Stevenson teachers take history to blogosphere

Stevenson teachers take history to blogosphere
Curriculum includes podcasts, blogs and radio interviews with alumni
Originally published Sunday, May 21, 2007

By Nadia Malik
Daily Herald Staff Writer

When China's president came to the United States for a visit in April, the media jumped on the opportunity to discuss economics and the extent of this country's relationship with a communist nation.
In Lincolnshire, two teachers at Stevenson High School also put in their two cents using new media technology.
Andrew Conneen and Dan Larsen recorded their weekly podcast, called "The Regular Guys," which they put on their AP government class Web site for students to download.
In the broadcast, they discussed the significance of Hu Jintao's trip so their students could understand it in the context of their class discussions on China's government.
"We're always looking for projects we can utilize technology for," Conneen said.
Stevenson administrators, in fact, have lent laptops, digital cameras and iPods to the school's four government teachers so they can incorporate technology into their teaching.
"A couple years ago, the school encouraged us to think outside the box," Larsen said.
"They really encouraged us to integrate technology. They gave us training and encouragement to do it a little bit more aggressively."
Every Friday, Conneen and Larsen upload a podcast, an Internet broadcast that students can listen to online or on mp3 players, such as iPods.
They define relevant terms, such as a recent session on interest groups, and discuss current events to help students understand the ideas.
"You don't usually get a podcast that helps you study for your exams," said Corbb O'Connor, a senior who took both comparative and American government classes. "You get to expand what you learned in class that day."
The teachers also took advantage of their new technology tools earlier in the year, when they saw a potential classroom lesson playing out in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Conneen, Larsen, Jennifer Bouchard and Vanessa Lal flew to Washington, D.C., in February to film a documentary as the Supreme Court discussed the constitutionality of gerrymandering, or electoral redistricting for political advantages, in Texas in 2003.
"We captured some video outside the Supreme Court and interviewed some of the notables who stopped by," Conneen said.
After the court hands down a decision later this year, students can watch the firsthand account of the case.
Besides the documentary, all four teachers keep daily blogs that discuss current events. The Web sites allow students to discuss the news.
"(The blogs have) been most successful in getting those kids who might be too shy to participate in class discussions," Conneen said.
Paul Axel, a senior, said he's online so often anyway that he checks his class blog, www.citizenu.org, in his daily routine and often comments.
"It allows the teachers to talk about things they normally wouldn't get to talk about in class," he said. "They make it a lot more accessible for a lot of kids who don't watch the news or read the newspaper."
The teachers also bring relevant speakers to the school's radio station. They do a show during elections, and their students broadcast a forum with 8th Congressional Republican and 10th Congressional Democratic candidates before the March primary.
On May 15, the teachers did a 2 1/2-hour radio broadcast to review for the next day's AP government exam.
The show featured John Anderson, who ran as a third-party candidate for president against Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter in 1980; Dotty Lynch, senior editor for the CBS National News; Jay Matthews, education reporter for the Washington Post and Newsweek; and former student Brad Goodman, who works for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, a Plano Republican.
"It's such a great way to reach out and do things in a nontraditional and more exciting way," Goodman said about the radio show. "All too often people rely on methods that are just outdated. For today's youth, having a blog and having a radio show, it's so unique."
The teachers' connection to alumni, many of whom were inspired to political careers because of their classes at Stevenson, helps garner big-name guests.
"They really help communicate their passion for the subject," said Mosheh Oinounou, a 2000 graduate who works as a news researcher in Washington, D.C. "They really treat the students like mature adults and discuss the issues of our time."
Conneen said many of his students told him they were able to use the concepts guests brought up during the show on their AP exam, where they were encouraged to give examples during their free-response questions.
That's exactly the point of using different media to get the students talking about government.
"I think we envision a virtual interactive textbook to make it available for our students," Larsen said. The idea is especially important since in government class, the textbook is constantly changing with current events.
The teachers are slowly working toward that, for now interviewing political figures and having them define terms for their students.
For example, they have clips of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama talking about the 26th Amendment that allowed 18 year olds to vote, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk defining "constituent," and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin discussing "party discipline."
"The government curriculum is really vocabulary driven," Conneen said, "and students have to understand these terms."
The use of blogs and podcasts also helps to bridge the gap between generations.
"We call our students 'digital natives,' and the adults are 'digital immigrants,' " Conneen said. "This was a way to communicate using the technology."