January 6, 1997
ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) -- The words may be English but the language seems foreign as teacher Jim Bassett rattles off a series of questions about the "primary domain controller" to the 25 students peering up from their computer screens.
"The PDC validates user accounts whose users log onto the domain," a young man pipes up. Another offers a one-sentence acronym-filled dissertation on the role of the "BDC" as a backup to the "PDC."
Welcome to Arlington High School's Microsoft NT training class. Arlington is the only high school in the world to offer Microsoft training on the company's leading network operating system, Windows NT, and the second in the nation to have any Microsoft training classes, according to the company. Seattle schools will start a program in the spring.
In the months ahead, as many as 25 students will take a test to determine if they become Microsoft certified professionals for Windows NT Server. A certified professional knows how to set up, maintain and administer an individual or a group of Windows NT servers, which provide the computer backbone for small and large businesses worldwide.
The class studies other companies products and systems as well and issues such as ethics, but the Microsoft certification is a lure for many students hoping to step into a wide open job market and make $30,000 a year out of high school or pursue computer science or engineering degrees in college.
Geoff VanEss, a senior, acknowledges that the computer semantics can seem intimidating, if not esoteric, to the layman. He offers this analogy about the craft and technology he is learning: "The network would be almost ESP between different peoples' brains and the server would be a deity. And you are setting this up."
Computer study consumes far more time than the 55 minutes of class each day for VanEss and many of his classmates. Even the brightest students are loathe to miss class for fear of falling behind.
Deb Borgens, director of the district's vocational programs, is amazed by the students' commitment and ability to absorb technical information. One group wired the high school's computer lab last summer, dragging network cabling hither and yon, literally building the network on which they are now learning.
"They are putting in sometimes three and four hours after school to work on this," Borgens said. "You can see them in there when all the lights are off every place else."
The goal is to add an Internet information server certification class next year for Windows NT and help local businesses with their NT systems, school and company officials said.
Ty Carlson, a senior product manager for Windows NT Internet Information Server, was sitting in a meeting at the company's headquarters in Redmond last spring, far removed from the 300 head of Holsteins on the Arlington dairy farm of his youth.
Carlson, who travels the world working with major companies ranging from Coca Cola and General Motors to Union Bank of Switzerland and the Hong Kong Airport Authority, was staring at his notebook-sized personal computer, scrolling through volunteer e-mail on the corporate network when one entry caught his eye.
Arlington High School, his alma mater, was looking for a speaker for Career Day.
Carlson, class of 1983, was eager to go back.
It was, after all, where the inspiration came for his career in electronics.
Carlson, 30, well remembered the school's rudimentary computer technology of the early 1980s. When he entered high school, there was the TRS-80, dubbed "Trash 80 after it ate a few of our programs" and an Apple II in the business department.
He and a friend taught instructors as a trade-off for computer time.
By the time they graduated, the school had a set of Commodore computers with a very simple network. Half the time, it seemed, was spent trying to keep the computers running.
Carlson also remembered Mike Addington, the teacher who pushed him in electronics class.
"Mr. Addington understood each one of his students and he would challenge each one of his students at that level you were at," Carlson said. "He took each of his students very personally."
It was man, not machine, who inspired Carlson onto a high-tech career path. He returned to Career Day hoping to do the same for other students.
Carlson floated the idea of the NT certification program that day to Addington and fellow teachers Jim Bassett and Brett Sarver. Classes could be geared to vocational students heading into the job market and to the college-bound.
Before long, Addington walked into the main office and insisted principal Warren Hopkins meet the AHS graduate.
"He corralled me," Hopkins said with a laugh.
Hopkins listened carefully to the high profile visitor, all the while wondering if it could be done.
"At that point our network here was just above the Dark Ages," he said. "I'm thinking, we are trying to run here when we aren't even walking yet, but let's see what we can do."
For Bassett, it has meant untold hours of study and training and helping students lay the cable and build the network -- a sometimes exhausting undertaking with the pressure of making sure the students are ready for the spring exam.
Carlson is thrilled by the results when he returns to old AHS. "It makes you quietly happy inside when you go back and see students excited about learning," he said. "I can go back and see myself."
Jim Flatmo, a senior in the Windows NT class, knows the months ahead will be challenging. Already he is staying after school in the computer lab, routinely until 5 p.m., learning as much as he can to prepare for the spring certification exam.
The class he is taking would cost about $4,500 in the private sector and he's thankful for the chance.
"It's a real big opportunity for us," he said. "It's also a lot of work. They told us in the beginning how hard it was. They were right."
It promises to get a whole lot tougher and more interesting in the next few months when lessons become more hands-on.
Carlson will be leading a twice-a-month night class geared toward solving network problems with high tech equipment that isn't even on the market yet.
"Basically, I'm going to break machines and they are going to fix them," he said, wryly adding, "I know how to break systems really well."
Some students will pass the spring exam and go on to summer internships at Microsoft. Others, most likely, won't.
They aren't the only ones anxious about the prospect.
Sarver is a business teacher, not a computer ace. He can teach computer spreadsheets and other applications. However, now he finds himself studying alongside students so he, too, can take the Microsoft NT exam in the spring.
"The roles have changed," he said. "I think I'm the nervous one. I've got to take it with them. ...
"There are some whiz kids out here. It's almost scary how good."
