Using technology to motivate students   Five students from Beaverton, Oregon explain how their teacher makes learning with technology both enjoyable and meaningful.   By Alicia M. Bartol SCR*TEC

hen Ilana Rembelinsky, an Oregon social studies teacher, began a unit on prejudice last year, many of the kids had mixed reactions. The topic was interesting enough, but the assignments looked difficult. Moreover, they would be using computers, which a few of them had never done before. Aside from each of them writing a giant, five-page research paper, and making a quilt together, each student would pair up with a friend and create a Hypercard stack illustrating a historical incident of intolerance. To find out how kids felt about using this technology in the classroom, KidSpeak spoke with five of Rembelinsky's former U.S. History students: Alyssa, Erin , Marc, Matt, and Cami.

The title card in a student HyperCard project on the Trail of Tears. From this card, the user can navigate to see a movie clip, a written summary, a map, and other related information that the students found in their research. d

s. Rembelinsky's unit on prejudice grew out of classroom resources provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama. This not-for-profit organization provides multiple resources for teaching tolerance to children and teens. Ms. Rembelinsky used an SPLC book entitled Us and Them, which contains numerous factual accounts of intolerance and prejudice in the United States. She asked the paired students to choose an account from the book, and report on the incident using HyperCard.

yperCard is an interactive software tool that allows users to create a multimedia presentation on the computer. The information in HyperCard is organized into a "stack," which can include written texts, sounds, drawings, still photos, animations, and even video clips! For the Us and Them project, Ms. Rembelinsky required the students to have: a written summary of the incident a creative narrative from the perspective of someone involved in the event an annotated timeline that showed at least five historical events at least three scanned images captured video footage illustrating the event Alyssa said, "I was kind of scared, because I've never worked with a computer at that depth before." Others had similar concerns, but looked forward to the project nonetheless. Cami, who said she could barely find the "on" button, was just excited that the class was going to be doing something a little different.

Ms. Rembelinsky created this template with one of her students, so that less experienced HyperCard users could successfully create an Us and Them project. d

arc had a similar reaction. "I thought it was a great idea! I had never done anything like this in school before ... I thought it was really great." Others were pleased because they had previous experience with HyperCard, and looked forward to time on the computers again. Despite the challenges, for most students, using technology was a big lure.

s. Rembelinsky, who had limited computer resources and students with various levels of expertise, planned ahead and enlisted the help of the more experienced computer users in her class. She also created a Hypercard template for the students to use, and a checklist of tasks that needed to be completed for each portion of the project. In the scope of the project, the kids would be using word processing, video capture, and HyperCard software, as well as related hardware.        The more computer savvy students, like Marc, acted as tech helpers for the other students. Although Marc felt he only had a little bit of computer experience, his knowledge and that of the other tech helpers made life a lot easier for those who were were new to the computer realm. It also helped him improve his own computer skills. Being a tech helper was a good experience, according to Marc. "It taught me how to learn HyperCard a lot more than I had learned it before. You learn from your own mistakes."

This screen-capture shows part of a documentary that discussed the Battle of Wounded Knee. The students "captured" this image from the film and used it in their HyperCard project.

ami, who was a beginner with Hypercard, was thankful for the helpers. According to Cami, they were computer whizzes who knew everything. "They would go around asking if anyone [needed] help. They weren't really allowed to do everything for us; they weren't allowed to touch the computer, that was the rule. We had to do it ourselves, but they would just direct us, so that was helpful."        Matt, who was not a tech helper, but was often treated like one, said that the helpers were not neccesary for everyone. However, he said, "it was just nice to have somebody there to kind of help and tell you what was going on."

he technology was definitely challenging. Many of the students agreed that learning the various technologies was difficult, but rewarding. Erin thought the hardest part of the project was digitizing video footage for the stack. "Learning how to cut and paste everything in, 'cause we had to put part of a video in it ... got kind of confusing. They turned out pretty good after we figured it all out."        The other students had similar experiences; they worked hard to solve the mysteries of video capture, scanning images, and transferring them into Hypercard. In the end, they all revelled at the results. Some of the students even used music as a dramatic backdrop to their stack, as well as voice-overs to accompany graphic images of intolerance. "We had some difficulties and didn't quite get it all working," said Matt. "We had to edit the tape to put on the computer, and then we had to find out how to get the music and the voices on, and we didn't know how to do that at first. But I figured it out and we got it." Sometimes this took longer than the students anticipated.

