, discuss and implement educational reforms. The technology innovations of the last several decades have unquestionably not been integrated into most schools in a way that anyone is satisfied with. Why is this so? We believe that it is because the largest group of stakeholders in the process has been ignored - the students.
The question is how to harness the students' technology expertise and at the same time, expand their learning opportunities. This scaffolding method, of taking what a student already knows, and building on it, is one of the basic tenets of educational theory, and has been proven time and again in research and in practice. How to take this theory and make a real working model out of it was the heart of a Technology Challenge Grant application submitted in 1995 by Dr. Dennis Harper, the Technology Director of the Olympia Washington School District.
Having students help out with technology is not a new idea. However, the goal of this grant was to document and prove that students could do more than just provide free labor and fix computers. Student projects could be authentic, meaningful improvements to the school technology goals - if the students understood what the school technology plan was, and were taught about pedagogy and learning. These projects could empower the student to participate in their own learning, and impact the learning of other students. Students could be part of the school-wide goals of infusing technology into the school, and therefore become full stakeholders in the process.
Around the same time, the realization was setting in that traditional methods of professional development were not working for technology in the school setting. After-school workshops and in-services promised great things, powerful hardware could be purchased, and endless new versions of software could be upgraded, but rarely was there adequate support when teachers actually tried to use the technology.
Putting together the immense need for on-site, just-in-time technology support with the untapped resource of students who need authentic projects is the basis of the GenYES program today.
Thank you, Hingham education foundation!
Thanks to the generous funding of the Hingham Education Foundation, we have received funding for a lifetime subscription to GenYES!