Connectivity:World Cultures
Grade Level and Subject
Middle school and upper elementary, social studies, language arts, and
more.
Description
This lesson includes information about using telecommunications to learn
about other cultures. It gives an example of what can be done with worldwide
connections through use of email and conferencing.
Background
Many volunteers climbed ladders, pulled cables and fitted twisted pairs
as NetWeekend arrived in our county and gathered the last few remaining
schools into the hub of the on-line world. Cables concealed above ceiling
tiles weave the magic that brings students and staff into the 21st Century.
But not really. The magic that brings excitement and real learning into
the classroom has always been in place below the ceiling tiles. The imagination
and creativity of teachers and students are still the most important connections
a school can have.
The cabling and computers that make the Internet and the
World Wide Web available are tools in the hands and minds of those who
guide our young people today. The challenge is ours to use these tools
to spark an unquenchable thirst for learning. Net Weekend is an ongoing
process as connections happen every day in classrooms all over the county.
The hardware is in place and now the hard work must begin.
Use of Email in Learning
Teachers who have access to these tools need instruction and support to
empower them to use the resources the on-line world offers. Search engines
on the World Wide Web give us the opportunity to access, analyze and process
information on many topics. Others who use the Internet on a more personal
level discover that curriculum-related information can be found in even
the simplest email messages.
The email message below came from my students' on-line
friend in Sri Lanka. Arnav told us about power cuts in his city that reached
an all time high on the day he managed to send this to us. My students
had many questions about the reasons for the power cuts and how the people
in his city stored their perishable food.
Hi!
Yeah! Now if it doesn't rain soon, gloop & double
gulp, 18 hour power cuts!!! AAAHH!
But never fear, a generator (phew) is near (like tomorrow)
>electricity. How are you keeping food from spoiling?
We can't. We just buy food for the day, and try not to
store too much. No back-ups for electricity in this place.
But soon I will get a generator. Many people are doing
that.
-Arnav
Bye! :-)
In the e-mail message below from Australia the creative
teacher will see many curriculum connections.
Hello,
Hi how are you all ? I'm good. It is Spring here but it
feels like summer. We have 7 weeks left of school until X-mas
holidays. In Australia at the moment there is a lot of
controversy over the French's decision to begin nuclear testing in the
Pacific. I feel that the nuclear testing is unnecessary. I hope the next
time we talk the nuclear testing will be over.
From,
(A student in Brisbane)
Have a Good Day
Brisbane Queensland
AUSTRALIA
In these two email messages the following topics could
be discussed:
1. Latitude and longitude for Sri Lanka and Brisbane,
Australia. We know that Arnav is in Colombo from his previous emails. What
is our latitude and longitude in Delmar, Maryland?
2. Time zones. We anchor our online days in GMT. What
is GMT? Email messages use GMT as the reference point. In the message from
Australia we can see two things:
A. We received the message the day before it was sent!
B. Brisbane is GMT +10 hours (look at the message header)
In Maryland what is our GMT factor? We are -5 *except*
during Daylight Savings Time when we are -4. There are many math problems
for students in this message. How long did it take for the message to get
to our Internet server? Students will see the use of military time in the
time stamp of the email message.
3. A student says it is Spring there yet it is October.
Why is this so? The social studies teacher can discuss northern vs southern
hemispheres.
4. The same student also mentions nuclear testing by the
French in their waters. What is this all about? Why are they testing in
the Pacific? What thoughts do the students have about nuclear testing?
A debate could be arranged with the two schools taking sides. Students
would do research to support their views.
5. Arnav's city has been suffering under tremendous power
cuts. Why? How do the people there cope with this? How often does this
happen?
The next three selections are files taken from "A
Day in the Life Of..." project moderated for the past several years
by Sheldon Smith. This writing project contains a wealth of lessons for
classroom teachers who participate with their students. The students are
asked to write a journal for a specific day along with their peers around
the world who are also participating in the project.
This first journal was written by a young student in
Alaska:
A Day In My Life
5th grade
7:00 I am awake but still in my bed half awake and half
asleep.
8:00 I am walking up to the bus stop, the fresh snow and
the warm wind blew my breath away. I caught the bus. I got to school and
went into the gym for assembly it took thirty minutes.
9:00 I am watching a movie called "Natures Symphony"
for reading first period.
10:00 We worked on a battery presentation for science.
