An ITEST strategies project, entitled Tri-Regional Information Technology (Tri-IT), is a collaborative project building on the IT strengths at three diverse colleges located in the state of Florida. Tri-IT includes Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ) in Northeast Florida, Florida A&M University (FAMU) in Northwest Florida and Seminole Community College (SCC) in Central Florida. These three project sites will be supported by the Florida Distance Learning Consortium as well as the Center for Women and Information Technology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Tri-IT will address Florida's IT gender inequality in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) by serving a total of 180 high school girls. These girls will be provided access to year-round IT learning opportunities designed to enhance their STEM education. During the academic year each college will serve 60 girls, using a set of research based curricular activities that align with national IT skill standards.
Each site will also offer IT-related summer academies that will engage the participants in hands-on learning and offer students an opportunity to experience and submerge themselves in technology to stimulate their interest in STEM careers. FCCJ's summer academy will focus on Global Positioning Systems and Geographic Information Systems; FAMU's theme will involve Video Mobile Devices, and SCC will build activities around IT web applications.
By using various distance learning methods, including peer-to-peer videoconferencing, pod casting and web blogging, to connect the three sites, the girls will gain quality educational foundation in a variety of IT areas: GPS & GIS, Video mobile devices and IT web applications. Examples of summer activities include: students using GPS to study safety hazards on the walking paths in surrounding urban high schools; making games for cell phones and programming videogame consoles; and creating podcasts about sciences/IT careers. All curricular activities are aligned with the Information Technology Education Association (ITEA) Standards. IT professional volunteers and service learning college students will help teachers and facilitators lead after-school and summer activities. Each summer, a one-day event will be held to bring girls from all of the sites together. In addition, participants will be able to interact and learn from one another through the project podcasts, website, and listserv.
