Posted June 2008 BTN project room captures students’ attention
		In a quest to find new and interesting ways of engaging students online, Darlington State School has created a popular Learning Place project room based on the ABC’s educational news program Behind the News (BTN). The show, aimed at upper primary and secondary students, focuses on current world issues and events covering topics such as health, science, society and money. Principal Duane Smith says the project room was set up to provide students with an alternative to the traditional 'pencil and paper' way of responding to news presented on the show.

Password protection meant access to the communities was limited to the academies' students, teachers, parents and guardians. This upheld student privacy.

Students are required to watch the show from beginning to end without taking notes or jotting down thoughts, which I think can often distract the depth of listening and viewing involved in something as complex as current and world events telecasts, he says.

The project room allows me to pose several significant questions linked to the transcripts on the BTN website so that students can follow a lead, review the fact sheet and even watch the episode again in order inform their blogging or chatting.

Students proudly shared their project room activities with their parents at the school’s recent culminating evening.

Our senior students went straight to the project room to show their parents the topics and responses they had made to recent episodes of BTN, says Duane.

They made special mention of the comic chat and the parents commented on the depth and level of understanding students displayed.

The project room is open to students from Year 5 to 7 and includes links to further reading and web pages relevant to the project.