Digital Media in the Classroom Case Study

Publication: Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning
Date: March 2, 2011

Summary: The MacArthur Foundation's Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning looks at the educational impact of Voices on the Gulf, a website supported by the National Writing Project that encourages teacher and student discussion about the aftermath of the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

Excerpt from Article

There's not much of a teacher voice on the site. We begin with the students questions and not our questions," explains Paul Allison. "We work really hard in the background helping students come up with their own explorations. That's an important part of our work."

This has meant different things in different classrooms. Using a method known as i-search (as opposed to "research") students came up with their own issues, found their own sources and did their own investigation of the topics they chose.

Kaylie Bonin, a 4th-grader in Margaret Simon's class, wanted to write about the effects of the oil spill on birds. She used an interactive whiteboard to create an illustrated short story about a plover (a small coastal wading bird) named Clover who uses his smarts to "make a difference," by rallying the dolphins to dive deep and stir up oil-eating micro-organisms to assist in the cleanup effort. The story generated such positive response that Bonin intends to self-publish her book using online tools and donate the proceeds from its sale to the National Audubon Society.

Read the Full Article

Read "Digital Media in the Classroom Case Study: Voices on the Gulf" in Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning.