Social Studies Literacy Coach for District 75 in New York City Cara Coffina is in her third year of leading an innovative online debate competition as a way to engage special needs students in current events. She works with Elluminate partner LearningTimes to hold the online debates via the Elluminate Live! real-time eLearning environment.

Online Environment Helps Build Confidence
According to Coffina, while many of the students have severe emotional and behavioral issues as well as learning disabilities, they quickly became involved and invested in the online debate project. The students took on multiple roles and responsibilities, not just forming their opinions and backing them up for the debates, but also mastering the use of the technology.

Debate topics start with school-specific issues, such as wearing school uniforms or bringing cell phones to school. As the debates progress, topics take on a broader national and international scope, including troop withdrawal from Iraq, the death penalty, U.S. immigration policy, or gun control in New York.

All three rounds of the debates are held using Elluminate Live! This enables the students to become familiar with the debate format in the non-threatening environment of their own classrooms, providing the confidence they need for the final debate, which also includes an in-person audience and judges.

Students Move From Passive to Active Roles
"What tends to happen with special education students is that they are often placed in a more passive role in the classroom," Coffina explains. "This was one of the few times we gave the children an active role to embrace. With the debate program, no one was telling them to sit down and be quiet. We were asking them to stand up and speak out."

"People from all around the district were amazed to see how excited the students became doing the online debates," concludes Coffina. "The Bronx school that won the debate competition last year celebrated by parading the trophy around the school. The following week, that same school won a basketball tournament, which was not nearly as exciting. When asked why, one student replied that while everyone knew the school could win at basketball, no one thought they could win the debate. The purpose of social studies is to enable students to understand their world a little bit better. I think we’ve definitely succeed in doing that here."

Elluminate Live! Activities

• Presenting debate arguments using two-way audio
• Viewing debaters via high-resolution webcam
• Showing PowerPoint slides on interactive whiteboard
• Moderating sessions using ESP Moderator Tools
• Coordinating sessions via chat window
• Voting by online judges using polling
• Recording sessions for later viewing

How Students Benefited
About NYC Special Education District 75 District 75 provides citywide educational, vocational, and behavior support programs for approximately 23,000 students with moderate to severe special needs challenges. District 75 consists of 56 school organizations, home and hospital instruction, and vision and hearing services located at more than 350 school sites in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island and Syosset, New York.