After completing his mailings to teachers around Rhode Island, Charles K. Rogers of New England Technical Institute likes to sit back and watch the responses pour in. Teachers react quickly to Rogers’ special offer: Free computer classes, and that’s not all. Since 1994, Rogers, who is the special assistant to the president of the Warwick-based college, has been organizing development classes for school teachers on weekday afternoons. He has since seen 1,000 teachers. Some have come to learn basic computer skills; others want to learn to use a transmission dynamometer, a tool that examines the transmission of a car before it is installed.
Still others want to take autoCAD or HVAC. And some come to learn low-tech skills. For example, Rogers offers a class in furniture and cabinet refinishing.
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About 115 teachers are taking the classes – taught by institute faculty – that Rogers offers this quarter. He makes the courses known through quarterly mailings. Anyone who teaches in New England is eligible, he said.
A former teacher himself, Rogers recognizes many of the names that end up on class roster lists. His desire to help his colleagues was part of his reason for starting the program.
“Being a person who is close to the teaching field, I just heard an awful lot of my former colleagues saying, ‘Where can we go to school to get real-life, down and dirty experience?'” Rogers said.
Rogers began meeting people as a high school teacher at Smithfield High School, where he taught drafting, electricity, and woodworking classes. He later taught general industrial arts at South Attleboro (Mass.) Middle School, and was an assistant principal at the Rhode Island Training School for Boys.
The classes he offers at New England Tech, however, are not his first foray into teacher education. In the early 1980s, as president of the Hull Institute of Technology in Pawtucket, Rogers started offering free classes to teachers. He taught groups of 25 to 30. In those days, they learned on the Apple IIE.
The program Rogers now runs at New England Tech started in January of 1994 with one course, basic autoCAD. Now, from 90 to 130 teachers participate in classes that run a wide gamut, from an introduction of Novel networking to a class in which students learn about the computerized process of mixing auto body paints.
At one time, those who took his classes were “tech heads” looking to expand their knowledge. Today, teachers from all fields come to take computer classes. Often, they enroll in courses that have nothing to do with their teaching specialty.
For example, in the introduction to computers and the Internet course, specialties range from physical education to graphic arts and childhood development.
“Because of the types of programs we initially offered, the vast majority of those taking those courses were in that (technology) field,” he said. Today, the teachers’ interest has broadened, and classes have become more diverse. “There is a completely mixed bag.”
Still, computer classes are the most popular. Waiting lists develop quickly. For example, a single school in South County has 15 teachers who want to take a basic computer course.
Of course, giving classes for free is costly. But it is not without reward for New England Tech. If teachers find the classes useful, they may recommend the school to their students, Rogers said.
Rogers’ classes stress experience. Within the first five minutes of their first class the computer is on and students are punching something into it, he said. For some teachers, the classes are an opportunity to fulfill mandatory continuing education requirements. Instructors do not give grades. But they do take attendance, and certificates of completion are awarded at the end.
While teachers are required to pay nothing more than the cost of their books and laboratory fees, Rogers believes the attraction goes beyond that. He has students from as far away as New London, Conn. and Fitchburg, Mass. One of the teacher-students is Tom Alose, who teaches advanced woodworking and robotics at Middletown High School. He has been taking classes at New England Tech for five years. This quarter, he is taking a class on architectural engineering, in which eight different instructors teach the class over an eight-week period, each offering insight on a different aspect of the science.
“This gives you a chance to broaden your views and see how jobs have changed,” Alose said. “It’s given me an outlook that there is an avenue for my students.”
Asked if New England Tech has plans to charge for its classes, Rogers was resolute.
“There has never been any question in anybody’s mind about offering these programs for a fee,” he said. “No one’s ever mentioned that. So as far as I’m concerned, we’re going to continue to offer (classes) free of charge.”
