From Kansas to Louisiana, Multimedia Is Creating a New Look in
the Classroom In McPherson, Kan., interactive multimedia has
helped educators create an innovative new approach to teaching
history, social studies and geography at the high school level.
And in St. James Parish, La., elementary school students are
taking "field trips" in their classroom, thanks to an exciting
new multimedia program developed jointly by IBM and Children's
Television Workshop. "We didn't set out to rewrite history or to
change the content of our social and physical sciences," says
Dr. Randy Watson, assistant superintendent for curriculum in
McPherson, Kansas. "We simply wanted to change the way students
learn and make learning exciting and fun again," he adds. "We
decided on a thematic or inter-disciplinary approach that
encouraged student initiative, group participation and the
development of inter-personal skills." During the 1992/93 school
year, McPherson Unified School District initiated a new approach
for teaching American and