This is a familiar sight throughout California elementary and middle schools, thanks to the University-Community Links program, better known as UC Links. These after-school programs, like the one at Roosevelt, are helping young students in low-income school districts improve their academic and technology skills and enhance their educational outlook - all while doing something enjoyable in those high-risk after-school hours.

Since it began in 1996, UC Links has grown from 14 to 32 sites statewide, serving over 3,400 K-12 youth each year. The various programs involve 20 UC faculty and over 1,100 undergraduate students in an innovative collaboration that connects faculty research, undergraduate study and community service.

Faculty in various disciplines, such as anthropology, psychology and sociology, teach undergraduate practicum courses that correspond with the after-school program, as well as conduct related research. The undergraduates enroll in those courses and on weekday afternoons participate in the after-school program, guiding the children through a variety of learning activities. They later write field notes about their experiences and observations, and back in class, they relate their field experiences to course content.

"For the undergraduates who take the course, they learn the theory and the concepts in the classroom and do observations in the after-school setting with the kids, which gives them experience with social science methodology," says Charles Underwood, executive director of UC Links and one of the UC Berkeley professors involved in the Expedition program. "In effect, the community setting where the after-school program takes place is their laboratory."

So Much Fun, They Don't Know They're Learning

In the after-school program at Roosevelt Middle School and at several other UC Links sites, a core focus is to provide youth with hands-on experience using computers and common software applications as a means of promoting literacy skills that will help students succeed in school and in life. The digital storytelling project follows an underlying philosophy of UC Links: that by connecting the students' own culture and interests to academic activities, they will become more engaged in learning.

"What is often happening is that kids who are not doing well in school and don't like to read and write are suddenly getting very interested in reading and writing as a result of the computer activities," says Underwood. "The theory behind using technology is based on the idea in cultural psychology that kids learn best in the context of meaningful social activities. Multimedia is a hook for a generation of kids focused on mass-media images. The technology tools enable them to tell stories as they see them being told on TV and in the movies."

The kids in the Expedition program learn how to use PowerPoint to create their stories, as well as how to search for images on the Internet or take digital photos. They also digitally record their own narration and add music to their stories. The kids are very enthusiastic about the UC Links program and often use their free time to work on their digital stories, sometimes several days a week. Most often the stories are lighthearted odes to adored pets, games and sports teams but occasionally they are serious, such as one student's essay last year about war. At the end of the school year the students present their stories at a "film festival" and pizza party attended by their peers, teachers and parents.

"Last year there was a student who had just come from Mexico two weeks before the program started and she knew only one word of English ("hello")," says Tamara Sturak, the director of the UC Berkeley Expedition program. "When her parents saw her story, their eyes were very wet because they were so proud of what she had accomplished." [ Play Video ; Required plug-in: QuickTime ; [ Note: May take a minute or more to download for low-bandwidth users]

Chris Simmons, a 6th grader at Roosevelt Middle School in Oakland, works on his digital story about "Halo," his favorite video game.

At some sites, such as UC San Diego's La Clase Mágica - one of the original UC Links programs -- parents also participate. The La Clase Mágica model has been adapted in six sites across the San Diego area, primarily in Mexican American and Native American communities.

"We use technology to maintain a connect between what the children are learning and what their parents are learning because there is often a disconnect in immigrant communities," says Olga Vasquez, a professor in the UC San Diego Department of Communications who studies language and literacy. "Many parents in low-income communities do not have access to computers so we encourage them to participate in the program and to use the computers themselves."

Because La Clase Mágica has been sustained for 14 years (originally as a Fifth Dimension project sponsored by UC San Diego's Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition), Vasquez has been able to conduct extensive longitudinal research. Last year she published her findings in a book titled "La Clase Mágica: Imagining Optimal Possibilities in a Bilingual Community of Learners" (New Jersey, Laurence Erlbaum Publishers).

"My book is based on 10 years of research and I think it will have an impact on helping others set up projects like ours," says Vasquez. "The Mexican American community is very interested in education and this book shows how community members can be integrally involved in their children's learning."

In addition to ongoing studies in various academic disciplines, UC Links carries out evaluation work, which has shown that the programs improve the academic skills of the participants in areas such as math, literacy, and technology, and in some cases, individual SAT-9 and Academic Performance Index (API) scores have improved. And, compared to children who do not attend UC Links programs, they have higher aspirations about the future and attend school more regularly. In the four years that UC Berkeley has offered the Expedition program, Roosevelt Middle School teachers have seen steady improvements in English language proficiency (57% of their students learn English as a second language) and some improvements in math skills.

At La Clase Mágica, UCSD undergraduate students have reported that the participants demonstrate familiarity with university practices and show interest in attending a college or university. In fact, many of the long-term participants in the program are already pursuing post-secondary education.

"We've have an incredible retention rate. Children who come, stay with us," says Vasquez. "We think it's because it's a warm and inviting place and their language and culture is very much a part of that process. As the majority become college age, they are attending college in high numbers. Next year we are expecting two kids who went through the program to attend top-ranked universities."