Service Learning

The service learning plan I chose to write about dives into the subject of religious persecution. Here is the summary as described by the website: While studying the struggle against religious intolerance in United States history, students will research the current plight of various religious minorities around the world. They will focus on religious groups that are currently the victims of religious intolerance, and contact government officials both in the nations involved and in the United States. They will seek to eliminate religious persecution against these groups.You can look at this service learning project here. This plan covers many benefits that are described on the Inquiry in Social Studies MindMeister. The first is it stimulates awareness of controversial issues, which I think is probably the most important when covering a topics such as this. It also limits teacher bias by allowing the students to choose any religion they want to research. By doing this type of project the students will have to think like a social studies researcher, which is also listed in our Benefits.
The methods that the students will have to use to be effective in exposing religious intolerance will be exploration. The students will have to explore many areas of the world through websites to find religious intolerance. They will also have to use their discussion skills to determine the best course of action. The project calls for the students to contact government officials which will require them to hone their discussion/communication skills. The students will also use collaboration, listed under best practices, with government officials to expose religious intolerance. They will also have to use technology to contact the government officials in other nations. Without being familiar with the newest communication technologies the students will be less effective. By Being closely involved in each students activities most of the challenges should be taken care of. Making sure the students show the proper respect needed to government officials from other countries will be essential.

The article by Edelson, D, in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching; titled Learning-For-Use: A Framework for the Design of Technology-Supported Inquiry Activities; describes a program that allows students to input their own data to create a new Earth. This program makes the students actively learn the processes of the Earth and how theses processes interact to make a stable planet. I think this same type of 'Learning-for-use model' can be used for government or economics study.
If this program allowed students to create different scenarios for governmental ideas, and then showed how their models fit together, it would be a great tool for showing how our current government works with its many functions. I would put the students in group and have them discuss how they think a government should function, the specific powers they want to give the government, and the systems they would put in place to keep it from becoming a dictatorship or anarchical. If the students did want a system that was undemocratic it would open up a great opportunity to discuss the benefits of democracy compared to other forms of government. This activity would create a greater appreciation for our current government and the problems the founders faced when they first developed it.
In economics the students could input their own ideas about a number of variables, such as currency, state and federal banks, interstate and international trade. If the students input scenarios that would not work well, such as only having state-run banks, the program could show them the reasons why this is defective. After each group made their models we would, as a class, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each.
This is all speculative and would need a software designer to make happen, but I just modified the original science related model, described by the author of the article, Edelson, D., and made it applicable to American government or economics. It seems this would be a very interactive way to show the intricacies of government and economics. Would this turn into a simulation type game that students did not take seriously? Would this be profitable as a learning tool compared to the cost it would take to develop? Has an interactive program used specifically for U.S. government/economics already been developed?

Blogs, podcasts, and wikis: Has school become extremely fun?

I found some great podcasts, blogs and wikis that made it seem that the students involved were actually enjoying the assignments; what a crazy concept. The first podcast was a little dated but I thought it was worth mentioning. Two students, one acting as an interviewer and the other a expert, had a great discussion about the differences between Sec. Clinton's health care proposal and Pres. Obama's proposal. This must have been done during the primaries. Nevertheless, the discussion required the interviewer to ask very pointed questions which obviously had to be researched before the podcast. On the other end the student playing the expert had to answer the very specific questions and she really laid out the differences very well. This example made both students do relevant research about a modern issue. I thought this method was more effective than making the students do a paper or simple presentation. This podcast was done by the Springfield school district in Pennsylvania last year http://ssdcougars.libsyn.com/. A class wiki that I stumbled upon was actually part of a larger international collaboration called Flat Classroom Project. The class created wikis about numerous subjects with help from a class in Germany. This network allows teachers and students to team up with students from all around the world to discuss various topics and work on projects together. I did see there are Flat Classroom workshops where teachers can learn how to use this type of technology. A social studies blog that I found was by a middle school history teacher. He used the blog to communicate assignments, study sheets, and relevant information, such as links to all sorts of history websites, to his students. The students also had an opportunity to respond or ask him questions. I had difficulty finding student blogs. It seemed like they were not open to the public, which makes sense to me. The podcasts, wikis, and blogs all look more interesting than the type of assignments I had to do in social studies classes. I think teachers are definitely making learning exciting by using these methods.