Game on at Russellville

Russellville students are shown working with new video game programming software in a new business class called computer programming, which was a result of a recent federal grant to upgrade technology.
Russellville students are shown working with new video game programming software in a new business class called computer programming, which was a result of a recent federal grant to upgrade technology.

RUSSELLVILLE - Students will have the opportunity to build video games or enhance their movies thanks to replacement and upgrades of Cole County R-1 High School's business classroom.

In addition to 24 units of Hewlett Packard's Compaq Pro 4300 equipped with Windows I Pro software, software includes Microsoft 2013 with the publisher suite, Adobe CS6 master collection, Photo Shop, Flash, Dreamweaver and Premier Pro video editing.

"They have everything, more than I'll ever teach," said business teacher David Coulston.

Four years ago, the school benefited from the same Vocational Enhancement federal grant distributed by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. At that time, they received Dell computers with the Vista operating system.

Those computers will be cleaned, upgraded and distributed across the Russellville school district. Secondary benefits include passing on the old color printer to the elementary office, which until now has had to rely on the business program to print its color documents.

But in Coulston's classroom, the latest technology runs twice as fast as its predecessor.

"We have a great deal more to work with," Coulston said. "I'm excited to learn the new stuff right along with the students."

Because of the advanced capabilities, students were offered new business classes, including computer programming and network administration.

The matching grant's enhancements dovetail with the district's other technology-related initiatives for this school year.

Although the high school is in its second year of allowing students to bring their own devices, a second dedicated computer lab was installed with the use of a virtual network. That makes nearly 60 computers now accessible to students in two labs and the library.

And, at teacher workshops Friday, each of the 60 full-time, kindergarten through high school certified faculty received an iPad.