Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

10.21.10 | We enjoyed this interview with former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the PBS News Hour last week. O’Connor, who has become a gaming advocate since leaving the bench, was touting iCivics, a web-based project that uses game play to teach middle school students about civic engagement.

O’Connor says she got involved with the project because of her concern that civics education was faltering and that teachers needed better materials and support.

“We got public schools in this country to begin with because of the concern about the need to teach young people how to be good citizens,” O’Connor told the News Hour’s Judy Woodruff.

“In recent years, the schools have stopped teaching [civics],and it’s unfortunate. Half the states no longer make it a requirement to get out of high school, if you can believe it,” said O’Connor. “It’s really a remarkable withdrawal from the very purpose we had originally for public schools.”

O’Connor said research has shown that students who play the games are learning “incredible amounts” about the three branches of government.

Spotlight profiled iCivics this summer. After launching with games about the judicial branch, iCivics now enables students to learn about the separation of powers and checks and balances by assuming the role of president or member of Congress. It also includes curricular resources for educators and parents on the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

O’Connor says she hopes to see iCivics in every middle school in America in the coming years.

Plus: As part of its Beyond Textbooks initiative, the state of Virginia will pilot a new social studies curriculum for the iPad. Pearson has developed four new iPad applications and a digital curriculum aligned to the Virginia U.S. History and World History programs for 7th- and 9th-graders. The program will demo in several schools for 12 weeks beginning Nov. 1.

Additionally, some 4th-grade students at Virginia elementary schools will learn about their state’s early history by creating multimedia projects on iPads using content from the digital library of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.

The state’s initiative aims to explore the potential of wireless technology and digital textbooks to enhance teaching and learning. The Virginia Department of Education is inviting textbook publishers and other instructional-content providers, along with technology companies, to submit resources for pilot testing.