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Bringing cultures closer with technology   Teachers in Texas find Technology serves to bond diverse cultures across a big state.   By Trina Davis

t was a fairly average day last fall. Our video conferencing connection began promptly at 9:00 a.m. A great deal of vision and planning had gotten us to this point. I wasn't really nervous , but I felt like an eager, proud parent. I can very vividly recall the moment that I knew that "Project Footsteps" (which is what the project was called at the time) would be a success.        Imagine, if you will, a very poised, gifted, African-American, sixth-grade boy walking up to the presentation station, delivering a flawless introductory speech. Carl began by talking about his family. His parents were both very successful and you could see the pride in his face as talked about his older brother. Next, Carl spoke of his career goal to be an Electrical Engineer. I suppose that it is very relevant at this point to tell you that Carl is the kind of student that most teachers dream of having. Carl had been chosen for the gifted and talented program year after year. Carl had exemplary grades and probably had never received a conduct grade below an "E."

arl was chosen to represent our school, time after time, for such events as Science Olympiad and UIL. Carl's parents were just as exemplary. They were very supportive and they were model P.T.O. members. I suppose that's why Carl's conclusion to his introductory speech was so poignant for me. As Carl finished talking about his goals, he listed his favorite subjects at Jones Intermediate. He hesitated for just a few seconds, the smile that he wore throughout his speech had disappeared. He continued to read in a now, shaky voice, "I am just happy, happy to be alive." He announced his name again, "and my name is Carl Adams," and walked quickly to his seat. I believe that many of Carl's classmates just didn't get it, but I think I got it. It was at that moment that I knew that "Project Footsteps," which is now called "Cultural Connections," would be a success.        Cultural Connections was the brain child of Dr. Lauren Cifuentes and Dr. Teri Metcalf at Texas A&M University. One of the objectives of Cultural Connections was to use "multimedia and distance technologies to mediate personal growth and the sharing of personal identities among young adolescents across sites."

hen Ester Gonzales and I met for the first time to begin planning for "Project Footsteps," we could only hope for the kind of depth and honesty that Carl revealed during our first video conference. Here stood a brilliant, young boy with a promising future, who at age eleven already articulated his fear and awareness of the plight of the black male. Later, Carl explained that many young black men wouldn't make it to age sixteen. This kid said he was just happy to be alive, I thought to myself; wow. A student like Carl was even concerned about his uncertain future. Moreover, at eleven, Carl really valued life. This was a real buy in for me into Cultural Connections.        Cultural Connections is an ongoing distance learning and multimedia collaborative project designed to promote cross-cultural understanding among secondary teachers and students. Middle school students across Texas meet via distance technologies to get to know each other and conduct curricular activities together.        I felt that my students would be engaged in meaningful applications of technology and collaboration with Ester's students. In reality, this project fostered personal reflection and growth, and I had witnessed some remarkable first steps.

Trina looks on as her students make a Cultural Connection with a cross-state classroom.

ster Gonzales, my teaching partner, and I make a great pair. Ester is an eighth-grade teacher and the Distance Learning Coordinator at Berta Cabaza Middle School in San Benito, Texas, which is in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. I am a teacher of gifted and talented fifth and sixth graders and the Technology Coordinator for Jones Intermediate School in Prairie View, Texas. Jones Intermediate is a small rural school about forty miles west of Houston. Jones Intermediate and Berta Cabaza are an ideal match for Cultural Connections. Jones Intermediate's population is thirty percent Mexican-American, thirty percent African-American and forty percent Anglo, while Berta Cabaza has a predominantly Mexican-American student body. Together, Ester and I plan collaborative projects for our students. In turn, our students reward us as we watch relationships build and creations unfold.        Several activities stand out in my mind. Last year, one of the most engaging activities involved conducting a debate during a video conference. My students formulated persuasive arguments based on schoolwide surveys that they conducted and their Internet research. The students found themselves in a compromising position as they had to argue in favor of mandatory uniforms, when in fact they did not favor them at all. This dilemma generated a lot of discussion. This year our Career/Community projects have been quite successful. The students began the year by presenting their autobiographical speeches. During the same conference, they shared their future career advertisements that they created using the Claris Drawing program. Most of the students were quite thorough in their ads.

hey spoke of their qualifications including the universities they would attend and other training. Notably, the majority of my students are college-bound and have set high goals for themselves. The sixth graders continued this unit by designing and conducting a community census. They looked at such variables as career types (which they coded numerically for the purpose of data analysis), race, sex, and years of schooling. The students represented their results in a spreadsheet and graphically. Later, my students will present their findings with their Model Community Projects. Next, my students worked on their Model Community projects. As a focus activity they used the Time Almanac software program to research the origin of planned communities. The students found information on Levittown, PA. They were able to read the redprints for that community. We used this article to generate discussion about the task before them.        Next, students worked on cooperative teams to design the redprints for their facility using the Claris Drawing program again. Finally, they worked on their models, and Dream USA was in progress. I don't believe that I can convey the excitement that this project has generated.

