A small group of creative and dedicated people gathered in Boulder, Colorado, on July 22, 1996, to brainstorm an Internet project that would respond to the needs of K-12 students and teachers. A simple but exciting plan emerged from that meeting: students would identify, evaluate and annotate a list of Internet sites that other students could use. This report would be published twice a month, building an archive of useful resources for other students and teachers. The process would be collaborative and student-centered and would produce an authentic product.
The model for this publication was the Scout Report , a weekly report that serves the higher education community and is produced by the Internet Scout Project-a project based at the University of Wisconsin campus within the Department of Computer Sciences. The Internet Scout Project is funded by the National Science Foundation.
The original KIDS Report was created by a team of four teachers and four or five students from each of the four original schools located in Madison, Wisconsin and Colorado's Boulder Valley. Teachers presented the project to the students and worked with students on learning the skills to locate, evaluate and annotate quality sites. Students named the report and created the selection guidelines in collaboration with students from other schools, and with guidance from their teachers. In this plan, students themselves became part of the solution to the challenging issue of valid Internet use in education.
In the fall of 1998 the KIDS Report Project received generous interim funding from the Tashia and John Morgridge Foundation (via the University of Wisconsin). With this funding, the project expanded to include fifteen schools, and training materials were developed for new participants, in consultation with veteran teacher participants. An advisory committee is planning for the future of the project to possibly include an evaluative component, a larger participant base, increased outreach, and more permanent funding. The KIDS Report has recently found a new home within the University of Wisconsin-Madison General Library System (GLS).
Susan Calcari, Director of the Internet Scout Project, continues to offer support for the project in this interim year, along with Barbara Spitz, KIDS Report Project Coordinator. Deb Reilly, from GLS, brings valuable ideas, boundless enthusiasm, and experienced guidance to the project. Other members of the advisory team, participating teachers, participating school librarians, and particularly the students, all continue to make this project a reality.
