Students and Teachers Collaborate to Develop Courseware:
The Blue Ridge Project

The Blue Ridge Project began three years ago as a South Carolina 
Target 2000-funded innovative schools grant.  The project was 
designed to restructure curriculum and curriculum delivery through 
the use of  multimedia technology. The major goal of the project 
is the development of multimedia courseware which will enhance the 
students' learning process in all subjects.  

The program operates as a site-based courseware development 
laboratory within Blue Ridge High School in Greer, South Carolina.  
Multimedia courseware is created by students in collaboration with 
supervising teachers.  The laboratory is a cooperative 
teaching/learning environment where students develop skills in 
higher level thinking, communication, and creative problem solving 
by creating multimedia products.  Subject specific and 
interdisciplinary courseware is created and used to support 
teacher and student presentations of curricular materials.  All 
courseware is open-ended in structure so that it may be customized 
to the individual needs of teachers and students.

The Blue Ridge Project depends on the students to be the technical 
experts while teachers serve as content experts.  The project uses 
computers, scanners, videodiscs, compact discs, digital projection 
devices, video digitizing equipment, and other multimedia hardware 
and software.  Students who are growing up with multimedia are the 
perfect choice to instruct teachers in the effective use of new 
technologies .

In addition to activities during the school year, Blue Ridge High 
School and the South Carolina Department of Education sponsor the 
Blue Ridge Institute.  Each summer, the institute employs high 
school students to teach educators how to create multimedia 
courseware.  By the end of the 1993 institute, over 600 teachers 
will have participated in the program, learning to use multimedia 
technology in their classrooms.

Teacher education is also a substantial part of the Blue Ridge 
Project's mission.  Through a collaboration with Converse College, 
educators can receive three hours of graduate credit for EDU521: 
Interactive Multimedia Courseware Development.  Three hours of 
recertification credit is also available to teachers who complete 
the Blue Ridge summer institute.

For more information contact:  
Bill Mitchell
2151 Fews Chapel Road
Greer, SC 29651 
(803) 895-0139 
.