The Library of Congress awarded $315,000 to IU’s Center on Representative Government and three other organizations to produce an interactive educational program to help students learn about representative government.
The grant is part of Congress’ 2015 initiative to create more opportunities for the development of online interactive apps, specifically those that will educate users about Congress and civic participation.
Gary Mills, the director of education and new media at the Center on Representative Government, conceptualized the idea for the app and wrote the proposal for the grant.
The program, called “Engaging Congress,” will use primary sources from the Library of Congress’ digital collection, such as documents, audio, video, posters and political cartoons, some of which date back to the founding of the United States.
“We are going to use these documents to show the progression of issues throughout our history, as well as show how things that happened in the 1800s still are relevant today and affect us today,” Mills said.
Mills said the app, which is primarily designed for high school students, is also meant to draw students’ attention to current issues in Congress and encourage them to consider possible solutions.
“We’re trying to address issues that students can get engaged with in a fun way,” Mills said. “It’s really hands on. It’s not just memorizing facts and dates.”
Mills said the app will serve as a powerful supplement to what they learn in the classroom because it engages students by using technology they are comfortable with, such as smart phones, laptops and tablets.
Andrew Nelson, the owner and production lead at Half Full Nelson, is the head of the team that will bring “Engaging Congress” to life.
“Using games to engage students on the devices they use on a daily basis allows us unique opportunities that a book and a worksheet may not,” Nelson said. “This project does not intend to replace other methods of teaching this content, but augment it.”
Because the project is a partnership between the Library of Congress, the Center on Representative Government, and teachers and students, Mills said meeting the needs of all the stakeholders can be challenging.
“The Library of Congress wants to use primary sources in the classroom, the Center for Representative Government wants to address some of the current challenges facing Congress today and the classroom teachers need to be convinced that the students will really learn,” Mills said.
Though the development team has a variety of games, activities and structures in mind, Nelson said the end product will be driven largely by feedback acquired during design sessions with teachers.
Nelson said members of the development team come from various political backgrounds and their focus is fostering political participation rather than pushing a specific political agenda.
“We would really like to see this application grow and become a valuable asset to our teachers,” Nelson said. “Students get used to using these types of applications at home after school, so it would be nice to see this technology become a part of tomorrow’s classrooms.”
