Back in the former nineties , most of us were n’t yet savvyInternetsurfers . We still got all our news from the paper rather than entanglement sites , ande - mailhadn’t yet have overfaxesand letters in our business and personal living . Many of us were still years aside from larn about the possibilities of the cyberspace – that is , if we ’d heard of it at all . However , Bill Burrall , a computing machine instructor for Moundville Junior High School in West Virginia , was in the lead of us . He ’d already been steeped in the net world for over a decade , and was not only soundly familiar with it , but recognized its educational potential for student .
Using theAT&TLearning web , a worldwide educational cyberspace community , Burrall and his midway school classes participate in a worthful telecommunications projection where kids got the hazard to equate with other classes from around the country and around the world . After realizing the success of these task , Burrall adjudicate to take vantage of the same organisation in a newfangled path that later put him in the national spot .
As it happen , Moundsville Junior High was situated merely a few blocks from West Virginia ’s State Penitentiary . Where most teacher would have found this closemouthed law of proximity a source of fear , Burrall saw opportunity . The school would serve as a focal point for Burrall ’s revolutionaryprisonproject , which used telecommunication to colligate nestling from around the creation to the prison house ’s inmates . After a year of struggle to get his idea approved by the school board and eventually the governor , Burrall was finally able to launch his prison house project in 1992 , afterwards known as the " Inmates and Alternatives Project . "
say the next page to find out how Burrall used telecommunication to put up students life - altering experiences .
Prison Pen Pals: How the Prison Project Worked
As an authority on educational telecommunications , Burrall had the advantage of being one of eight coordinator in theAT&TLearning web , which consisted of 50,000 bookman in 22 foreign countries [ reference : Burrall ] . This helped him orchestrate a system where he could communicate with other halfway - school teachers from such places as Louisiana , Alaska and the Netherlands .
Meanwhile , Burrall partner with the education department at the West Virginia State Penitentiary . There , several inmates volunteered to become " penitentiary sidekick " ( pun designate ) with students . Of the twelve participant , six were " lifer , " meaning they had been sentenced to life inprison . To kick affair off , Burrall expect these inmate to assume pseudonyms ( fake names ) and compose unforesightful biography of themselves . convey names from the J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings trilogy , such as " Frodo " and " Pippin , " many heel their hobbies and describe their families and what life was like before prison house .
The inpatient would resign their letters to the prison’selectronic bulletin display panel , known as the " Play Pen . " The educational director at the prison , who would read over them , then sent them to Burrall at Moundsville . Burrall would front them over before circularise them to the appropriate schools .
Burrall allot one inmate to each of the participate schools include his own , so that each family could serve as a consistent pen pal to a particular inmate . After read the yard bird ’s biography , the teacher help students to come up with a set of 10 interrogation for their penitentiary chum having to do with " society ’s problems . " Students defer these questions onto an electronic bulletin board ( anonymously ) under the teacher ' supervision . They ordinarily asked about the inmate ’s relationship with his family or what life was like in prison house . The yardbird react to these questions , and the tiddler were then allowed to require more questions . This agreement went on for about 15 week .
Although there was concern about the captive ' responses , the inmates ' response were good than even Burrall go for . surprisingly , Burrall asserts that neither he nor the prison ’s educational manager ever needed to censor inappropriate material in the yard bird ' letters [ reservoir : Burrall ] . Instead , the prisoners were quick to warn the student about how easygoing it is to go down the wrong course and described the despair they felt in prison . Burrall claims that the " virtual bond " organize during the correspondence challenge the students ' misconceptions [ rootage : Burrall ] . captive also record their appreciation of the project , exact that it helped them to gain personal brainstorm [ source : Burrall ] .
After a few successful semesters of working with many different schools , the project ended – partly because the prison closed , and partly because Burrall was select as IBM ’s National Teacher of the Year for Technology and as a outcome of this honor bring several years to tour the country and give dialogue about the project to other pedagog . The projection has even been given the preeminence of being archived in the Smithsonian .
Since then , some pedagog have been able to replicate the undertaking , such as one known as the Harlem Valley Project in New York , which also ran for a few semester .
For more info on prison life and telecommunication technology , research the links on the next page .
