Review of "Us" and "Them": Multimedia Explorations of Prejudice and Intolerance in American History (December, 1997)

"Us" and "Them": Multimedia Explorations of Prejudice and Intolerance in American History
by Ilana Rembelinsky

This article details a project wherein eighth graders produce a multimedia presentation addressing incidences of prejudice and intolerance in U.S. history, utilizing Us and Them, a book produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Students form groups of two and select on of the book's 14 stories as their topic. Then, they produce several written documents dealing with their topic: a brief summary of the facts of the case, a first-person narrative in the voice of one of the participants in the event, a summary of five or more other major events in U.S. history that occurred within 10 years before or after then chosen event. These written assignments are then augmented with three or more scanned images and one to two minutes of video footage illustrating the incident. Students are also required to maintain a learning log, in which they take notes and respond to questions about videos or other media which they view in class.

Q1: How effective is this project at leading to student learning about historical events as well as building computer skills?
A1: In my opinion, this seems like a good balance of these two components. Unlike the project described in a previously reviewed article (Making History Come Alive, November 2003), this one maintains what I consider a more appropriate emphasis on the history, with the computer use as a sizable but minority consideration. I also like that this project employs a number of different approaches to the event (i.e., both a summary as well as a creative first-person narrative).

Q2: Is this project feasible at schools with a wide variety of available tech resources?
A2: In a word, yes. The article was written in 1997, and the project was carried out at a school with only two computers per classroom. Through careful organization, all students were able to schedule time on the available computers and complete their projects. Twelve years later, even poorly-equipped schools probably have greater tech resources than the school at which this program was carried out. Also, more students have computers at home, and many libraries have computers available for public use which could be employed to work on this kind of project on their own time.