11:00 I ate lunch and jumped rope.
12:00 I played on the IBM computers.
1:00 I did the geography bee until 2:30 and rode with
my mom and sisters back home.
3:00 I get home and eat my snack which was cheese and
crackers, then I went outside and shoveled snow till 4:30 I came back in
and took off my snowpants and went up stars and played "Carmen San
Diego" on my family's computer.
5:00 I sit down to dinner to eat moose meat enchiladas
andcorn.
6:00 My dad just got home from snow plowing and I finished
clearing the table and did the dishes.
7:00 I watched "Full House" and "Major
Dad" on T.V.
8:00 Rachel my sister and I were practicing a show for
my mom and dad.
9:00 Rachel and I were playing "Brainquest",
then I turned off my big light and I read some little kid books, then I
went to sleep.
This journal was sent from Japan:
Thursday, January 14
6:30 I was woke by alarm clock.
7:00 I had a breakfast.
7:40 I took a bus with my friend.
8:05 I went to the store, and I bought seven files.
8:10 I arrived at my high school.
8:45 Morning class started. My classroom was very cold.
12:45 I had lunch with my friend.
1:10 Afternoon class started.
3:00 I cleaned the chilly lavatory.
3:30 An extracurricular lesson which I don't like started.
4:20 I was glad to finish an extracurricular lesson.
4:30 I left school with my friend.
4:40 I took a bus alone.
5:10 When I went back, my little brother had already gone
back.
6:00 I cooked dinner with my mother.
6:30 I had dinner with my family.
7:00 I helped my mother clear the table.
7:30 I watched TV from 7:30 to 9:00.
9:00 A bath refreshed me.
9:30 I study English, Japanese and math from 9:30 to 11:30.
11:30 I went to bed.
This journal entry was submitted from Finland
grade 5.b
06:00 I woke up, and I dressed clothes on. I brushed my
hair.
07:00 I ate cookies and drank milk for breakfast. I put
clothes on, I took the skiis and I went to school with Terhi, the first
lesson was P.E in to sports ground, and we were skied. That was funny.
08:00 When the P.E lesson was finished, then was a break.
The next lesson was mother tongue. That was very, very boaring.
09:00 Teacher gaves us biology tests and he spoke the
rest of the lesson. That was tired.
10:00 We read own stories and we went to eat potatoes,
grawy and salad. Food wasn't good.
11:00 Then bekan again mother tongue, we did some tasks
and read stories. That was boaring.
12:00 Then we had an english lesson. There was jolly.
13:00 We read again stories and we went home, when the
schoolday was over. I skied home.
14:00 I was home and I ate a little. Then I read a book.
Book was good.
15:00 I did my math's homeworks and I listened the Metallica.
I was didn't like the homeworks.
16:00 I did my homeworks and then I went to shopping.
17:00 I was shopping and I went back home. I watched on
the TV The Bold And The Beautiful.
18:00 When The Bold And The Beautiful was finished I did
my all homeworks.
19:00 Then I watched the TV, and read the book.
20:00 I drank the hot chocolate and ate bread. Then I
watched TV the film.
21:00 I watched the film finished and I went the bed.
22:00 I fall a slept.
Teachers will be able to use this activity across many
curriculum areas:
Writing
Students will write quick notes on the hour but will later fashion these
notes into interesting journal entries.
Math
Students can analyse the data in each journal by making graphs and charts.
1. What is the average time students around the world:
- do homework?
- watch TV?
- do family chores?
- awaken each morning?
- go to sleep each night?
2. Who spends more time watching TV? boys? girls?
3. Who studies longer? which country? boys? girls?
4. What classroom subjects are favorites?
5. Time zone activities: (an example)
When the student in Japan was "cleaning the chilly
lavatory" at school in Japan what the student doing in Finland?
Science and Social Studies
- Locate each school by city and country on the map.
- Discuss latitude and longitude.
- Identify the season of the year for each country.
These examples are connections that go far beyond cables and computers.
NetWeekend set the stage for many schools. The hardware is in place and
the world is waiting for us. Will the real connections take place in our
classrooms? We know they already are and encourage more teachers to consider
using the Internet as another tool to deliver the curriculum to students.
Written by:
Patti Weeg
Title 1 Computer Teacher
Delmar Elementary School
Delmar, Maryland USA
pweeg@shore.intercom.net
http://www.intercom.net/local/weeg
