Scenario

Sara wakes up to a loud metallic sound next to her bed and reaches over to turn off the alarm clock. Looking at the small hand pointing to the six and the long hand pointing to the twelve, she thinks about what it must have been like to live in an analog world, the one where her grandmother and this clock lived.

Her thoughts are interrupted by the chirping of her PDA, which she grabs from the bedside table and quiets with the tap of her finger. 5/3/10; 6:00 a.m. Like every other morning, she turns back the big hand of her grandmother’s alarm clock to the correct time and gives it a few winds. Since she has a busy day ahead of her, she flops out the wings on the PDA screen to its full 15” width and unfolds and attaches the keyboard.

She sees that she has messages in her mailbox and notices that some of them are related to the Romeo & Juliet project she was working on until 1:00 a.m. the previous night. Jim, one of the other freshman students in her Impetuous Decisions group, writes that he has found three examples of law cases related to youth and decisions that the group can use. Mr. Marlowe, her English teacher, has sent a reminder that Tuesdays are his days to work from home, and that his office hours are from 1:00-3:00 for consultation on this project. He is available in the Collaboratory Project’s web chat room during that time, and he has posted a new question in the discussion forum that may help their group think about their project. He also reminded the group not to try to reach him in the morning, when he will be at home in front of his web cam teaching the Lord of the Rings course for the Illinois Virtual High School.

Sara reviews the digital journal area of her PDA and is reminded of what she accomplished late last night—the video clips she found should be perfect for their group assignment. She quickly responds to Jim’s message with her good news, copying the other 3 members of the group as well. 

One of the film clips is haunting her a bit. She was amazed both when she first watched the video clip of the Columbine school incident of 2000 and when she started seeing parallels between those incidents and the events that led to Romeo and Juliet’s death. How the adults in both situations reacted, how desperate the kids were in very different times—she felt that there might be something important to share when she meets this afternoon with the Safety Committee. Being on the school Safety Committee is what Sara has chosen for the “Real-World” requirement for this project. While at first it seemed like a lot of long meetings with adults and a few of her peers, she now feels eager to get to school for the meeting. First, though, she must get ready for math class.

After downing a quick bowl of Rice Krispies, the genetically engineered variety that reduces cholestorol and fat, Sara goes to class at her bedroom computer. She logs onto the teacher’s site and reviews the morning’s syllabus, then gets to work reading the background material and problem samples. Then, she loads the 3D imaging software they’re using to explore geometric functions and launches her web cam. Precisely at 8:30, her teacher’s image appears, along with a series of icons representing the other students’ whiteboard, which they can use to pose questions, type formulae, and display geometric shapes. When the formal part of class is over, she gets ready to go to school.

At 9:40, Kim steps onto the bus near her corner and sits next to her best friend for the ride to school. Julie has her face in her wireless tablet, making some notes in the margin beside their science teacher’s web page with today’s homework. Julie remarks that the wireless connections on the buses have been repaired, and she’s grateful because she was snowboarding last night and didn’t get her assignment done. Kim decides to let her work, and checks her schedule for the day:

She is looking forward to her meeting with her counselor. The last time she had her Gardner’s done, she learned that she was picture smart, and that she needed to work most on her interpersonal skills. Assignments like the one she was completing with Mr. Marlowe have been helping her use her natural abilities and develop the areas where she needs to work. Finding and understanding the video clips is fun and easy, but the analyses of the nonverbal cues and communications among the characters have been a challenge. Sara jots down a couple of questions to ask Mr. Marlowe during today’s chat session.

When the bus arrives, Sara and her friend walk into school, and they laugh when their PDA’s vibrate at the same time. Having seen the video clips of schools from the past, Sara is grateful that the system knows she’s arrived at school, and she’s glad that it’s been programmed to vibrate her PDA to let her know she’ll be counted present for the day.

Now, to the Safety Committee meeting for some real-world learning.