THe summer 2023 Dekalb Virtual Career Academy's Programming, Games, Apps, and Society Intro Course has concluded as of July 1, 2023.  If students were enrolled in this course and need to contact Ms. Miller, please do so by emailing her at heather_miller@dekalbschoolsga.org 
If a student is enrolled in Dekalb County, Georgia 9th to 12th grades, you may take the complete PGAS Course if your high school offers it. It is a fun and practical course allowing students to showcase their work product in their college applications and job applications.

Direct link to the video:  https://somup.com/c01ufyziOx

Creating a High School Website Portfolio is probably one of the easiest things high school students can accomplish because it is a companion to the work already completed in high school. It also allows a student to step into the role of "reporting" instead of showing off what they are doing in high school.  By posting the essay for English class, or Slide Deck or video that was orally presented infront of the class in Physicas Class, or a seires of screen shots shoing a mathmatical algorithm, the student can simply deposit the artifact.

If the student goes one step beyond that and writes a not about the assignent, how long they worked on this project, and then later, perhaps at the semester, moves this artifact to the "highlighted Projects" page, then this assignment is doing what it was desiged to do.

The student could then move into the third highest level and reflect in writing, or voice recording, or YouTube influencer style and reflect on what they liked about it, and then what, why, how, they would improve the artifact if given a similar assignment again.  

What does it show college recruters, internship committees, scholarship committees, and potential colleges and universities that may "Google" the student?  Committment to a process such as this over a 4-year period is showing committment to almost a quarter of their existance. Maintaining a high school profesional website portfolio showcases reflection and committment, which is less common in teenagers than say a committment to a fun sport. It also contains writing samples, over time. This can show growth. Even an essay completed in middle school, grades 6 to 8, can be compared to work completed in grade 9. The middle school writing is not compared directly, but to show growth, creativity towards the assignment, ability to research topics and make connections, etc.  In other words, a portfolio website should include early works, late works, and reflections coparing the assignment to itself, and highlighted growth over time. 

The problem.
Google Meets and Classroom, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom do not work for everyone. The problem is how to give as many interns access as easily as possible.  

Why is this a problem? 
We have some issues running a virtual summer school enrichment program that serves such a wide variety of students. We call them interns. Some interns can easily access all of the features on Google Classroom, while others are blocked on some features. The same is true, in reverse, for Microsoft Teams. Zoom is occassionally an option. Public facing websites are accessible to everyone, so here it is. 

Why is all this necessary?
Dekalb Virtual Career Academy is a fantastic program run in the summer by Dekalb County, Georgia and Dekalb County School District. Kids who are between the ages of rising 9th grade to young adults may apply to learn and earn over the summer enrichment program. We have many groups of kids interested in this program because it pays students cash money while they enroll in a variety of enrichment activities for college and career readiness. Some of our kids are rising 9th grade, rising 10th grade, rising 11th grade, or rising 12th grade and have a DCSD email address. Other students have graduated, dropped out, or are returning to school and do not have a DCSD email address. Other students have moved in, or are homeschooled, or are private schooled. There are other groups as well. They do not have DCSD email addresses either. Then there are all the ways interns access the content - mobile, ChromeBook, laptop, desktop, DCSD School desktops, public library desktops, etc. Each type of system has its own firewalls. The world wide web has the least amount of firewalls.