K ids “in the middle” have a special place to go at Zion-Benton Township High School

north of Chicago. For more than eight years, the school has operated a Tech Academy

that offers a small learning environment for roughly 250 of the school’s 2,600 students.

Designed to appeal to kids who are neither top of the class nor in need of special education

services, the academy helps average students prepare for college using a school-within-a-school

environment where every student carries a Dell Latitude notebook computer.

Small schools and small learning communities have become a favored way to provide students

with more attention from teachers. For the Tech Academy, that advantage is augmented by

courses designed to get the most from the fact that each student comes to class each day with

his or her own notebook. Students in the academy take 12.5 of their 22 graduation-requirement

credits within the academy—everything except for foreign language, math, gym and electives.

“We have all the academy classes in one hallway where all the rooms are wired for the

kids’ computers,” says Kevin Smyk, the academy’s coordinator and science teacher. We’re a

tight-knit group of students and teachers—we really know when a student is having a bad day.”

CUSTOMER OVERVIEW

Zion-Benton Township High School offers

a Tech Academy for 250 of its 2,600

students who thrive in the small, specialized

environment that marks the program. The

Tech Academy prepares these students for a

college career through a teaching approach

that integrates subject areas with a focus

on technology.

CHALLENGE

The Tech Academy needed reliable technology

with dependable support and a company that

could offer easy ordering for students and

their parents.

SOLUTION Each student in the Tech Academy purchases

their own Dell™ Latitude™ notebook through

a Dell Premier Page Web site dedicated

exclusively to the Academy.

BENEFITThe Dell notebooks are dependable, and the

Tech Academy can rely on Dell Service Support

to provide quick assistance making it simple

for students to own their own computers. The

notebooks help teachers bring education to life

and give students a competitive edge as they

prepare for college.

Zion-Benton Township High School K12

DELL SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE™ FRAMEWORK ■

DELL INTELLIGENT CLASSROOM™ SOLUTION ■

LIBRARY ■

MOBILITY ■

ASSESSMENT/STANDARDS ■

ONE-TO-ONE ■

E-RATE ■

One-to-one Dell notebook initiative on a small scale creates high impact student education at Zion-Benton High School’s Tech Academy

Small School Within A School, Big Results

Multidisciplinary courses

Cohorts of students move from class to class during the part of

the day they’re in the Tech Academy allowing the faculty to design

multidisciplinary courses that are connected in ways that simply aren’t

possible when each student has a unique schedule. For example,

when students are learning about medieval Europe in history class,

they walk to physics the next period and figure out the machinery of

catapults and siege engines.

Genevieve Sherman deCabrera, who teaches English in the academy,

says her juniors get to choose a book about environmental issues then

study that topic’s real-world impact in biology. Meanwhile, her freshman

class just read Animal Farm during a unit on the Russian revolution

in history class. Next up is Elie Wiesel’s Night during the unit on

World War II.

Of course, the notebook computers are invaluable for the work

that comes with these demanding courses. “In social studies,

when they’re doing current events, having the notebooks allows for

just-in-time learning—the students can look at and discuss the most

recent events,” Smyk says.

Time to shine

Public speaking and group work are particularly valued in the academy.

Students typically give more than 20 presentations to classmates and

faculty over their four years, and here the notebooks really shine.

“Almost everything has some multimedia presentation requirement,”

Smyk says. “PowerPoint is now a minimum—that will get you a C for

that aspect of the project.”

Unlike many other one-to-one computer initiatives, Zion-Benton

doesn’t provide the computers for the Tech Academy’s students. Each

family is responsible for purchasing the Dell™ Latitude™ notebook the

student uses each day. The district has worked together with Dell

to make two choices available: a basic model and a slightly more

expensive one with a few more options, such as a DVD burner.

Once a family has picked out their machine from a Dell Premier Page,

a page on the Dell Web site created for Tech Academy participants,

the school partitions the computer’s hard drive into two sections.“ The

family owns the computer, so we can’t tell them they can’t use it at

home. But still, we wrestle with how secure to make [the notebooks],”

says Lee Steinsdoerfer, the school’s technology director. “We make

an agreement with the parents that we control the C drive. We set

it up with our own software so all students have the same programs

for classes. And they use the D drive for what they want to install

at home so they don’t put on something that interferes with the

school’s programs.”

Reliable machines

Dell hasn’t always provided all the computers for the Tech Academy,

Steinsdoerfer says, but the firm has the school’s business now in large

part because the machines are reliable—and because Dell offers a

four-year limited warranty1 for when the inevitable tech problems do

arise. The district found that Dell’s flexible, reliable approach stood

In social studies, when they’re doing current events, having the notebooks allows for

just-in-time learning—the students can look at and discuss the most recent events.”

— Kevin Smyk, Tech Academy Coordinator and Science Teacher, Zion-Benton Township High School

PLACE IM-AGE HERE

1 For a copy of our guarantees and limited warranties, please write Dell U.S.A. L.P., Attn: Warranties, One Dell Way, Round Rock, TX 78682. For more information, visit www.dell.com/warranty.

Dell cannot be responsible for errors in typography, photography or omissions. Dell, the Dell logo, PowerEdge, Latitude, and OptiPlex are trademarks of Dell Inc. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. © 2007 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. 07DPUB148_0507

out among other competitive bids, and that Dell’s partnership with the

school is comprehensive and unique.

A teacher in the Tech Academy since it opened, Sherman deCabrera

says she has watched as the notebooks were used mostly for research

at the beginning, to now, when students turn in their homework and

look up assignments online, create presentations in Flash, and help one

another on a moderated bulletin board the program offers. “We get

e-mail from kids who graduated and are in college, and they say they’re

leaps and bounds ahead of their peers with both the technology and

what they know in class,” she says. “It’s always nice to hear.”

HOW IT WORKS

HARDWAREDell™ Latitude™ notebooks

SERVICESDell Premier Page Web site

Dell Four-Year Warranty

We get e-mail from kids who graduated

and are in college, and they say they’re

leaps and bounds ahead of their peers

with both the technology and what they

know in class. It’s always nice to hear.”

— Genevieve Sherman deCabrera, English Teacher, Tech Academy, Zion-Benton Township High School