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Photo by Jim Craven Phoenix High School students Eric Feigner, left, Shawn Farrell and Ryan Gallegos talk about a computer networking problem during class on Thursday. The elective teaches students necessary -- and lucrative -- skills for working with computer systems. Class learns to build networks Technical careers could await Cisco project graduates By VICKI GUARINO PHOENIX -- From circuit boards to hubs to routers, high school students this year are going beyond e-mail and Web pages to learn how computer networks work. And with screwdrivers and wire strippers, students also are learning how networks are built. Dozens of high school students in Ashland, Eagle Point and Phoenix are finding out how to get computers to communicate with one another in a new two-year program. The class, offered as an elective, was designed by California based Cisco Systems Inc., a leader in network technology and manufacturing. By the end of the next school year, the first of the program's students are expected to be ready to become licensed Cisco network technicians. At its most basic, the program is intended to be career training, says Phoenix-Talent School District technology coordinator Don Wolff. Just look in the want ads in any newspaper, he suggests. Listings for network technicians are commonplace. "There's just a huge shortage of specialists," says Wolff. "And these are entry-level jobs, right out of high school, that pay $50,000." But job prospects are not the draw for many of the 40-50 networking students at Phoenix High School. Senior Josh Neely wants to be a deputy sheriff, but figures a background in networks would be good employment security. Sophomore Dustin Lotspeich isn't certain about his career future, but figures that somehow computers will be involved. "Computers are becoming more and more important, so it's important to know something about them," he says. Seniors Andrew Hawkinson and Anya Coleman are simply fascinated by the technology. "I like computers, the way computers work," Hawkinson says. "I have a computer at home I'm constantly upgrading," says Coleman. "I'm taking this class because I like it. It explains a lot; like why your computer moves slow sometimes when you're on-line. "I want to be a forensic scientist, so this might help." Their classroom is a component-strewn lab. Students divide their time between puzzling through the mathematics of designing a network and practicing the craft of actually building computers and network systems. In design, students learn that more than one answer can be right. The goal is efficiency and effectiveness, says teacher and technology specialist Richard Whitely. "I chose four," he tells students at the end of one exercise, "but if you think something is better, I want to hear about it. "It's not like mine is necessarily the right way. Different network administrators would do it different ways." In the building phase of the class, students splice cable and piece together components. It's exacting work, where a twist in a thread of copper can perpetually foul data. "It seems really easy to do it right, but it's really easy to do it wrong," says Neely, demonstrating with cable and wire cutters. Their classroom also doubles the local headquarters for the Cisco-led project. Teachers from Ashland and Eagle Point used the lab during the summer for training by Wolff and Whitely. Teachers will return for a second round of instruction starting in January. The two Phoenix teachers were trained by Cisco, but their pivotal role in the broader, county effort wasn't anticipated. "We weren't looking to be a regional facility when all this started," says Wolff. They were just trying to figure out how to build a network to link all the schools and all the offices in the Phoenix-Talent district. The district chose Cisco components, and at a training seminar for buyers last winter, Wolff and Whitely heard Cisco make a pitch for its technical training program. "Cisco is the largest producer of network equipment worldwide," says Wolff. "They're like the Microsoft of networks." So even if Cisco grads don't wind up working on Cisco equipment, Wolff says, their certification still would be widely recognized. Eventually, Wolff hopes to expand the program, possibly offering an advanced technician's program to adults. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA