Students blaze high-tech trail

Pinckney New Technology High School students were provided laptop computers they'll use until they graduate, but only after they signed a "digital constitution" they created themselves.Students spent the first week of school writing a digital constitution, or what Principal Stephen Keskes explained is a set of rules, rights and responsibilities regarding technological policy.Each of the more than 230 freshmen and sophomores in the New Technology High School's inaugural year in Pinckney Community Schools signed the agreement last week at a ratification ceremony."The students created a digital constitution, modeled to create digital citizens," Keskes said. "The students basically dissected and created a list of rights and responsibilities that mirrors the majority of the Constitution. The constitution they created will be signed by future generations of students."The laptops were purchased under the technology portion — totaling $8.3 million — of the $59 million bond project voters approved in February. The district has 1,500 laptops in inventory and purchased 236 interactive whiteboards for the rest of its schools, also with bond dollars.According to Superintendent Dan Danosky, New Technology High School is a "high school within a high school," which places a heavy emphasis on project-based learning and group work to teach 21st century learning skills. Laptop computers, he said, are integral to students based on its modern, project-based curriculum.