The following seven programs were designated as exemplary or promising out of a total of 134 educational technology programs submitted to the U.S. Department of Education's Educational Technology Expert Panel. Students learn course content and technology skills by completing curriculum-based projects that culminate in multimedia products. Students define problems, brainstorm, debate solutions, collaborate, plan and schedule tasks, make decisions, self-evaluate, and design and produce multimedia products.
Activities are student centered, interdisciplinary, and integrate real world issues and practices.
This model fosters workplace competencies such as teamwork, communication, planning, and problem solving. Along with educators, students become agents of change. In addition to the Gen Y classes, each student is partnered with a teacher and together they design and complete a curriculum-building project that incorporates technology, which is then used in that teacher's regular classroom. Aside from technology skills, students learn, in an authentic and meaningful context, communication, collaboration, and project management skills, and about state academic standards and learning goals and the need to align classroom activities with these goals. Modeling packets, available in biology and physics, are built around the content and process of Maryland Science Core Learning goals and incorporate systems thinking and modeling processes.