DAPHNE, Ala. — Blair Heald, gifted-education teacher at W.J. Carroll Intermediate School, has been spending afternoons with 11 of her students, teaching them about technology and how to preserve history.

The students have met just three times, but they have already learned the basics of scanning and document preservation, which Heald said benefits students, the school, and the Black Education Museum on the school campus.

Heald’s after-school project is funded by a Supporting Educational Enrichment in Daphne’s Schools grant she applied for after receiving a suggestion that the Old Methodist Church Museum could use assistance in making a move to the digital world.

Heald’s main goal with her after-school project is to use the technology the grant funded to preserve the school’s historical documents, its namesake W.J. Carroll and documents housed in the Black Education Museum.

Five scanners were purchased for students’ use, along with photo software.

Students have already gained a lot of experience scanning documents. Many students can successfully scan documents without Heald’s assistance.

 Heald hopes the experience gives the students more insight into how to use computers and technology in innovative and useful ways.

“I wanted to garner an interest in technology in general,” she said.

During their third meeting, the students downloaded a photo-editing program to enhance photographs with different effects. By the end of the session, students had turned photographs of themselves a variety of colors and played around with the different effects.

Eventually, the documents the students are scanning will be put on the Black Education Museum’s website so more people can see what the museum offers.

Heald started the group by asking her students to write an essay about why they wanted to be in the club, and eventually 11 students committed to being involved.

Shavon Grayson was interested in being involved in the group from the very beginning.

“I didn’t really know too much about technology and I was very interested in learning about computers,” she said.

Grayson said the work they are doing is important to build up interest in the museum and to preserve the documents for the future.

“You may lose the actual document, but if you scan it you will have it on the computer; in case you lose it, you still have one,” she said.

(Staff video by Shea Zirlott; edited by Thomas Boni)

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