The College of Mount Saint Vincent Participates in VoterWatch’s 2008 Presidential Debates Project

October 24th, 2008

By Billy Hallowell, VoterWatch

For the past two months, I have had the distinct honor of working with a wonderful classroom of undergraduate students at The College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, New York City (my alma mater).  Instructed by Dr. Joseph Skelly and Dr. Jacqueline Guzda, these students are studying the intersection of politics and communications.

Over the span of three in-person visits, I spoke with the students about lobbying, earmarks and the importance of the open government movement.  Here at VoterWatch, we are increasingly interested in how young people in the American educational system understand and interpret these important issues.  Furthermore, with the assistance of Dr. Skelly and Dr. Guzda, we were able to test the VoterWatch media player as a collaborative annotation tool in the classroom.

The students at The College of Mount Saint Vincent were, in fact, the first students in the nation to use the tool in this regard and the results are absolutely astounding.  We divided the class into nine groups.  In these groups, the students were assigned specific portions of the final presidential debate.  Then, each group was responsible for inserting commentary — fact checks, corroborations, thoughts and perspective.

The final outcome of the students’ work showcases our tool’s educational value.  We want to thank Dr. Skelly and Dr. Guzda for the honor of working with their students.  Please click the image below to launch the commentary from the students at The College of Mount Saint Vincent.  Send any questions or comments along to info@voterwatch.org:

Voterwatch.org video

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