This project fostered a lot of enthusiasm, reflection, and growth.

y fifth grade class has had ongoing participation in Cultural Connections. They met with students from Berta Cabaza and dialogued about a "St. Patrick's Day" story from the book I Feel like I am from Another Planet Writing from Personal Experiences. The the book addresses multicultural issues. Specifically, this story portrayed the terrifying experience of a foreign student being ridiculed for not wearing green on St. Patrick's Day. Next, our students worked on holiday projects. The projects were twofold. First, they interviewed an elderly member of their family to see how they celebrated a certain holiday when they were younger. They highlighted similarities and differences to modern day celebrations. Next, the students chose a famous person to honor with a holiday. They used both print and electronic resources to research their person. Next, they wrote a speech, poem or letter, telling why they chose to honor that person. Some students chose to create multimedia projects for their presentations. This project fostered a lot of enthusiasm, reflection, and growth. Denise chose to honor an ancestor of hers, who during slavery worked diligently to buy the freedom of all of his family members. Denise brought in a book which was written by her aunt. The book chronicled some of the many contributions that her honoree made to his community. Matt created an R. L. Stine Day. He described how much he enjoyed Stine's books and decided that on this holiday, school and work would be canceled and everyone would curl up and read Stine books. Matt is now working on a letter to Mr. Stine and will mail it to him when he is finished. The students will share their projects during their next conference.

r. Cifuentes and I have just returned from the Lower Rio Grande Valley. We got to meet Ester's wonderful students face to face and we trained them on HyperStudio. I also set up desktop conferencing on the computers there. We are now ready to move into another phase of Cultural Connections. Jones students will be able to both e-mail and desktop conference with their keypals at Berta Cabaza. Moreover, students at both sites have begun their HyperStudio portfolios. Students write volumes about their home lives, their goals, their thoughts and values, their likes and abilities and their stories. Any projects that they have worked on this year have been done electronically and can be inserted readily. Ultimately, our students will share their projects . They will be forced to critically reflect upon their understanding of their experiences. Students are encouraged to change their presentations as they grow and change; the software facilitates this quite easily.

major strength of this project is the bond that I have formed with Ester Gonzales. We planned together, shared resources, reflected, and grew. Several practices led to the effectiveness of this project. At the onset we trained our students on interactive videoconferencing. We made sure that our students felt comfortable in the videoconferencing setting. We shared some of the same conventions that we used with our students, with other Cultural Connections teachers, as we trained them on videoconferencing.        Cultural Connections, from my perspective, has been very effective for many reasons. First, while exposing my students to cutting-edge technology, I hope that I have given them the message that they have enormous resources and the possibilities are endless for their future. One student wrote, "Distance learning helped me to understand other cultures. I also made friends through the connection. It helped me understand what the future will be," and another explained, "I interacted with people of different races. It was fun meeting new people, and getting over my shyness for speaking in front of people." Moreover, the relationships that I have formed with both Lauren and Ester are invaluable. They make working not really seem like working. True collaboration exists in Cultural Connections. We all value each other; our students are the winners.

have a final story that I would like to share. Kristin was another near perfect student who I had the pleasure of working and growing with last year. She, like many of my students, was eager to learn. We didn't have a lot of time together. Kristin, like many of the students in the distance learning group, volunteered and sometimes would run me down in the hall to see if they could come during lunchtime or stay after school to work on projects. They were so enthusiastic that I created something called "Lunchtime Technology." The students would come during lunch, camp out in my room and create! Some of their best work took place during lunchtime. In fact, we expanded our lunchtime club to include a representative from each homeroom on our team. Well, recently at a packed school board meeting, Kristin's mother asked to speak. She stood up and said, "Well, I hadn't planned on speaking this evening, however, since you are talking about technology I feel compelled to respond. My daughter Kristin is at Schultz now; she's in seventh grade. Kristin recently told her dad and I that she realizes that Schultz is a bigger, newer school and she does have a locker, but she would give anything to be back at Jones with Ms. Davis. She would love to work on projects and use the technology." Kristin's mother continued, "they just don't have the same opportunities this year."

Trina Davis is the SCR*TEC-Texas Project Coordinator in College Station, TX. Read more about this author. Teacher Testimony authors are nominated by people like you. Send nominations to the editor. © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 SCR*TEC.   This page is Bobby Approved.