On Monday, June 17th, 2002, at the Oakland Technology Learning Center the IU's nine inaugural Jill Vorhaus Teacher Fellows celebrated the completion of a year of work with a video showcase. These new videos, written and scripted by the Vorhaus Fellows, and created at the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley, represent nine unique aspects of teaching and learning, and capture some of the experience or challenge each teacher encountered during the school year. Exploring the video medium as one way to reach a wide audience with anecdotal and informative stories and presentations, the Fellows drew from their teaching experience to create digital videos that contain humor, joy and challenge presented in ways that might entertain an audience, and share experiences with other educators to create a foundation on which to build collaborations and improve student achievement.

During the year each of the Fellows fulfilled classroom teaching responsibilities in their districts or schools; they also met as a group more than half-a-dozen times and established on-line relationships through e-mail and a scripting website. These contacts, face-to-face and on-line, enabled collaboration that furthered inquiry and deepened understanding about how technologies might best be integrated into classrooms and curricula. Informal research and discussion, as well as sharing of discoveries and experiences, fostered a dynamic set of associations and perspectives--which each Fellow plans to take back into the classroom in the 2002/2003 school year.

. . . Continue on to the IU News August 2002 page to read more about students' digital stories.

The Interactive University Project (IU) enables UC Berkeley to make its unmatched resources of people and knowledge available on the Internet. We serve learners and educators, targeting K-12 teachers, students, their families, and local communities throughout the Bay Area and California.

A third phase of work is set to commence in Fall 2002. The goal is to open UC Berkeley resources to K-12 teachers, students, and all learners, by making them available on the Internet. A new website explains and demonstrates some of the plans and ideas.