By Khalida Sarwari
In a technology-saturated world, where information is abundant but not always meaningful, it’s easy to lose sight of the issues that really matter.
One Campbell Union High School District teacher challenges his students every day to think about media as a tool for sharing ideas and messages that are important to them.
Gregg Witkin, a 40-year-old digital media teacher at Boynton Continuation High School in San Jose, is one of four finalists in a Microsoft competition this month recognized for creating projects that incorporate technology into classroom learning.
He teaches a curriculum that centers on students creating documentaries, stop motion films and other creative projects to make “things that matter.”
“The crux of the program is to get students to think about the world they live in and document that and be a vehicle for social change,” Witkin said.
The Innovator Educator Competition, sponsored by Microsoft Partners in Learning, was held in early April at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills. For his presentation, Witkin gave a panel of judges and fellow teachers a taste of what goes on in his classroom.
He brought with him three laptops, each showing a different aspect of his digital media class. Photoshop images filled the screen of one laptop, while another showed behind-the-scenes photos of students at work. A third screen displayed photos taken by students that were entered in photojournalism contests.
Witkin speaks proudly about his students’ accomplishments. Last month, a stop motion film on water conservation by Matt Schmitz, a senior in Witkin’s digital media class, was selected to be screened on World Water Day at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. Another senior student, Destiny Corporal, created a two-minute video on women in poverty that was shown at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose.
“The curriculum helps them see beyond their local environment to see the global effects of things in their lives,” said Witkin.
Corporal made the video through the Adobe Youth Voices program, the Adobe Foundation’s global philanthropy program designed to provide youth in underserved communities with tools to communicate their ideas, exhibit their potential and take action in their communities.
Witkin is a lead educator for the program and has been using it as part of his curriculum for the last four years. He was a recipient of a $25,000 grant from Adobe that he used to purchase computers, cameras and software programs for his classes, said Boynton principal Michael Madalinski. The quality of the equipment and Witkin’s hard work is evident in the students’ accomplishments, he said.
“He works really hard at that curriculum,” Madalinski said. “When the kids know there’s a teacher that works hard for them, they will in turn work just as hard for that teacher.”
This year marks Witkin’s 15th year at Boynton and his 11th teaching technology. Aside from teaching three digital media classes, he also teaches economics. But teaching technology is what he enjoys most, Witkin said.
“It keeps me young,” said Witkin. “I get to be on the cutting edge of technology, and as a 40-year-old man, I like that. I find I’m always learning something new about technology; it keeps me plugged in.”
Witkin and the other finalists will compete in a national contest at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash., on July 31 and Aug. 1. From there, the winners advance to a global contest later in the year in Athens, Greece.
The other finalists are Jennifer Hogan of Gunn High School in Palo Alto and the team of Natalie Bernasconi, a teacher at La Paz Middle School in Salinas, and Gail Desler, of the Elk Grove School District.
