digital youth network

Darrell Johnson's basic educational belief is simple: the kids are smart. Working 13 years in the classroom, he used his background in journalism and film to create integrated literacy and social studies courses that were informative, skill based, and fun for both teacher and student.

Coming to education from a media background (including television, print, and film) allowed Darrell to incorporate those elements into the traditional classroom setting. The result of Darrell melding these was a classroom that took the emerging technologies of the time and used them to remix the traditional content -- in a way the looked at history through a new lens.

Part of this new lens was the Living Museum, a schoolwide History Fair that was on the forefront of using digital media to tell historical stories at the middle-school level. With the Living Museum, Darrell saw his students excel, advancing to state level competition as part of the Chicago Metro History Fair, for four consecutive years.

As he contemplates the next frontier of technology, education, and media, Darrell is working on educational innovation through curriculum development for the Digital Youth Network.