Jonathan Johnson has his work cut out for him. In a quiet room on the second floor of a synagogue in a historic New Orleans neighborhood, 16 ninth-graders are trying to master 3-D design software.
In addition to the high-tech challenges the class is meant to deliver, there are all the usual kerfuffles that accompany the use of devices in a classroom. A student ID is rejected as invalid. A profile won’t load. The YouTube playing on a neighbor’s screen goes from being a momentary distraction to a complete focus-killer.