A look at my webquest and some NCSS standards

I recently designed a webquest for an AP Government class, dealing with the sources of national identity in the modern world. My choice for the topic began as a matter of convenience, since I was gearing up for a well deserved vacation to Istanbul for Spring break. I was surprised however, to find how well the subject matter, and its mode of delivery, lent itself to preparing students for the future. While the meat of the discovery in the webquest actually revolved around an old fashioned seminar, its application in a modern technological medium was not merely an exercise for students, but rather an example of the role of technology in illuminating global interdependence. While the seminars explicitly discussed the role of technology in Istanbul, the use of technology to more effectively connect and share ideas, layered the lesson in a way that I had not originally planned. It turns out that some surprises are nice ones this semester.

I think one the best things that the web-quest brings home is the idea that, for things to work in the future, its going to be a more and more essential skill for people who may not like each other to work together. The premise of the entire project is the education of an individual who is willfully ignorant of the subject matter. The team must help this individual for the greater good of social justice rather than the "justice" of seeing an unqualified individual fail at the expense of two nation-states. Beyond the fantasy context of the project however, lies a much more serious application of  teamwork within the whole class and the ability to work with those across cultures. Students are placed into groups for this project and what's more are required to interview members of a sister class from Turkey through Skype. Interactions across the globe could well be an everyday occurrence in the workplaces of tomorrow, and this fact underscores the role that technology has come to play in our global interdependence. Having this kind of "work" experience in the classroom will be a tremendous help in easing them into their roles as the shape of technological interaction is created by their generation.

Further, the fact that the class are using these tools of the future, (Skype, wikis, and photostory) on the deepest of levels, as creators of meaningful, message rich context, shows them how profound these mediums can become when taken seriously. While the students address technology on the theoretical level in the seminars, discussing internet censorship in Turkey and the development of new bureaucracies such as the EU, the most important assessment of that technology comes in its use, where students connect to other human beings and have to think about the benefits and risks of that technology. In a very real way the student is acting as a de facto ambassador in this project, and he or she has the ability to send a real message with the way they handle their interview and what questions they choose to ask or avoid. Their actions have a very real impact, slight though it may be, on how a small part of another country's youngest generation, will perceive the United States for the rest of their lives.