6-A-2
I teach Spanish at a
Pittsburgh city school.
Pittsburgh is a rather provincial place. National trends seem to take a long time to make their impact in
Pittsburgh. Although we are a large city, we have a miniscule Hispanic population. This is beginning to change. There are some Hispanic markets opening up and there are a very few neighborhoods that are beginning to be identifiable as Hispanic. Of course in other cities of the same size there are radio and television stations in Spanish. There are citywide Hispanic festivals. There are regular art and music presentations by local Hispanic artists. In general there is recognition of, and appreciation for, other cultures. I try to explain this to my students-I teach Pre-K through 8th. But they do not get it because they do not see it, so they do not believe it.
I have great hopes that the web and wikis and other forms of connections internationally with a school in another country will open my students’ eyes. They have little or no interest in other countries or cultures now because theirs is all they know. “Why should I want to learn about them?” is a question I get all the time. Conversing through emails and/or viewing each other through webcasts (?) really hold the potential to break down major barriers for my students. Building on this it would seem that at some point in the near future we might see students organizing for change internationally through the web. There are major issues that affect/threaten/polarize our world and could be addressed by mobilizing communal interest at a grassroots level over the web. Politicians are not going to me moved to change unless and until humans demonstrate that they have the intent to push them to do it.
Do you see this happening? What would you see as the major impediments to this?
7 responses so far ↓
1
PamO
// Oct 25, 2007 at 2:41 am
I think you hit the target right on when you said these new Web 2.0 tools have the potential to break down the barriers. If you take a look at where I live, the southern tip of Indiana in a town of 7,000, you’ll see that our students are even farther removed from exposure to other cultures. I did have a student last year from Russia and one from Mexico. If I had known then what I know now, I would have had them make Wikis about their countries and allowed them to teach our little Hoosiers! I did take every opportunity to let them share their language with each vocabulary term introduced, but there is so much these new tools could offer to a situation like this. We must be the agents of change and take advantage of learning opportunities that land in our classrooms.
2
Lee Anne
// Oct 26, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Hi David,
Barriers vs connection – great topic. There is a very “grass-roots” quality to Web 2.0, don’t you think? Just think how different the election is going to be this coming year now that everyone who wants a global voice can have a global voice. There’s people power there, and there’s a revolution going on. Web 2.0 is fueled by our need to create community. (Think Maslow’s heirarchy of needs)
My husband is an old time, hard core IT guy. He and his kind make fun of me and my kind – they consider us internet hippies – all peace, blogs, and wikipedia. I say, don’t trust anyone with IT in their title.
Lee Anne
3
David Bakkila
// Oct 26, 2007 at 7:21 pm
PamO- These new tools are going to make the world smaller and going to connect us all. I have to believe that if the situation in Darfur was webbed to a maximum number of sites, or if a blog from the Palestinian territories gained some attention change for the better would follow. An informed constituency is a tsunami heading for a logjam of ignorance and cultivated misinformation…
4
Justin A
// Oct 26, 2007 at 9:39 pm
These tools do have a lot of potential. Will the break down barriers for your students? Absolutely. Will they have a complete understanding and compassion for these people, their cultures, and countries? Maybe and maybe not, but it is well worth a try and we have to start somewhere. This reminds me of the last field trip I went on with the junior honor society. There was a student who became extremely upset when he found himself in a public restroom with a gentleman wearing a turban. Obviously his only association with a turban was terrorism. These are the types of things we can counteract with web 2.0. When it comes to politics and a “global voice” I think you are probably not far off. There is no doubt in my mind that these tools shrink the world; however, I don’t see it happening for this cause in the immediate future. There are too many valuable people out there who are afraid of the technology, don’t know how to use it, or are unsure of the ever changing ways. We may have to wait for the MySpace generation to grow up a little.
5
David Bakkila
// Oct 27, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Lee Anne and Justin, I guess I do have to be more realistic. The forces that want to pull this world together have a lot to overcome, including indifference and self-imposed ‘incompatability’ with technology. I was in that category in August as a matter of fact. Just looking at the amount of effort and time people have been putting into global communication gives me the sense of a huge boulder being shouldered towards the edge of a hill though…
6
patriciaj
// Oct 29, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Great thoughts David. Web 2.0 does get people talking! Since communication is essential to democracy, this must be a good thing. On the other hand, Deb’s question on her blog asked if people would simply continue to communicate with people who think like they do. I can see both sides; however, if I have to choose, I’ll pick optimism and join the internet hippies. A sixties theme would look great on our blogs! Web 2.0 does mobilize “people power.”
7
friendlyarachnids
// Oct 29, 2007 at 7:07 pm
You’re right about the unusually provincial nature of a city the size of Pittsburgh, but the burbs are changing rapidly. As American kids are meeting more students from around the world, I see their interest in other cultures increasing. The Read/Write Web offers a link to students around the globe like never before. I remember when having a “penpal” from another country was a huge event; now, the kids can communicate easily
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