To add to Jessica's comments:

I think one thing that helped us sustain participation was taking a participatory design approach with the students and teachers providing feedback and direction throughout the program. While the decision making and specifics were typically handled by us, providing the kids with choices helped ensure their interest and ownership over their work (to whatever extent that can exist for middle school kids), and also engaged the teachers with what they were working on. I'm typically a big fan of student choice.

Jessica and Matt, great project! The video clearly shows the student engagement that you've fostered through your project.   

I see you've addressed some of the thoughts and challenges on sustaining participation.  What are some of the ways you've adapted your project from the early objectives of your proposal to maintain participation?  Matt discussed adding in choice and ownership; Jessica mentions the development of a close community of learning in team-based approaches.  What do you think the biggest barriers to their continued participation are?  Believe me, you aren't the only ones facing this issue!  Did you try to identify some of these barriers and integrate new strategies for keeping the students engaged longer?  Getting family members involved?  

Great questions, Christopher! When we began the program, we were running it out of a middle school in East St. Louis. We believed strongly that it was important to embed a place-based project in the community. By year three, though, we moved the project fully to the University because it cut down on several logistic issues we were having related to the space. We couldn't guarantee that it would be open, that the computers would work, etc. The participants so benefitted from being on campus. They felt like they were welcome on campus and could imagine themselves as college students in very real ways. 

In regards to barriers, we had students move out of town, parents who didn't have stable contact numbers, etc. Keeping in constant contact with parents and getting updates info from students helped with this. We also switched to add student numbers into our call log instead of just parents so that they could be in charge of getting themselves where they needed to be.

We tried several approaches to family member involvement and we tried to conduct family member interviews in-person and over the phone, but we didn't have a lot of luck. We did have a few very dedicated parents who showed up to showcases. Finding a time that worked for parents was always a challenge.

Thank you for responding, Jessica.  I agree that moving it to a location you have better control over was necessary, and I am sure the students gained a stronger sense of confidence being on campus.  However, do you think removing this from their "neighborhood" had an adverse impact?  Barriers with transportation?  Less awareness by not being at the local school?  

Why do you think it was such a struggle to get parents involved?  A lack of interest?  Time?  Knowledge of the benefit?  

Great follow-ups, Christopher. We were very worried at the time that it would have adverse impacts. We had to use buses for both the earlier middle school site and the SIUE site, and we always had a lot of trouble with transportation: buses not stopping long enough to wait for the kids, buses forgetting certain kids, the list goes on. I was worried that we might lose attendance because the bus had to pick up the participants earlier in the morning to arrive at SIUE on time, so we moved the program back by a half-hour, and that helped. 

There were several days when we had immersive activities planned. For instance, participants were collecting soil and water samples, doing interviews at local restaurants, and shooting B-roll for their documentaries. On those days, depending on our transportation needs, we often just picked up the participants in East St. Louis and then split up into smaller groups to do our work through various parts of the city. We drove to specific neighborhoods, got off the buses, walked around, and filmed. One day, the participants just happened upon the new owner of Miles Davis's house for instance, and were able to conduct an impromptu interview and learn about their plans for opening a new center for youth on the site.

That work was always our most fruitful. The middle school was on the far edge of town, so it too felt isolated, and because East St. Louis is a very long city, no matter what we were planning in the community, we had to use those buses. In our first summer, students used GIS technology to create digital walking tours of the city parks, so we had one bus drop off teams of students with program leaders at each park and circle back for the first one's they'd dropped off. It was necessary for participants to be on-foot frequently to get the images, video, and ambient sounds they needed for their projects. 

We also tried to host programming at the University's East St. Louis Center, which has a Charter School, but we ran into many of the same scheduling and equipment troubles there. The participants are a resilient bunch, and they are used to things not working, doors being closed, etc., etc., but when we were finally able to get to a place they felt they had some ownership of and get to work, it was amazing how excited they became about the project and how much they were able to accomplish over a relatively shorter period. At the University, I initially reserved one classroom for them, but the participants eventually took over an entire wing on one floor. They decided one room was best for food (and that they could watch part of a movie on the projector as they ate), one computer lab was better for collaboration, and one was better for quiet work. 

As a result, we realized our initial instincts about the spaces where the participants would feel like they had control and some ownership over their work were faulty. The University turned out to be a much more empowering space for them, and it also meant that it was a place they could seem themselves returning to later. As a project ABOUT space, this was a surprise to us too, and it seemed like one of our most relevant observations.

One of our spin-off projects, which engages high-school students from SIUE's Charter School, now brings the students to campus weekly four a 45-minute digital humanities club for that reason, even though it would be much easier to run the project on-site.

Such an amazing story, Jessica.  Congratulations!  Tough to share this message in a three-minute video!  How else are you sharing your great work?  

Pati,

Though I can't speak for Matt, I hadn't come across EarSketch before, what a fascinating project! During the course of DESTL, we used a lot of established coding and digital humanities tools (the project was based in Omeka, which is a Content Management System developed by George Mason University, for example). As the project continues to evolve, we hope to develop similar collaborations.

I had only recently become aware of the EarSketch project and would have loved to be able to have it be a part of our program. I'd been thinking about it in relation to some STEAM projects that have been discussed, but don't know why I didn't immediately connect it to the Digital Humanities clubs that Jessica and colleagues have been running. I'll have to put some additional thought to that and see if it might be a good fit for the high school group. Thanks for the suggestion Pati!

I recently used EarSketch in my high school (all girl's) CS class and they really enjoyed it!

Hi Katie! 

In the case of the longterm participants, we saw so much growth. Practically, they all learned how to troubleshoot HML and CSS code. They also learned skills of organization, collaboration, and critical thinking. By the final year, they entered on Saturday knowing exactly what they wanted to accomplish for the day and setting their own goals. Overtime, I heard several of them say how much they wanted to be able to communicate their own experiences in their community with a broader public. In Summer 2017, participants met with professionals to workshop their sites, and it was one of the most exciting days of the program. They showcased their work, learned from constructive criticism, and substantially changed their projects based on the feedback they received.

In regards to shorter term participants, because of the modular design of the curriculum, even in one day they could learn about podcasting, videography, audio editing, interviewing, or GIS technology.

Yes, D. McCoy! Thank you for your comment. The kids learned so much about their city, and everyone in the community was so glad to give an interview and let them film video. They learned that they lived in a tightly knit community with a history worth preserving!