A Project With a Future : Teachers Say Kids Love Program Using Technology for History, Art and English Lessons

HUNTINGTON BEACH — In one room, 15 Spanish-speaking junior high school pupils sit at computers learning English by matching words and pictures. Next door, nearly 30 kids pound away at the keyboards of their word processors. And in a nearby classroom, a quartet of creative seventh-graders videotapes a book report.

Welcome to Project Future, a language arts program that uses technology to teach children everything from history and art to literature and English.

The project, one of only six such programs in California, relies on computers, laser disc players, video recorders, cameras and other technology to enhance the learning process for seventh- and eighth-graders. It is part of the Ocean View School District in Huntington Beach and is funded by the California Department of Education as a state model.

Emphasis is on writing, says project director Rusty Foster. For proof, just look at some of the work done by students at Crest View School, where Project Future has been based for five years. You’ll see original stories, essays, autobiographies, journals, reports and even beautifully illustrated children’s books written by seventh-graders.

“We use technology as a tool,” Foster says. “It is more than just an electronic pencil. It turns them on and fits in so well as far as the writing process.”

The 260 pupils in Project Future have access to more than 60 computers, which they use several times a week. With the help of a sophisticated desktop publishing system and advice from Rick Riddell, computer guru and technical coordinator for the project, the children have even published a medieval newspaper to go along with their social science class on the Middle Ages.

The Project Future computer lab also is used by ESL (English as a second language) students who make up about half of the seventh- and eighth-grade population at Crest View.

Using a software program called English Express, children can call up color images on the screen, then hear a recorded voice telling them the English name for that image. For example, Rosio De Leon, 12, punches up the picture of a back-yard barbecue, then listens as the English words are enunciated. Afterward, Rosio repeats the words, which are recorded and played back so that she can see if her pronunciation matches that of the instructor.

The interactive learning program lets children work independently at their own pace. The kids love it, says ESL teacher Sandy Biere, and their English improves quickly.

In addition to sending ESL pupils to the computer lab, Biere also brings some of Project Future’s technology into her own classroom. Using a still video camera, Biere has updated the old flash-card method of teaching and takes video photos of kids holding up language cards. She then flashes those images on a TV screen for the entire class to see.

“There is nothing like seeing yourself on screen,” she says. “It helps them learn.”

In Char Gould’s eighth-grade social studies class, a Project Future laser disc on American history is used to help pupils review the events leading up to the American Revolution.

And in Mary Johnson’s seventh-grade classroom, literature students use Project Future video cameras to record book reports, which are then played back for the entire class. Pupils select books from their recreational reading, then teach each other how to use the camcorder.

Afterward, they prepare their oral presentation, which for some includes writing and memorizing a script. Every seventh-grader is required to do four video book reports a year, Johnson says.

“We have 90 seventh-graders,” she says. “So, four times a year, that’s 360 books these kids are exposed to.”

For Johnson, the technology is merely a means to an end.

“We do a good job of communicating through the technology,” she says, “but it’s just a tool for better learning. The first thing you’ve got to do is get them to want to do it. And they love this.”

As a Project Future assignment this year, Johnson developed a thematic unit based around the Middle Ages. She then devised ways that pupils could use technology to aid them in their studies. The newspaper was just one result. Johnson’s pupils also wrote a research paper, using the Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia as a reference.

Later, children viewed videos and laser discs about the Middle Ages and concluded by writing their own medieval tale.

“They had to do an original story, set in the Middle Ages, and do their own art work,” Johnson says. “The stories were written by seventh-graders for a primary school audience. Then we invited the primary kids in and read these stories to them.”

The stories went over so well that the younger kids wanted to write their own books, Johnson says as she proudly displays her pupils’ work. The books, neatly bound and encased in plastic, will become a part of Johnson’s Project Future collection and will be viewed by the dozens of educators who visit the program every year from all over the state.

“We have a lot of really impressive things to show visitors,” she says. “We do some heavy-duty stuff here.”

Next year, Project Future will move to Mesa Vista School, also in the Ocean View district, where it will remain under the direction of Foster, a former classroom teacher.

The program is scheduled to be renewed, and Foster expects to hear soon whether Project Future’s $100,000 budget will be approved.

“At the new school, we’ll be working with sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders with the same emphasis of writing across the curriculum,” she says.

Mary Johnson, one of Project Future’s most enthusiastic supporters, will also move to Mesa Vista, where she will work with a whole new group of budding writers.

“In writing, the computer facilitates the process,” Johnson says. “They do better on the computer. They can do the draft, revise and edit, and it’s so much easier than doing it all by hand. This is a technological age, and something happens between the kid and that computer.”

In addition to improving the children’s writing skills, Foster points out that all Project Future students become computer experts at an early age.

“By the time they go on to Ocean View High School, they’re all computer literate,” she says.