Early next month Durham middle school students will make their debut on national television.

The Learning Channel came to Durham in April to feature Rogers-Herr Middle School and a new interactive initiative in which its students are taking part. The crew from "Designing Spaces, Kids Spaces Series" focused on the multi-user Internet gaming program called Quest Atlantis.

"It's different than just doing regular, boring textbook work," said 12 year old Tyler Pittman, a student at Rogers-Herr. "I think we've got a small attention span so something has to keep us going."

Developers for the game say the program shows classes reading, writing, math, science and bioethics as they travel back in time to 19th century Europe.

"It lets kids not be lectured to but it allows them to become someone: a scientist, a historian ... a statistician," said Dr. Sasha Barab, professor at Indiana University and Director of the school's Center for Research on Learning and Technology. "If I understand pH and nitrates, I can make sense of that space as opposed to memorize a term for a test later on. Instead of memorizing a definition, I had to go out and examine the quality of water to determine why fish are dying."

Barab said interactive programs are needed because it puts students in the "driver's seat as opposed to putting kids in the reception seat."

"There's not many of us who would like ten year olds out there analyzing water quality and making decisions about our national parks," Barab said. "But in a game - we can do that and failure is something to be encouraged and learned from."

More than 25,000 children around the world, grades 4 to 8, are using Quest Atlantis. Dov Rosenberg, the Technology Facility for Rogers-Herr, said other schools in the district are interested in expanding this pilot program this summer.

"I think the inevitable direction that technology and education is going," he said. "These kids are 12 and 13 years old. They have never existed when the internet did not exist."

"They're kind of learning without realizing it because just the very practice of writing makes you a better writer."

Click here to see TLC's program schedule.