PART A: The Wicked Problem - A Need or an Opportunity

1.     What is the important educational need that you are seeking to address? This element is fundamental in this project. Since we have limited time, energy, and resources, cool technology without a clear sense of why it matters or what we gain by it is of little value in the educational setting.

 

A.   In a growing global-community that is literally shrinking the social, religious, political, and economic world that we live in, it is imperative that students understand the geographical make-up of the world and how global events affect them as human beings. With technology increasing at an exponential rate, the increased availability of the internet globally and the evolution of Web2.0; it is more important now than at any other time in our history for students to have a firm grasp of world geography and current events. Yet, an alarming number of students cannot identify the majority of countries on a blank map of the world and few can even place countries in their proper regions. Most students are not engaged in the events occurring throughout the world. It is necessary for students to have a strong academic foundation of our geographical and geo-political make-up as a global-community. Therefore, it is the goal of this plan to have 100% of the students successfully place every country in the world in their proper location on a blank world map by the end of the semester. Along with this, 100% of the students will be able to take a “hot-bed” global issue and demonstrate relevance to their daily lives through a multi-media project and presentation.

 

2.  How you plan to address this educational issue with technology?  You need to make a clear and convincing case that your proposed solution will make a real impact on the issue you identify, and that your proposed approach is a reasonable approach given its costs and possible alternatives.

 

A.   In the implementation of this plan, the instructor will use several different activities to accomplish the set objectives. First, through lecture, video, on-line information, and other sources the instructor will show current world events and demonstrate how they have relevance to our daily lives. Second, the instructor will create and maintain a class RSS Page for world news and information, as well as a class Blog. Through these two sources, the students will review current global events on a daily basis and write a weekly two paragraph summary defining the facts of the event and how it is relevant to each of us. Third, the instructor will lead a weekly classroom discussion of current events and allow the students to share their views and opinions in a safe and educationally conducive environment. Fourth, the students will meet in the computer lab three times a month to utilize inter-active on-line world map activities and games that are structured to teach them the proper geographic location of every country in the world. Through this exercise, it is expected that 100% of the students will successfully identify all countries of the world in their proper location on a blank world map at the end of the semester. Finally, each student will complete a capstone multi-media project where they will present their knowledge and understanding of a current “hot-bed” topic in the world and demonstrate its relevance to our lives. By completing each of these goals, the students will exit this class with a thorough knowledge of world geography and the importance of understanding world events and analyzing how they affect each of us in our daily lives.

 

3.      Logistics of solution: For example...What is the scope? (e.g., when and where will tool be used and for how long? Who all will use it?)

 

A.   It is important to show students from the beginning why a deep understanding of world geography is relevant. This will be accomplished in several ways. First, by presenting real-world examples such as the geo-political reasons why American troops are deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and South Korea, or the global-economic factors contributing to a growing trade deficit with China and how it affects the American economic market, and the socio-economic effects of monetary and civil unrest in African nations students will begin to understand how our world is shrinking and how events around the planet affect them. As individuals influenced by the social, religious, political, and economic events of the world students need to have an understanding of what is happening globally, where it is happening, why it is happening, and how it shapes them. Second, by combining weekly discussions over current events, daily tasks such as spending 20 minutes each night reviewing a classroom RSS Resource page covering national and global print and video media, governmental podcasts, and blogs and then writing a weekly two-paragraph summary of an event of their choice on the classroom blog, and successfully completing on-line inter-active world map activities and games they begin to see how they can connect individually with events happening around the world. Mix knowledge of current events with on-line inter-active world map activities and games and the students begin to form a base of understanding of what events are occurring in the world and where they are happening. As students combine their newly gained knowledge of world geography with their knowledge of global current events they begin to understand why this knowledge is significant to their daily lives. This understanding then builds relevance to this activity in the student’s minds and they begin to take ownership of gaining this knowledge as a necessity of everyday life rather than just another memorization assignment. Finally, students will leave this class with the necessary knowledge to understand global events, know where in the world they are occurring, understand the regional and global effects of the events and as a result, they will be able to function better in their daily professional and personal lives as citizens.

 

4.  Relevant research and resources (from the Internet and elsewhere) including reports on the closest effort you can find to what you are planning to do as well as ideas and materials you may be able to build upon in your own effort.  Your description should include: A) The results of your search (What resources may help guide your project? What resources may help in the implementation of your project?)  B) What you learned from performing this search. For example, which search engines did you use? What strategies did you use? What helped or hindered your search? How would you search again next time?

 

A.  Using Netvibes to Connect a Network of Blogs (http://vimeo.com/18852738)

    

     RSSoogle (http://www.rssoogle.com/)

 

     RSS in Education (http://www.slideshare.net/leonardstern/rss-in-education)

 

     RSS Ideas for Education (http://www.teachinghacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/01/RSS%20Ideas%20for%20Educators111.pdf)

 

     Using Blogs to Integrate Technology in the Classroom (http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/educationupclose.phtml/47)

 

    
Using Blogs in the classroom: a new approach to teaching social studies with the internet (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6541/is_3_70/ai_n29261946)

 

5.   A plan for the portion you will implement during this course and the portion you will implement after this course completes.

 

A.   I am not currently teaching in a classroom at this time. This portion of the project will be dealt with after discussions with the professor. I am at this time building the curriculum, lesson plans, assessments, and tools necessary to implement this project in its entirety throughout the semester once I enter back into the classroom.

 

6.   How would you know you were successful?

 

A.  An evaluation consisting of a test or observation – The instructor will evaluate the progress and success of each student in the following ways:

A.   The instructor will evaluate the students on their participation in classroom discussions of current events. Participation points will be based on a set of guidelines presented to the students and posted in the front of the room.

B.   The instructor will review and respond to the weekly summaries that students are to post to the class Blog. Grades will be based on a provided rubric.

C.    The students will receive points for completing each level of the inter-active on-line world map activities and games. To receive points for completion, students will take screen-shots of the completed activity or game and email them to the instructor.

      http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Geography.htm (example of evaluation method used)

D.   The students will be given a blank world map and list of all the countries of the world. They will be given one class period to write in the correct country in the correct border location on the provided map. Students will receive 1 point for each country correctly labeled on the map.

E.    The students will complete a capstone multi-media project where they will present their knowledge and understanding of a current “hot-bed” topic in the world and demonstrate its relevance to our lives. Grades for this project will be based on the provided rubric.