The Social Experiment: one year later

NBC Nightly News correspondent Kristen Welker
interviews Shorecrest students last spring.

One year after The Social Experiment at Shorecrest and Shorewood High Schools made headlines around the country, the students involved are still in the news.

NBC Nightly News correspondent Kristen Welker and producer Jane Derenowski spent a half-day at Shorecrest last spring, and a portion of those interviews are now featured on the Web as part of the network's "Back to Basics" series. Some of the students have graduated, and the building it was filmed in has since been demolished to make way for the new Shorecrest gymnasium.

Watch the Shorecrest students on The Daily Nightly on msnbc.com

The Social Experiment was the brainchild of Shorecrest video production teacher Trent Mitchell, who enlisted the help of Marty Ballew, his counterpart at Shorewood. In The Social Experiment, more than 500 participating students from both schools were expected to give up their social networks for a week: no texting, online gaming, internet chat or Facebook. No cell phones either.

The experiment received nationwide attention, and ABC World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer named the students and teachers of Shorecrest and Shorewood as its Persons of the Week on the Dec. 10, 2010 national broadcast.

Relive The Social Experiment on its blog page, complete with student documentaries and media clips.