Blogging the Inauguration With the PDE

From the Inquirer.

Springfield High students blogging the inauguration

By Dan Hardy, Posted on Sat, Jan. 17, 2009

A group of students from Springfield High School will share the Obama inauguration online with other high school students on Tuesday.

The 10 students will be blogging and videocasting from Washington for the Delaware County high school's Inauguration Project.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education has picked up and promoted the project as part of its effort to make the inauguration an educational experience for students. The Springfield program also will include live broadcasts at the National Constitution Center, where Springfield High students will talk to visitors on Inauguration Day.

The coverage, which will include taped segments on a variety of inauguration-related topics, will be coordinated at the high school's broadcast studio. The project will be online at http://shsinaugurationproject.blogspot.com

Since Obama's election, excitement about the trip to the capital has been building, especially among the students who will be standing on the Mall on Inauguration Day.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience," senior Stephanie Scoleri said at the high school on Thursday. "There will be so many people with a common interest and common excitement together in one spot. It's going to be amazing."

Sophomore Rob Toomey added: "It makes me proud to be there. Years from now I will tell my kids about it, that we were there for a historic moment in our history."

Though only a few Springfield High students will personally witness the inaugural events, hundreds of district students got involved in a broad range of activities preparing for the broadcast. They taped segments on presidential and inaugural history and policy questions Obama will face, recited the presidential Oath of Office in several languages, and videotaped musical performances by the school's orchestra and chorus.

Some students even recorded their solution to an "Inaugural Math" problem involving how many police will be needed at the event and how many people will be there. Middle school students recorded messages of support to the Obama children.

"It has been an extraordinary experience," said David Jurkiewicz, a broadcast journalism teacher at the school.

The Springfield High students going to Washington will spend a week there as part of a civic-engagement program run by the Close Up Foundation, which seeks to help students understand their government by giving them an inside look at how it works.

On the day of the inauguration, they will be between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial, interviewing people in the crowd and sharing their impressions. They said they would attempt to broadcast the events live, though there are predictions that the volume of Internet traffic during the inauguration may make that difficult.

That evening and later in the week, the Springfield students will interview their Close Up peers from other states about their perspectives on the Obama administration, and respond to online questions from high school students who are looking at their Web site. They will also talk with area politicians and national policymakers, and visit government sites throughout the city. Upon their return home, they plan to put together a documentary about their experience.

Several of the students said that Obama's election, coupled with the inauguration project, had gotten them to look ahead to the role they will play in society as adults. "[Obama] focuses on the youth; once he started becoming involved, he gave me something to relate to, so because of him, I got more involved in politics," said Scoleri.

Said senior Paul Jamrogowicz: "Our goal [for the Inauguration Project] is to enlighten and help educate kids and teens around the nation about how our government works, and to rejuvenate our youth and get them excited for our future, because we are the ones who will be running things."

That kind of comment is just what the teachers who are helping organize the Inauguration Project hoped for, said Jurkiewicz, the broadcast journalism teacher. "We've been able to pull back; they've taken the reins, they've taken control. . . . They're completely invested in it all."

Added Rob Nelson, a social studies teacher who will go to Washington with the students and is helping put together the technology for the event:

"This is why I got into teaching, watching what these kids have done. I'm amazed."