Kids Multimedia Festival To Feature Student Projects

Date:  April 14, 1997
Editor: D'Lyn Ford  (505) 646-6528, dlford@nmsu.edu

LAS CRUCES -- Las Cruces students from six schools will show their computerized creations at a Kids Multimedia Festival April 17 at the Las Cruces Museum of Natural History in the Mesilla Valley Mall.

From 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., students will display their projects, which include World Wide Web pages, computer-generated newsletters, a virtual tour of Old Mesilla and video tours of New Mexican ghost towns. Participating students are from Onate High School, the Newcomers Center, Sierra and Zia middle schools, and Jornada and Desert Hills elementary schools.

The festival is the culmination of Nuestra Tierra (our land), a two-year project sponsored by the USWest Foundation. Faculty and staff from New Mexico State University's colleges of education, and agriculture and home economics held monthly training sessions for local teachers, showing them ways to use new technologies in their classrooms.

"In this project, we've focused on New Mexico's resources and culture, and what's unique about our land," said Mary Saxton, graduate research assistant in curriculum and instruction. "We have a rich environment, but we don't always realize that. For example, when students have studied the desert in class, they may have been learning about the Sahara instead of the Chihuahuan desert where we live."

Through the Nuestra Tierra project, students not only learned but also created information others can use, such as World Wide Web pages.

"Two years ago there was hardly any information on the World Wide Web about New Mexico," Saxton said. "It's nice to know we've added to it."

At the festival, about a dozen computers will display student work. The event is open to the public and refreshments will be served, Saxton said. For more information about the event, call Saxton at (505) 646-2390.