NEWS!! Beta Version of Ellen and Ernest's DVD-Rom is about to be released. 7/28/2005.

In this project, Cushman and Morrell seek to understand more about the production and distribution processes associated with digital texts to be used for social and educational change as they also set out to create a real product (a DVD-Rom) that can be used by literacy teachers, school districts, and teacher education programs across the country.

Cushman and Morrell will spend the summer semester of 2004 documenting the process of creating a DVD-Rom that helps K-12 literacy educators learn how to conduct critical research with students and parents. This documentation process will contribute to a theoretical rationale for this project in which they argue that it behooves scholars to produce multimodal, critical transformative literacies which impact teacher education at all levels of professional identity development.

The materials for the DVD-Rom, which include digital video clips, syllabi, lessons, and samples of student work, emerge from a critical research and writing seminar that brings together urban teens, teachers and parents to participate in the critical research process.

Cushman and Morrell are also seeking larger grants to support a comprehensive study which would investigate the ways literacy teachers use the DVD-Rom, virtual communications networks, and other digital tools to support their learning and development in the process of working with students and parents on community-based research projects. This proposed study would begin in 2005.