7/17/02

AU PROF DEVELOPING INTERACTIVE COURSE ON CIVIL RIGHTS ERA

AUBURN -- An Auburn University faculty member is developing an interactive web based computer program to give high school students a "hands on" approach to learning about the history of the U.S. Civil Rights movement.

John W. Saye, an associate professor of curriculum and teaching in the College of Education, is developing the "Decision Point" project with a two-year $210,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and $63,000 in equipment and support from Apple Computer Inc.

Saye is developing and field testing the interactive program this year with history teachers and students at Auburn High School and LaGrange, Ga., High School. He plans to introduce the program to a broader audience of history teachers in training at Auburn next summer.

Through the web-based format, students will study the activities, court decisions and major Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s and related issues in U.S. history. Text in each section's lesson will contain links to documents, personal accounts, newspaper articles, photographs, television news coverage and other materials from the era.

"This has the potential to be a very effective teaching aid," said Saye, an AU faculty member since 1994. "The interactive approach enables teachers to guide the students through studies in a format that is at least as familiar as text documents to most of today's students."

Last spring, Apple provided a classroom set of laptop computers for three weeks of pilot testing in the two high schools. Apple will provide technical expertise and computer hardware for next summer's two-week training institute for high school history teachers. When project development is completed, Apple will assist with dissemination of the "Decision Point" learning environment by sponsoring K-12 teacher workshops nationwide.

The Apple technology has proved to be the best for development of the program, Saye said. Since it is web-based, the program should be easy to use for students with Windows-based computers, as well, he added.

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july02:AU-civilrites

CONTACT: Saye, 334/844-6891.