"Politics" at Cardington— It's a Technological Thing!

by Jennifer Price

We are very lucky at Cardington High School to have a great deal of technology available for student use. We have several digital video cameras that students can use for filming, as well as several classroom-sized computer labs (both designated rooms and mobile labs that can be moved from one location to another). In addition, our school district receives a great deal of support, including an in-district expert— Bob Howard*— one day a week, from TRECA.

One of the most popular activities I use with my Junior Honors American Government class is the mock election. The students, most of whom have been technologically savvy since— as the students will say— "well, forever!" are eager to use the technology, and so incorporating technology in class seems natural.

In the mock election, students form their own political parties, for which they must create a name, motto, symbol, and platform outlining their stand on several issues of domestic and international interest. I choose about half the platform topics, while the party chooses the rest. They use various Internet resources to research these topics. The students nominate a presidential and vice presidential candidate and spend several weeks campaigning to the electorate— the teachers and staff at Cardington-Lincoln High School and all of the government classes.

Enter Technology

How does technology come in? In this day and age, advertising is an essential part of real-world political campaigns. While political parties create flyers and posters to garner support for their candidate, the bulk of their time and money is spent on television ads. So it is with the parties at Cardington. The TV ads the students create are a result of their study, research, writing, and technology expertise. Interestingly, because teenagers today are so familiar and comfortable with electronic media and view them as tools of leisure rather than work, the students seem to view the campaign commercial as less work than the creation of print media such as posters or flyers.

Each political party must create a two-to-four-minute campaign commercial starring their two candidates, and in that commercial they must address at least two of the issues from their platform, outlining their party's position on those topics. In the past few years, education, the war in Iraq, school safety, and jobs have been popular issues for inclusion in the commercial. In addition, the students must use at least two forms of propaganda in the ad. When my government classes discuss interest groups, we go over some of the most commonly used methods of propaganda, and the parties may choose from this list, providing a link to information we learned earlier in the semester. As a result, many groups choose to get a testimonial from local "celebrities." Some use a "bandwagon approach" and get groups of students or staff members to pledge their support. "Glittering generalities," where the candidates make broad, sweeping promises devoid of specific ideas, are also quite popular.

Before they can begin filming the commercial, they must submit an outline, including which two issues they will address and which forms of propaganda they will use. Some groups go so far as to create a storyboard outlining scenes, stage directions, and the basic script, but I have not required such detail in the outline.

The students primarily use GarageBand, a software program available for Macs that allows users to add music, sound effects, and voice tracks to video and iMovie to create their commercials. Most of the parties choose to add graphics and music to their commercials to enhance their appeal to their audience.

I give my students two rubrics at the start of the project, each correlated to one of the two grades they receive once the commercials are finished. The commercial itself is graded for content, creativity, and fulfillment of the project requirements, and all students in the group receive that grade. In addition, students receive individual grades for their contribution to the group effort, which I arrive at through observations as the groups work on their projects. The commercials are then aired on PNN— Pirate News Network, Cardington High School's weekly broadcast news program that reaches the entire school.

My students enjoy this project very much, consistently citing it as one of their favorite activities of the course. In my experience, given the choice, students will almost always choose to do a technology-related project rather than "write a paper," even when equal amounts of writing are involved. In an age when teenagers seem to spend most of their time engaged with electronic media, they actually get very involved in creating the outline for their commercial. Groups go into quite a bit of detail about what they want their commercial to look like and how they want to reach and impact their constituents. In addition, the attention the commercials get, and by extension, the election gets, from the whole school gives the kids a great sense of pride in their accomplishment.

Engaged and Engaging

By using technology and the media to complete assignments that used to be done in a more traditional manner, not only do my students become engaged in what they are doing, but they are also able to practice skills they will need later both in their educational career and in the workplace. Even for those students who don't plan to go to into politics or a technology-related field, this project provides a way of linking in-school literacy with out-of-school literacy in a fun and engaging way.

*To learn more about Bob Howard and TRECA, see "An Interview with Bob Howard on Technology and the Classroom."

Jennifer Price has been teaching social studies and biology at Cardington-Lincoln High School for eleven years. She is a graduate of Ohio University and Bowling Green State University and is a National Board Certified Teacher in Social Studies.

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