Mission Statement
Tech-Now is a technology-focused program that targets students with disabilities transitioning from high school to postsecondary education or employment. The program is committed to changing the way students with disabilities develop and apply technology skills and prepare for the transition to adult life in the 21st century workplace. Serving approximately 450 students annually across 29 rural, urban, and suburban school sites throughout Oklahoma, Tech-Now helps young people develop the skills needed to access and utilize cutting-edge technology and explore potential vocational education and employment opportunities. Tech-Now provides real-world technical skills training to students with disabilities through a rigorous, interactive, multimedia-based curriculum designed to develop skills in leadership, team-building, organization, cooperation, creative problem solving, and critical thinking. The goals of Tech-Now are to provide students the opportunity to develop marketable skills, explore potential educational and employment opportunities, acquire specific skills such as teamwork and leadership, and pursue further education and gainful employment. Specifically, the Tech-Now curriculum provides technology-focused transition and employment preparation that incorporates Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) activities. Students learn to produce video products, radio commercials, animations, desktop-published goods, and product marketing campaigns using research, digital photography, photo-imaging and compositing, multimedia production, engineering and design, and desktop publishing skills. Students participate in brainstorming, planning, revising, and organizational activities to complete the activity products.Working in teams, students use computer-aided design software to design, engineer, and produce products that they enter in the Tech-Now Annual State Competition. The team approach helps students learn to collaborate in problem solving/critical thinking with peers, experts, and others for the purpose of developing solutions and/or products. Students contribute to a knowledge base to compile, synthesize, revise, and produce effective solution models.In 2003, Tech-Now was awarded a multi-year Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy grant to support expansion of the High school/High Tech program. In 2005, Tech-Now Inc., partnering with the University of Oklahoma�??s National Center for Disability Education and Training, was awarded a National Science Foundation STEM grant to engage middle school students in many of the STEM activities Tech-Now has implemented in its High School/High Tech program sites. To ensure the success of the Tech-Now program, teachers receive in-depth training in advanced computer applications. As a result, teachers learn to enrich both the Tech-Now and their individual content area curriculum, making their instruction more meaningful, interactive, and challenging, thus improving student retention and graduation rates.
Description
Tech-Now is a technology-focused program that targets students with disabilities transitioning from high school to postsecondary education or employment. The program is committed to changing the way students with disabilities develop and apply technology skills and prepare for the transition to adult life in the 21st century workplace. Serving approximately 450 students annually across 29 rural, urban, and suburban school sites throughout Oklahoma, Tech-Now helps young people develop the skills needed to access and utilize cutting-edge technology and explore potential vocational education and employment opportunities. Tech-Now provides real-world technical skills training to students with disabilities through a rigorous, interactive, multimedia-based curriculum designed to develop skills in leadership, team-building, organization, cooperation, creative problem solving, and critical thinking. The goals of Tech-Now are to provide students the opportunity to develop marketable skills, explore potential educational and employment opportunities, acquire specific skills such as teamwork and leadership, and pursue further education and gainful employment.Specifically, the Tech-Now curriculum provides technology-focused transition and employment preparation that incorporates Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) activities. Students learn to produce video products, radio commercials, animations, desktop-published goods, and product marketing campaigns using research, digital photography, photo-imaging and compositing, multimedia production, engineering and design, and desktop publishing skills. Students participate in brainstorming, planning, revising, and organizational activities to complete the activity products. Working in teams, students use computer-aided design software to design, engineer, and produce products that they enter in the Tech-Now Annual State Competition. The team approach helps students learn to collaborate in problem solving/critical thinking with peers, experts, and others for the purpose of developing solutions and/or products. Students contribute to a knowledge base to compile, synthesize, revise, and produce effective solution models. In 2003, Tech-Now was awarded a multi-year Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy grant to support expansion of the High School/High Tech program. In 2005, Tech-Now Inc., partnering with the University of Oklahoma�??s National Center for Disability Education and Training, was awarded a National Science Foundation STEM grant to engage middle school students in many of the STEM activities Tech-Now has implemented in its High School/High Tech program sites. To ensure the success of the Tech-Now program, teachers receive in-depth training in advanced computer applications. As a result, teachers learn to enrich both the Tech-Now and their individual content area curriculum, making their instruction more meaningful, interactive, and challenging, thus improving student retention and graduation rates.