Another screen-capture from digitized video. This one depicts Japanese Americans.

or this reason, organization and planning were a key to success. Allyssa said, "We had a certain time limit to do everything ... sometimes sources wouldn't be available to us. People would be using them, so we had to do our footage one day, and get a certain thing done by [another] day. We had to plan everything out." Alyssa also felt really driven in the class because Ms. Rembelinsky didn't let anyone "slack off." Alyssa said, "She didn't put the pressure on us as much as she just [said], 'You know, I want you to work your best.' It really helped a lot of people as students ... it made kids want to finish their project and learn things." Many of the students said the lessons in organization and self-motivation were just as important as the academic lessons. Now that the kids are in high school, they say these skills are coming in handy.

hey've also gained valuable computer skills. Although they haven't done a lot of video digitizing in high school, most of them think they could still do it with a little help. The experience and practice alone gives them a basis for understanding technology that they can build on in the future, especially since computer skills seem to be more and more neccesary for many jobs. The students recognize this, and are glad for these classroom learning opportunities. Alyssa, Erin, and Cami all gained computer skills that impressed them. Cami said, "Using technology was a whole new thing: unreal! It was a totally new experience." She never expected to learn so much about computers in history class. She and others learned how to use word processors, how to use CD-ROM encyclopedias, and how to research topics on the Internet. She said, "I enjoyed so much of it, having a lot of freedom in the class, being able to experience new things in technology that I'd never been aware of. That was a huge lesson for me. There [are] so many things possible with the computer."        These aren't the only lessons Ms. Rembelinsky's students have taken with them, however. The unit was, after all, supposed to teach tolerance. Not only have most of the kids remembered the events they reported on, but they have come away with a deep understanding of racism, prejudices, and intolerance in U.S. society. Matt said that his most valuable lesson was, "seeing over the years how different discriminations have [come to be], and how they've faded away, and how new prejudices have evolved, and how we could prevent prejudices from getting out of control in the future." Marc agreed that the most valuable lesson was simply learning what happened in the past, so that it can be avoided in the future.

A screen-capture of a Ku Kux Klan meeting that was used in a student project.

llyssa said that this project provided her with important life lessons as well. Regarding prejudice, she said, "It is something that you just can't ignore, and you can't act like, 'Oh, well, this is something I'm never gonna use in the real world.' It [is] shocking, but you have to accept it, and I think it's something you don't forget." The stories from Us and Them were also an important part of the equation. "It proves that people aren't perfect," said Alyssa, "and people have to accept human nature, and what we do, and we can't just deny that we have a part of that in us. We have to do something about it. You can't just watch and be bystanders; you have to actively do something about it or else you're participating in it." These are probably the lessons Ms. Rembelinsky was aiming for.

Check out these helpful resources:

For more information on teaching tolerance, visit the Southern Poverty Law Center Web site. You may also order materials from the SPLC by sending a letter on school letterhead to: Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Avenue, Montgomery, AL 36104   For more details on the structure and pedagogy of the HyperCard assignment, read Ms. Rembelinsky's story in the International Society for Technology in Education journal, Learning and Leading with Technology:   Rembelinsky, Ilana. "Us and Them: Multimedia Explorations of Prejudice and Intolerance in American History." Learning and Leading with Technology. 25.4 (1998): 42-47.

Students interviewed for KidSpeak are nominated by teachers. Send nominations to the editor. Copyright. © 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997 ALTec, the University of Kansas