The "Digital Classroom Initiative" (DCI) offers educators a portal into the secret White House tapes made by Presidents Roosevelt through Nixon. Tailored specifically to the needs of classroom teachers, the DCI grants educators easy access to the PRP’s unique flash audio-transcript clips by grouping these, as well as the more extensive “virtual exhibits,” along topical lines. It also provides links to course syllabi and classroom activities featuring the tapes themselves.
The DCI is an outgrowth of the Presidential Recordings Program (PRP), which was established by the Unversity of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs in 1998 to make the secret White House recordings accessible through transcripts and historical research. These recordings constitute an extremely rich historical resource, but one that cannot be unlocked without considerable time and experience in working with the tapes. Once unlocked, the tapes can, are, and will make significant contributions to our understanding of recent political history and how the U.S. government works. To that end, the PRP brings together historians, journalists, and a talented team of student interns to work with these materials to transcribe, annotate, interpret, and share them. For more information on the PRP's book publications, click here.
