For Immediate Release
March 16, 2006
Contact:
Paula Culver-Dickinson
434-245-2829
Paula.Culver-Dickinson @ccs.k12.va.us
Media Release
World War II PrimaryAccess Projects: A Collaborative Partnership
Seeking an innovative way to teach Social Studies, Ms. Margi Roache, 7th grade Social Studies teacher, and Mrs. Paula Culver-Dickinson, an Instructional Technology Resource teacher, formed an active partnership with the University of Virginia to pilot PrimaryAccess at Buford Middle School.
PrimaryAccess is a web-based application developed by the University of Virginia in 2005 that provides access to primary resources enabling teachers and students to create personal historical narratives. By using the word processor, voice recorder, and the movie editor all embedded within PrimaryAccess, students develop short digital movie clips without the complications often associated with the storage of media files. Because it works on the web, PrimaryAccess can be used by anyone who has internet access.
The students of Cerberus team at Buford Middle School had the opportunity to use PrimaryAccess to create culminating projects focused on World War II. While completing the project, students were provided access to primary source documents such as photographs, drawings, newspapers and other supportive documents. They then wrote a script. Once students had their scripts written and images selected, they were able to make the document “come alive” by adding motion just like the filmmaker Ken Burns. Students then personalized their narratives by recording themselves reading their scripts using the internal voice recorders. The final products can be viewed using any computer with internet access.
This World War II PrimaryAccess project has proven to be exciting, engaging, and extremely educational for all students involved. Team Cerberus produced twenty-one short movies, 
and it is anticipated the team will produce over twenty more digital PrimaryAccess clips when Ms. Roache implements the use of PrimaryAccess during her current Civil Rights unit. Please take the time to view a digital narrative created by a Cerberus team member by visiting Ms. Roache's Primary Access Projects page. To learn more about PrimaryAccess visit www.primaryaccess.org.
The Charlottesville City Schools is very thankful for this partnership with the University of Virginia and continues to work with Professor Glen Bull and other University of Virginia professors to enhance teaching and learning throughout the district. As it is true with any project, there are many contributors. We would like to especially thank Bill Ferster, the developer of PrimaryAccess, Tom Hammond, researcher, and Maria Lewis, Technology Integration Coordinator for Charlottesville City Schools, for their support with the implementation of this project. We look forward to continued collaboration on future projects.
For additional information, please contact:
Paula Culver-Dickinson
434-245-2829
Paula.Culver-Dickinson@ccs.k12.va.us