At Minneapolis Roosevelt High School, chalkboards are out
and Twitter and instant messaging are in.
"You got Wikis, iMovie, PowerPoint, iPhoto."
"Most of the time, we're dealing with computers, searching Web sites."
Thanks, in part, to the University of Minnesota's Department of Curriculum
and Instruction, these students at Roosevelt are weaving the social Web sites they use
on a daily basis with traditional courses like English.
"My take on education is that if you don't engage the kids,
you might as well be talking to the wall."
Roosevelt teacher Delainia Haug says using social sites like Twitter,
has significantly increased student engagement.
Haug says students use social sites like Facebook and Twitter to communicate outside
of class, so it only makes sense to use those tools
to get the kids communicating during class.
"The point is to get them engaged and make it pertinent to them, but I'm still sneaking
in there all the things that I know are good English language arts,
teaching, learning skills."
"It's all part of the University's DigMe program, that's short for digital media.
The DigMe program brings the U's expertise in technology, literacy and learning
into Minneapolis high school classrooms to raise the engagement
and academic achievement of the students."
"We know, from previous research, that engagement is important for achievement."
U of M Educational Researcher Cynthia Lewis, who leads the U's partnership
with Roosevelt high school, says using social media serves two purposes; number one,
catching the attention of the students and increasing their participation.
Number two, preparing them for communicating in tomorrow's new media landscape.
"We know that digital media engages young people and because we know
that 21st century literacies are all about digital media."
And the students love the program.
"I love this class a lot.
It's the best class so far that I have."
For the University of Minnesota, I'm Justin Ware.
