In 2006, the Pearson Foundation--the philanthropic branch of educational publisher Pearson Inc.--and cellular provider Nokia Inc. created "Digital Arts Summer Camps" for approximately 500 middle school students from New Orleans to enable them to share their stories about Hurricane Katrina. Using the latest in cell-phone and computer technologies to script, shoot, and edit digital films, these students showcased their personal experiences during a Mobile Learning Gulf Coast Film Festival.

The goal of the camps was not only to allow students to document their experience for future generations, but also to give them a chance to develop critical 21^st-century skills, as well as to provide a model of learning for other students across the country. (Read more here.)

Now, two years later, the Pearson Foundation has expanded its digital-arts summer camps into national and global projects.

"Digital arts and curriculum used to be separated; video and the classroom were mostly two separate arenas. But now, the curriculum is integrated with digital arts. [Digital arts] enriches the curriculum, and students become their own teachers. Students can watch videos from other students as part of their curriculum. They teach one another," said Mark Nieker, president and executive director of the Pearson Foundation.

Adam Ray, a spokesman for the Pearson Foundation, added that "digital arts are breaking down the walls of the classroom, providing communication from class to class, state to state, country to country."

Four years ago, Pearson founded the Digital Arts Alliance, which has grown to include more than 15,000 students and educators who participate in the Alliance's various digital projects.

Pearson partnered with leading businesses and civic organizations, such as the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), Nokia, the National Academy Foundation, Adobe Systems, and the American Red Cross, to help support students and teachers and to sponsor community-based education programs.

These fully funded and equipped digital-arts programs cater to middle schools, high schools, and communities and offer professional development courses across the United States, encouraging students and teachers to work together to design, develop, and complete digital-arts projects tied to their classroom objectives.

The Alliance believes its programs help teach a new kind of 21^st-century literacy--one that integrates core subject-area knowledge with learning and innovation skills; information, media, and technology skills; and life and career skills.