BROOKLYN, New York—On a sunny morning near the end of the school year, Chris Wilson was a study in perpetual motion. Moving between the technology lab and the music classroom at Brooklyn International High School, he was downloading students' digital videos at a furious pace. When a young computer technician gave him the thumbs up, signaling that his laptop was running again, Wilson paused long enough to flash a big smile. "I think we're going to make it," he said.

"It" was a showcase of student work scheduled to take place the next day at the Brooklyn Museum. Students from Brooklyn International High would be sharing the results of their multimedia projects with the City University of New York (CUNY) Arts Consortium. Students' topics this year have ranged from the history of the Brooklyn Bridge to soccer as a force for world peace. Getting ready for the showcase gave Wilson a chance to reflect on just how far he's come as a teacher who uses technology to advance student learning.

Until he joined the staff of this unusual public school for immigrant students five years ago, Wilson says, "I never used computers." Brooklyn International enrolls about 320 students from all over the world—Pakistan, Honduras, Haiti, China, Yemen. None has been in the U.S. longer than a few years, and every student speaks a native language other than English.

"It's a dream environment for teaching the arts," says Wilson, who is originally from New Zealand. He is also a composer and performer in addition to being a 20-year teaching veteran. "You get to hear amazing stuff at this school," he says, with student artists influenced by their varied home cultures as well as the urban beat of New York. The school music room becomes a cross-cultural intersection. Wilson likens it to "some kind of screeching, snarling traffic jam of intersecting cultural forces. Some might say it's the new global thing." Indeed, his classroom looks like the stage for a world music show, with percussion instruments from distant continents competing for floor space. Every student takes at least two terms of music.

It took the encouragement of a colleague to get Wilson started using digital equipment. Humanities teacher Joe Luft has long been an advocate of integrating technology into the classroom. (See An Innovation Odyssey Day 312 to read about Luft's weblog projects.) "Joe opened me up," Wilson says, and soon he was signing up for professional development workshops about technology. When the school received its first digital video cameras, Wilson and Luft decided to collaborate on a project involving the Brooklyn Bridge.

"We had 20 students and five cameras, so they worked in teams. Each group made an informational video about some aspect of the bridge," Wilson explains, such as bridge history, architecture, connection to the city, transportation role, and so forth. For many students, this was their first chance to use a video camera. "They loved it," Wilson says, and he decided to offer students the option to continue working on individual film projects. "They re-edited the footage, added poetry or original music, put their own perspective on the material. They did some great stuff."

Wilson also had students make their own films about a multimedia music performance that the school organized in the spring. Capturing such events on video is important for student performers, Wilson says. "Especially with music, unless you capture it, it disappears. It's important that you record a performance in some way. Then it becomes a project."

When students have a chance to make their own films, he adds, the learning goes deeper. "Each becomes the interviewer, the announcer. They offer their reflections about the event." The decisions involved in editing cause students to become more discerning. "They have to organize the material and make decisions as they edit and sort images. They're producing some exciting stuff."