The academic curriculum is infused with a service ethic. Students and teachers find sound educational uses for powerful technologies. Students' educational experience is enhanced. Deeper understanding and better transfer to nonclassroom situations occur when students are engaged in authentic research. If adults believe students are capable of doing scholarly work that should be preserved in the community archives forever, students believe it too.
Schoolwork ceases being ephemera.
It is worthy of a young person's best effort. They practice high order skills, including researching, synthesizing, The school gains high quality teaching materials. Maps, photos, primary documents, letters, journals, and old newspapers from a student's community are meaningful, and thus they are highly motivational. As such materials are accumulated, the new research projects that are possible multiply. In time, such collections become as valuable to schools and communities as photo albums are to families.