WITH GREAT POWER COMES…
complex questions.
Students today have access to information immediately and without
filters. This gives them a lot of
power. Power that can be used for good…
and the alternative. I was at a pretty
impressionable age on September 11th, 2001. I was in middle school. My friends and I were living in a scary time
and we knew it. We had a lot of
questions. It was difficult sometimes to
hear the answers… sometimes because we knew the answers weren’t true, and
sometimes because we knew they were. The
internet was around, but it wasn’t as accessible as it is today. Web 2.0 hadn’t taken over quite yet, and not
everyone with an opinion wrote it down online publicly to share with the world. This blog post tells the story
of how a simple poetry assignment elicited intense questions from an 8th
grade English class. The questions
reveal a sign of changing times. One
that seems introspective in many ways… Different
than the way many 8th graders may come across at face value.
necessary reflection.
What does this mean for teachers? It’s time for us to reflect. What are some tools that we can share with
students of today to help them be appropriately informed? What tools can we share that will help
students make sense of their emotions?
Where can students go for help? How should teachers support
these concerns? While this may seem
contradictory, maybe the answers are online.
Let the technology connect people.
Have students write a blog and respond to one another to encourage them
to start conversations with people, even if they disagree on certain issues. Even though the world is divided in many ways,
starting conversations is the key to tolerance and coexistence. The ability to have an intelligent and respectful
conversation with someone you disagree with is a skill that will take you
pretty far in life!
the opportunity to
gain perspective.
A couple of years after 9/11, my
class video chatted with a school in Iraq.
It was a powerful lesson. We learned
some names and faces in a country that we really only had heard about in the
news. The students were our age. They shared many of the same interests as
us. We lived different lives, but there
was much respect in the conversation. Immerse
yourself in learning. Mike
MacLaren took a trip with his L2 students to take their driving tests. The students learned English, gained a
powerful perspective, and had influential conversations. Across different languages, backgrounds, and
cultures, students want to and will connect with one another.
great responsibility.
The responsibility lays on the
students, the parents, and the teachers.
We must teach children today that while technology brings people
together, it can also tear people apart.
We need to teach them digital citizenship. We need to teach them about resources like Duolingo that make the world more
accessible to them. Use technology to
translate to connect with more people. Be
an informed individual. Form your own
opinions. Travel to gain perspective. Use technology to break down barriers.
You bring up a great point regarding the access to anything and everything that our students have at their fingertips. It is our job to be resources for our students and help them learn through us and ask us questions before immediately running to a search engine. We do need to be transparent and honest when it comes to questions we don't know the answers to as well. I'm sure your video chat with the school in Iraq is something you will never forget, as well as an educational experience far beyond a lecture. Questions you had were answered directly from the source and not through a quick search online.
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