Thank you for your thoughts on Al Gore's film and the lack of multimedia tools in education.
I am exactly that middle school teacher you describe, trying to weave video, web images, sound, and other multimedia resources into my lessons. It is extremely difficult, as you can imagine. For one thing, I have no decent sound or video editor which can handle more than a few proprietary file formats. More significantly, there is very little free video and audio content available, at least that I can find. For instance, recently I was teaching my students to make PowerPoint presentations combining images and sound (MLK's "I Have a Dream Speech," Bush's 9/11 speech, etc.). It took me hours to find mp3 files of all the speeches I wanted to use.
So, I agree that we have poor access to these kinds of resources. Even if one wants to be, and has the technical capacity to learn how to be, a producer/director of content, the underlying infrastructure just isn't there, yet.
Also--one comment on textbook manufacturers: I have given up searching for a mainstream textbook company that can write useful technology-oriented curriculum for middle schoolers. Some are decent at the high school/junior college level, although even those assume higher level reading skills than most students will have. I rely on other teachers' websites, some other web resources made by or for teachers, and some corporate websites (the educational section of the Adobe website, for instance, has been very helpful).
I encourage Fordham to continue to champion this cause.
Kathryn Peyton
Cooper Middle School
McLean, VA
