Hola,
Today was the 2nd day of a new semester and like many new semesters I kind of need to ease into things a bit. Health class. Yesterday we brainstormed a bit about what affects our health- we had answers like stress, friends, exercise, diet, friends, family, genetics, and environment.
Today after reviewing classroom rules again about tardies, make-up work and no personal electronics, we read a one page article from the Internet about how Nicaragua is about to go on-line to power up 19 windmills to generate electricity. This fits nicely with our unit on environmental health which should be in full bloom in about 2 days.
My students are largely from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and other Central American countries. All those lie just north of Nicaragua. However, as we began reading and discussing aloud the article I routinely heard comments like "my dad was born there", often highlighted with sparkling eyes. Though many had never been to Nicaragua, they seemed to have a heightened interest in the subject. I also delighted in hearing the volunteers read and pronounce the names of individuals in the story or even the name of Nicaragua with a Spanish inflection and the pronunciation they deserved.
Now I knew from experience that I could easily find an article from the Internet related to environmental health. That was a given, 15 minutes tops. But to find something about the environment and Central America? I hit the jackpot and that was even without searching for the key words "Central America" and "environment". How far back did this story go? Two weeks. An AP writer posted it on Christmas morning. It took me all of 2 minutes to locate and decide on which environmental health article to share. Grading essays is like doing brain surgery compared to using a search engine correctly.
(as well as adults) waste countless hours entertaining themselves with unmentionable drivel - from Myspace, cheatcodes to their favorite games, downloading music or movies illegally, to watching pornographic images and more. Today was one of those rare days when the Internet (with all of it's deserved bad press) actually facilitated a discussion about cleaner, alternative energies with a heightened interest. If I had gone to the library to find a magazine or book article about the environment to use in class I might still be there. Forget the Central America connection.
The Internet is a tool that can deliver precise and needed information in a matter of minutes. We can only hope that our students realize this someday. I find it an invaluable tool when I am looking to augment a lesson from our book about a topic we are studying. Of course, being sure about your sources or the accuracy of information is a given, but in many instances, you are trusting legitimate sources-- like the Associated Press, JAMA, or Reuters-- we can only hope they check their sources before publishing.
The Internet is a tool that can deliver precise and needed information in a matter of minutes. We can only hope that our students realize this someday. I find it an invaluable tool when I am looking to augment a lesson from our book about a topic we are studying. Of course, being sure about your sources or the accuracy of information is a given, but in many instances, you are trusting legitimate sources-- like the Associated Press, JAMA, or Reuters-- we can only hope they check their sources before publishing.
Article used in class.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081225/ap_on_bi_ge/lt_nicaragua_wind_power
and here is a story about something else positive about the web - http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/12/trend.html#more
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