January 2002 — Applications

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Mount Diablo High School Discovers Success With the Digital Safari Multimedia Academy

By Ted Maddock, Director & Randy Depew, Multimedia Teacher

In 1995, the Mount Diablo Unified School District in Concord, Calif., received one of nine Integration Grants from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant was for a demonstration project aimed at integrating vocational and academic education. Through a competitive process within the district, Mount Diablo High School was selected as the site for the project. Mount Diablo High is an underperforming, minority-majority school - not necessarily the most likely spot for a successful high-tech/academic program. Six years later, the Digital Safari Multi-media Academy is now a nationally recognized, highly successful model for the integration of new vocational curriculum and core academics. As one of the teachers who worked on the project, I have come to realize that it's not just the advanced equipment and software, but the small learning community environment that is the real key to our success.

We envisioned a learning environment where students and teachers could work together to form a supportive learning community in which individuals were nurtured while being encouraged to explore, and to take the intellectual and creative risks that lead to self-discovery. We wanted to provide students with the academic and intellectual skills they would need to succeed in college or other pursuits. We also wanted to teach students the team-building skills they would need in a real business environment. This meant providing students with experience in using professional multimedia design tools.

A School Within a School

The Digital Safari Multimedia Academy is a two-year sequence of courses for 11th- and 12th-graders. Juniors in the Academy take U.S. history, English, earth science and multimedia. Seniors take U.S. government, economics, English and two multimedia courses. A fourth skills-based multimedia elective, called digital safari design, is run just like a small multimedia development company in which students work with outside clients in a realistic business environment.

The Academy's four teachers and 100-115 students create a small community atmosphere that fosters a very different relationship between teachers and students, as well as among the students themselves. It's a collegial feeling in which everyone helps and encourages everyone else. This nurturing environment causes students, who were once uninterested in school, to develop a renewed commitment to education and success. These students develop a sense of ownership in the program, paving the way to much greater success for all involved.

The focal point of the Academy is the lab: a 30'x 60' room filled with 35 advanced Apple computers. We have 20 iMac DV Special Editions, 10 G4 towers, two G3 PowerBooks, three iBooks and an LCD projector. This technology-rich environment also includes digital scanners; a large format black-and-white laser printer and a color laser printer; four Sony Mavica digital still cameras; and two Canon ZR-20 digital video cameras. The lab consists of 20 computers on one side and 10 on the perimeter of the other side, along with "the pit" in the middle - a group of eight comfortable chairs around a low 4' x 6' worktable that is instrumental for storyboarding and collaboration.