Innovative technologies were showcased at the new DeVos Place in Grand Rapids last month at the Michigan Education Association/Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning Conference. Thirty-four of the state's top student technology projects were on display. Technologies ranged from computers and the Internet to clay animation and robotics.

Charlotte High School senior Holly Adams redesigned the website for CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) for Kids of Barry and Eaton counties, the nonprofit agency that represents the interests of neglected and abused children in juvenile court cases. Adams volunteered to do the work on her own time. Dorian Hawkins, CASA volunteer coordinator, said Adams' work saved CASA at least $500 that now can be used for training volunteers.

The Whiteford, Mason and Bedford school districts are united with a high-speed computer link that feeds video and sound among them. This allows districts to offer courses that students are interested in taking but that the districts might not be able to afford on their own. Meanwhile, Monroe County Community College (MCCC) officials said their list of students taking college courses online is growing. The Intermediate School District and MCCC are working together to provide more interactive courses, including the possibility of online dual enrollment classes that will give high school students college credit before they graduate.

For three Northview High School students, impressing a future employer could be a mouse click away. Students in Dave Tull's Web page development class are charged each semester with designing a comprehensive Internet site. The process is competitive, and only one Web site ends up online.

First- and second-graders in the Brighton Area Schools will have access to the Internet beginning this fall. The request was made by the elementary media specialists to allow students limited, structured access to content on the Internet. The primary reason for their request is the increase in age-appropriate Web sites that complement the curriculum. Also, because of current budget limitations, staff cannot afford to purchase new software for labs or classrooms.

East Jackson's Memorial Elementary School recently opened its new computer lab in Room 4, with 30 computer workstations available to students. The lab replaces the school's previous system, known as COW (Computers On Wheels), in which 24 laptop computers were literally carted from room to room as needed. "Having this computer lab is a blessing," said Amy Rogers, a special-education teacher and a member of the school's technology team. "They're on and ready for use. With the computer lab, it's easier to access the programs and it allows more instruction time."

PatientStation is a bedside computer system with a flat, 15-inch touch-screen monitor that has been installed at 153 bedsides at Huron Valley-Sinai, the first of the Detroit Medical Center’s hospitals to use it. The only patients who don’t have access to it are those in the 10 beds in intensive care. PatientStation allows patients to surf the Internet and use e-mail, and it lets doctors and nurses do bedside charting, verify medications and check patient records. It also generates revenues for the hospital.

Wireless Internet accessibility is spreading faster in Detroit than any other major metropolitan area nationwide, according to a survey released today by computer chip maker Intel Corp. Detroit made the biggest jump in the rankings of America’s "most unwired cities," leaping from 48th last year to 28th. Ann Arbor ranked 40th. In a companion survey, Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, which connects students and faculty through a campuswide wireless network, was listed as the country’s eighth most unwired college.

Student members of the BakerNet Computer Club, and Morris Fulcher, Baker College of Flint associate dean, recently volunteered their time and computer skills at a training session held by The Resource Center. The students were paired with an executive from a local nonprofit organization. After the training session, each accompanied his or her executive back to work and assisted with identifying current computer and network configurations and setting up of the Internet application for the specific organization.

Board of Trustees members approved a $1,000 proposal Monday to build the city's own Web site. It would give users access to features such as property tax information and property descriptions. In addition to helping local residents, the online tool will come in handy when businesses or real estate agents call city employees looking for property information, Clerk Richard C. DeLong said.

Thanks to successful technology fund-raising and bond issues, new digital video technology has arrived as a teaching tool at many school districts in Michigan, including both Berkley and Ferndale high schools. Students now zip around campus with new hand-held digital cameras about as big as a paperback book, and can drag-and-drop footage and sound on high-storage computers so fast that a 15-minute newscast takes about that long to produce.

The Grand Traverse County Register of Deeds is about to click into the 21st century with online access to property records. The office began scanning documents into a new Windows-based computer program this week that officials say will make searching easier and more convenient for staff, title companies, assessors and eventually the public. Register of Deeds Peggy Haines said Grand Traverse will be one of the first counties in northern Michigan to go online.

Banking on the knowledge that even traditional companies, such as construction firms, require high-speed Internet connections to do business, Oakland County development officials spent a year mapping areas that have broadband service and identifying the companies that own and operate the networks. The study, part of the LinkMichigan initiative, found 80 percent of the county’s 1.3 million residents have access to some type of high-speed Internet service, either at home or at work. About 85 percent, or 51,000, of the county’s 60,000 businesses subscribe to some kind of Internet service and 42 percent reported they use high-speed Internet service. More than 1 million county residents also have an Internet connection at home.

Western Michigan University is eighth in the nation in the use of wireless-computing technology on a university campus, according to Intel's ranking of the 100 "Most Unwired College Campuses" in the country. WMU is one of only two Michigan universities on the list; Siena Heights University in Adrian was ranked 58th.

Huron Valley School District is on the leading edge of that trend, thanks to three Milford High School students. Juniors Mike Horace, Dan Pianki and Mitch Phillips make up the D and M Show, a talk radio show broadcast over the district’s Web site.

Sherwood Park students want to show the community how computers have transformed their school. The Southeast Side school will showcase its new technology facilities at a Grand Re-Open House April 15. Throughout the building, students will demonstrate how they use technology in their everyday studies.

Parents and educators in western Wayne County are using the Internet as a high-tech political tool credited with preventing millions of dollars in state cuts at some local schools. When Livonia Public Schools recently faced $5.5 million in funding reductions under state budget proposals, parents and teachers launched a Web site and e-mail campaign. The barrage of hundreds of e-mails helped persuade state lawmakers to avoid the cuts.

Tim Bagby, assistant principal at Ballard Elementary, made arrangements to bring the Bridges to Digital Excellence project to Niles. The project, sponsored by the Benton Harbor-based Council for World-Class Communities, was designed to provide computers to families who do not have them. 28 students applied and qualified for the program; the requirements for third, fourth and fifth grade students to qualify for the program were that the student did not have a computer at home and were willing to go through eight hours of training with their parents.

The Macomb County Register of Deeds Office processed a record 2.1 million pages of real estate documents in 2003 as home sales and mortgage refinancings continue to flourish. The office, which had faced harsh criticism in the 1990s when the volume of real estate activity first jumped, is now able to process all documents in the same day they are received.

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