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Many of the instructors in the after-school program didn't have the educational skills to develop lesson plans or even deal effectively with the kids. So last year the institute spent another $30,000 to hire educational consultants from the Bank Street College of Education, the Center for Children and Technology, and the National Urban Alliance, all in New York City. The consultants focused on helping the instructors improve their educational techniques and also provided examples of the ways that computers could be used in project-based learning. "Before they arrived, we would spend about two weeks on a lesson plan," Gainer says. "Now we can create one in 20 minutes if we have to."

Price, the educational consultant from Brooklyn, for instance, ran workshops that included ways to use digital cameras and animation programs in projects. But he also focused on skills, such as how to foster group dynamics or manage the creative chaos of a classroom without stifling it. Gainer then put the lessons to work at the Perry School. Children used a digital camera to take photos of one another, edited them using Adobe Photoshop, and created captions for them on the computer. They then printed out the results and plastered them across their schoolhouse walls.

In another instance, the older-teen workshop made a 30-second film on playground violence, first deciding on the functions they needed to fill (such as director, writer, and actors) and then collectively working out storyboards and a production schedule for the short drama. Students also learned to use a program called Kid Pix to create animated stories, which they did last winter for a monthlong Christmas project. They've used Microsoft Word to write reports and Excel spreadsheets to graph out classroom opinion polls, such as "Which cookies are most popular?" "They really liked that one because they also got to eat the cookies," Gainer says.

"We've been thinking about computers as a tool, in the same way we think about a pencil, a crayon, and reading aloud," Taaffe says. "The computers are not the center of the activity; they kind of fade into all the activities the kids are doing there."

Nurturing that philosophy is crucial if a computer-learning center strives to offer students more than just the technical nuts and bolts of working on the machines. "You can use technology to support a kind of drill-and-practice learning that will raise standardized-test scores among students who really do it a lot," says Cornelia Brunner, associate director of the Center for Children and Technology, in New York City, who also worked as a consultant for the Morino Institute. "The problem is, they haven't learned a whole lot."

Brunner argues that such a rote, skills-based approach will actually increase the digital divide because it fosters a more rigid type of learning. Students who learn within this model won't develop the ability to work with others, think critically, and expand their creativity, she believes. Instead, they will be trained for the repetitive tasks -- like data entry -- generally found in low-wage jobs.

A more holistic approach, however, is harder to teach -- it's more time-consuming and more expensive. It's also more difficult to measure. Donors or parents looking for concrete results might not be able to assess group interaction, problem solving, or research skills as easily as multiple-choice tests measure rote skills. "You have to be more patient," Brunner says, "because it's part of a larger developmental process rather than a single result tied to a single intervention."

But the prize, proponents believe, is also that much greater. The process of a child's creating and revising a project amounts to "huge ownership of the learning process," Taaffe says. "They're getting opportunities to have opinions and make those opinions known to their community and outside world."

To be sure, a teen like Hawkins who can now build a Web site, create a spreadsheet, and use E-mail to communicate has the skills to work in a good-paying job, let alone at a Blockbuster outlet. And in a neighborhood facing the daily challenges of poverty and crime, the value of those skills cannot be emphasized enough. "We want kids to be gaining experience and skills so they can participate in the new economy," Taaffe says. "But I also want to see kids having experiences where they are gaining self-esteem and confidence. Here they're actually creating something, teaching others, and thinking about the ways they can become productive citizens."

Samuel Fromartz is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C.

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