Class gives students real-world lesson in technology

SISTERS, Ore. (AP) — Jon Renner begins his lecture by holding aloft a piece of hardware that he identifies for his students as a computer hard drive. On this day, Renner’s class will be learning some of the basics of computer programming. But he wants to start with a lesson in physics. He wants students to tell him why a hard drive should be installed in one of two positions, either lying flat or on its side. Call it shop class for the 21st century.

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Renner’s students are the latest bunch to take part in an unusual program that fuses traditional classroom instruction with experience in a real high-tech business.

Like the students who came before them, Renner’s pupils now know that when installed at an angle, a hard drive will overstress the small bearings in the mechanism, shortening its life.

Welcome to Outlaw Net.

It’s the product of Renner’s restless mind, which turned a corner of a former art room at Sisters High School into a profitable business that provides dial-up Internet service to more than 500 Central Oregon households. It’s also a working classroom for roughly two dozen students who enroll each trimester in Renner’s Outlaw Net class.

Those who excel are given the opportunity to work for Outlaw Net as part-time employees. The students are paid about $8 an hour, but it varies from student to student.

"The wages depend on what they can do, which is a real-world lesson in how things really work," said Renner, who started Outlaw Net in 1996 as a way to bring Internet service to the high school.

At the time, there was no local dial-up service available in Sisters. Where some might have seen an obstacle, Renner saw opportunity. Working with a group of honors students, Renner put together the framework for Outlaw Net.

A social studies teacher, Renner drew on his previous experience as a computer engineer to assemble the hardware. He filled in the holes in his knowledge with a little research.

"He saw a small window of opportunity and he jumped through it," said Leslie Bushnell, general manager.

For the first few months of its existence the business was staffed by Renner and students, as time permitted. Students took turns answering phones at Outlaw Net’s help desk during free periods. But the business quickly grew beyond what they could handle. Within a few months, Outlaw Net hired Bushnell to take over the day-to-day operations. Six years later, Bushnell is still answering phones, managing accounts and finding ways to bring Outlaw Net students into the operation.

A few years ago, when the Internet was young in Sisters, Outlaw Net students could find plenty of work setting up Web connections for Outlaw Net’s growing customer base. Today, most home owners who want Internet access have it already.

To stay competitive, Outlaw Net now offers high-speed DSL connections and wireless satellite. But the installation work is beyond the expertise of most high schoolers. So Outlaw Net has tried to find other ways to get students involved in the business.

"The Internet business and the computer business changes so fast that I’ve had to make adjustments and probably always will to maintain student involvement," said Bushnell.

These days, she and part-time employee Scot Ferguson do most of the work.

An Outlaw Net veteran, Ferguson graduated from Sisters High School in 2001. He has been involved in Outlaw Net since his freshman year and used it as a springboard to a career in computers. Ferguson is planning to take classes this spring at Central Oregon Community College in Bend where he lives. He would eventually like to enroll at Oregon State University to study computer engineering.

Ferguson said he has been interested in computers for as long as he can remember. He knew enough about computers to knock his parents’ PC out of commission while fooling around as a middle school student. But it was Renner who taught Ferguson how to a mend an ailing hard drive and resurrect a dead operating system. And Renner always did it, Ferguson recalled, with his unique approach to teaching.

Bushnell said Renner never tells a student exactly what needs to be done. He prefers to lay out the problem and ask a student to figure out a solution. He’s happy to let students toil away for hours on end at a broken machine. He knows, said Bushnell, that they are learning more from their mistakes than he could teach them by taking over the task.

"It’s kind of the way he teaches," said Ferguson. "He gives you the minimal amount of information and let’s you figure out the rest. It’s almost pull-out-your-hair frustrating at times."

What students learn in his class they put to work around the school district as part of the estimated $40,000 to $50,000 in services Outlaw Net provides at no cost to the schools. Those services include designing and maintaining Web pages for all the schools.

Outlaw Net and Outlaw Net students have helped a district with a limited budget stay abreast of current technology. Outlaw Net acts as a clearinghouse for computers and other hardware donated to the schools.

Students refurbish computers that later end up in the hands of fellow students and teachers.

"Without Outlaw Net, we’d have been in trouble from the beginning," said Steve Swisher, superintendent.

Recently, Outlaw Net students have been resurrecting recycled computers that the school district loans to students whose families don’t have a computer at home.

When Intel donated computers to the school districts in Sisters, Redmond and Bend, they shipped them to Renner’s Outlaw Net class. There students assembled the working machines from the individual pieces before they were sent out to schools. Renner said Outlaw Net’s participation lowered the cost of the units and allowed the schools to buy more PCs than they otherwise could have afforded.

Although Swisher said the school district may be moving closer to the day when it is served by a fiber optic or cable line, there will still be a place for Outlaw Net. The business is moving with the rest of the high school into the district’s new building next year where Outlaw Net will continue to rent space.

"I think we get far more in return than they do by being here," said Swisher.
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