Welcome to our Classroom Without Walls!

This is the promise of technology delivered. For the past decade, the Dubuque Community Schools has steadily and purposely ramped up its technology not just for communication and data processing, but for learning. Among the most exciting advancements we've made, however, involved very little taxpayer revenue. We simply leveraged the technology and media that was available to us including the World Wide Web and cable television.

What is a classroom without walls? It's educational media produced in the real world and grounded in solid curriculum and sound values. It's media that is completely portable and accessible via Web and cable technology.

In 1999, we launched our district's Website. In 2005, we formally launched our own cable channel. Much of the media we produce on these platforms is soundly based in curriculum goals and objectives with the complete involvement of our district's curriculum developers and teachers.

For example, Kids in the Kitchen, our longest running and national award winning cable series not only teaches kids how to cook, but it extols the virtues of fresh green groceries, organic ingredients, and whole grains. Kids in the Kitchen was well ahead of the curve in our continuing challenge to inspire families to eat better. Not only are students and viewers learning the art of cooking, but they learn the geography, the history, the science and math of food in our culture which combines several ethnic and sometimes exotic cuisines of our world. The series is filmed entirely in a grocery store and is completely underwritten by sponsors such as Hy-Vee Foods, Younkers, and Mediacom Cable.

From this successful beginning, we launched The Garden Organic, another classroom without walls that takes place almost entirely outdoors. Students of all ages learn to plant and grow vegetables, but they also learn about the environment, organic farming, and here's the best part: In a show segment called "Cooking Gardenside," students pick vegetables at the peak of freshness and they prepare and cook them right there in the garden. This narrows the intellectual gap between what grows in the ground and what winds up on their plates. The show is produced by a certified dietitian and agricultural experts appear on every show through the summer.

The field of medicine is supported by Doctor! Doctor! a show that takes students into a real hospital where they get hands-on experience with patients, medical procedures and medical specialists. The show is hosted by one of our community's leading radiologists and is completely underwritten by The Finley Hospital and the Iowa Health Network.

Mudd Puppies is an art class on cable and the Web hosted by a gifted art teacher that resides at Prescott Elementary School. He organized an after-school program that gives budding artists an opportunity to create more ambitious projects. Many works have made their way into the National Student Ceramic Arts Exhibit in Washington, DC. The show is produced in real time which means that viewers at home can follow along with the instructor and the students.

Musical Moments is our music education program that is designed to teach students and parents good study habits and sound approaches to learning a musical instrument. Our goal here is to reduce the numbers who become frustrated for any reason and retire early from becoming a musician. More often a child doesn't give up an instrument because they don't feel they can play it well. There are other circumstances which are, sometimes, more complicated. Our aim is to provide encouragement and reinforcement to create life-long musicians and among them talented virtuosos.

And now we are in the early planning stages of a new series, Outdoor Kids. Outdoor kids is an environmental science series disguised as a fishing show. It will be hosted by a young student who is an expert outdoor enthusiast. We will study our area's creeks, streams, rivers, ponds and lakes and learn their ecosystems. The fish are the prime indicator of the health of a water system, and that's where we will start each episode... fishing.

Not all classrooms without walls involve big productions. Some are little. Here's the Dubuque Stained Glass Project filmed with Carver Elementary students.

So the "Classroom without Walls" is not a high priced program nor is it a program at all. It's a philolosphy and a process for developing learning and multimedia content for education. Watch for the label on the programs we feature on our Website and on our Cable Channel, Mediacom 19. This label signifies that the program you are viewing is grounded in solid curriculum goals and objectives established by the Dubuque Community Schools. You'll see that our learning goals are established and announced early in every show.

If you would like more information on how you can create a classroom without walls experience in the Dubuque Community Schools, contact Gary Olsen, The Forum, 2300 Chaney Road, Dubuque, IA, 52001, 563-552-3032.