History comes alive on the little screen

NEA Today, Sep 1994 by Gorman, Eric

It's 1914. America' intellectuals debate the question of the day: Should the United Stales enter World War I?

Robin Wax's eleventh grade U.S. history students click on their computers and assume their roles.

"Let them fight amongst themselves," writes one student playing the part of W.E.B. DuBois. "If we are to help either side, we would be helping in the perpetuation of racist, imperialist causes in Africa and Asia."

"This is Eugene Debs," responds another student. "Big, corporate capitalists don't fight wars. The little people that live in the city slums do."

"People, people. Can we all just get along?" writes another student playing Robert LaFollette.

You might not guess that this dialogue is between students who have failed history before or have writing abilities far below grade level.

But it is.

With tough teaching techniques, Daedalus Writing Environment software, and college students who tutor by computer, Robin Wax's students at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan have excelled.

It all began in 1991 when a University of Michigan official approached Wax with the idea of electronically linking high school students to college student tutors.

Everything about the plan clicked for Wax--and her students.

"We get to learn more about what it really feels like to be that person, and it gives us more of a feeling of what actually went on," says Ava Quinzy, a high school junior.

Wax's approach is computer-based, but it's no computer game. She starts off by assigning each student a historical figure to research. Students then read letters and articles by their characters.

When they've got enough background, they enter a computer conference through Daedalus Writing Environment software and discuss a topic Wax provides. The software lets students have real-time debates under their historic names, write electronic journals, and send electronic mail messages to each other and their tutors--University of Michigan students trained as peer counselors.

The tutors don't spend time criticizing technical aspects of the students' work; they try to stimulate students' thinking by sending provocative questions by return "mail."

At the end of the term, the college and high school students get together for a party. "The kids really enjoy having college pen pals," Wax says.

Wax's combination of computers, tutors, and teaching is admired by students and teachers alike.

"It's made learning a lot easier for us," said David Morrow, an 11th grader. "It doesn't feel like you're writing as much as you are."

Students' enthusiasm was evident to Aaron Pollock, another American history teacher at Pioneer, when he first peeked into Wax's classroom.

"Here was a class of 20 kids who apparently don't learn, and everybody was 100 percent focused on work."

Pollock's now using the computers with his at-risk students, and the school's social studies department wants to incorporate the program into a Western civilization class this fall.

In January, NEA's National Foundation for the Improvement of Education awarded Wax a $5,000 McAuliffe grant for combining progressive education with technology.

Good news, yes, but the real victory, Wax says, is seeing kids progress. "I'm not a young kid who's never tried anything new before," Wax adds. "But this has revolutionized my classroom."