Web Watch:
Museum of Broadcast Communications’ DocuFest


Susan M. Deysher
CAST, Inc.


If you are looking for ways to incorporate rich multimedia experiences into your lessons, check out the Museum of Broadcast Communications’ (MBC) new collection of online instructional resources called DocuFest. The MBC, located in Chicago, launched DocuFest to provide teachers with resources to help students think critically about how broadcast media shapes our views on issues and events. The MBC houses an archive containing over 85,000 hours of radio and television programming, from which it has culled a variety of documentaries focused on four major topics: Civil Rights, Performing Arts, the Vietnam War, and World War II. Through DocuFest, the MBC hopes to engage students in its own version of the three R's: Relevance, Resonance, and Resources. Each topic within DocuFest contains three or four documentaries broken down into smaller parts for easier viewing, and each documentary is paired with a lesson plan and suggested research projects.

The site's content is most appropriate for upper elementary, middle school, and high school students. On a technical note, the documentaries are delivered via streaming video, which requires a streaming media player such as RealOne Player from Real.com. You can download a free version by going to the RealOne Player website.

While you are visiting DocuFest, take a look at two other great online resources from the MBC: The Encyclopedia of Television, a collection of essays and histories related to television, and The Great Debate, a site which explores the history of television's influence on politics through forty years of presidential debates.