FrontlineWorld
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/educators/
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/educators/culture_kenya.html
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/kenya/
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/educators/culture_kenya.html#crosscurricular
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/react/index.html
Edsitement
Choices
The three Web sites I have chosen each present materials for use in classroom or learning contexts. They all espouse constructivist learning with goals of engendering critical thinking, discussion and in-depth analysis. I have considered each of them with a view to adapting, importing or applying their content and educational resources in a non-traditional learning setting such as a viewing and discussion program in a public library or a facilitated civic discussion series in a community center. Although these programs require pre-registration demonstrating a commitment on the part of the participants, they are free and open to the public.
Choices.com is a multiplatform, multipurpose site for Choices for the 21st Century Education Program an ongoing national initiative that “seeks to empower young people with the skills, knowledge, and participatory habits to be engaged citizens who are capable of addressing international issues through thoughtful public discourse and informed decision making." An initiative run by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, it offers “teaching resources on historical and current international issues, provides professional development for classroom teachers, and sponsors programs that engage students beyond the classroom.” The Web site serves a number of purposes:
Because I am referencing this site with the development of a civic discussion program based on global issues for out-of-school adults, I will focus primarily on the curricular resources of this
site.
The core content of the Choices site is its curriculum units and series. Although some resources are free and downloadable, Choices materials are generally not free, but it is an educational non-profit and the curricular units are somewhat reasonably priced, at $20 per unit, or $100 for a 5-6 part series. A discount is offered for downloading rather than ordering printed versions of units. Because the Choices programs have been designed for use in American classrooms, most of their offerings guide students through a critical analysis of world events and issues in relation to
Choices has also posted sample video of a high school class participating in a Choices program and a video of a program at the summer teachers institute.
In addition to these video offerings, Choices also offers an excellent "Teaching with the News" series that is largely free - it aims to "provide(s) online curriculum materials and ideas to connect the content of the classroom to the headlines in the news. Topics cover a range of foreign policy and international issues and their “Policy Options” briefs, lesson plans and excercises are available as free, downloadable pdfs. The policy briefs offer “divergent policy alternatives, each driven by different underlying values, each with merits and trade-offs.”
However, one must really dig through the site and the lesson plan summaries to find the Policy Option pdfs and the Scholar’s Online free offerings.
Analysis
What impressed me most about this site was the evidence of inclusion of a wide array of perspectives. The materials take no stance but offer fair and balanced perspectives of the issues and events they explore, presenting compelling arguments for divergent policy stances.
Unfortunately without a subscription, other than the "Teaching with the News" units, I could not examine the specific lesson plans, teacher’s handbooks and other materials that are not available free on the Web site. There is no real explanation why the "Teaching with the News" units are free - I suspect that they are not as in-depth as the rest of the units. The extensive curricular materials that are available offer interested educators a “taste” of the resources only. That said, I found their available resources to be unparalleled in terms of their ability to explore current issues and events in an accessible but sophisticated way that will engage and challenge students.
However, their Web site leaves much to be desired. Unless one was familiar with the reputation of the Choices curriculum and/or program offerings, little about this site would one in. Unlike the other two sites I have considered, the core resources are not free.
The priority of the site is clearly to sell the curricular materials, however the issues they cover are comprehensive and extremely current and the quality of the materials is truly excellent. The financial cost associated with keeping such breadth of resources current and meaningful is not insignificant, however, given the resources of the Watson Institute and
The Choices format may be replicable in public library and community center contexts. So, for me this site raises the issue of importing a challenging model, one entirely based in traditional school learning, into an informal education context. Generally I agree with Cole's view on the somewhat superficial nature of the imprinting of instructional discourse on learners: “when the question becomes difficult, even educated adults…fall back on everyday knowledge and modes of interpretation.” In the context of the program I would like to create, although continued cognitive development in adults is certainly a potential benefit, the “distinctive features of the microenvironment of schooling” (p. 105) associated with these program models could present a barrier to potential participants. Free public programs attract a wide spectrum of literacies, education levels, cultural background, ages and learning experience. And adult “students” in these programs are there by choice, because they want to learn. Generally speaking the instructional discourse mode of teaching is not appropriate (p. 105), and a learning environment that welcomes multiple world views is critical. Happily, the Choices materials that I reviewed go far beyond instructional discourse and are sure to engender in-depth discussion, independent thinking, contribution and analysis.
In order to move forward with a Choices program for public audiences, I would need to review the core curriculumin depth and adapt it somewhat from a teacher's to a facilitator's perspective. Again, here I would plan to integrate Gutierrez and Rogoff's best practices.
I hope that these types of informal education programs for adult audiences provide what Cole referred to as ‘contexts of use” that will polish up any “tools of intellect” that have fallen into disuse. Based on my observations, he would be gratified at the speed with which all levels of learners sharpen their tools.
Works Cited:
Cole, M. (1990). Cognitive development and formal schooling: The evidence from cross-cultural research. In L. C. Moll (ed.), Vygotsky and Education.
Gutierrez, Kris D., and Barbara Rogoff, "Cultural Ways of Learning: Individual Traits or Repertoires of Practice." Educational Researcher 32 (2003): 19-25
FrontlineWorld makes current issues, events and global perspectives, via journalistic film documentary, accessible in classrooms and other settings. I work with out of school adult populations and am looking for balanced documentary and literary content that will engender meaningful discussion of issues. I am looking at this site with the eventual goal of developing a scholar or educator facilitated viewing and discussion series on global cultural issues.
In thinking about some of the ways in which Guitierrez and Rogoff recommended looking at cultural communities (pgs. 22, 23) , the array of global documentary content offered by the FrontlineWorld site struck me as relevant portrayals of a wide varieties of “coordinated group(s) of people with some traditions and understandings in common, extending across several generations, with varied roles and practices and continual change” (p. 22)
FrontlineWorld’s educator’s site offers teachers the opportunity to:
- Illustrate parallels between current and historical events.
- Introduce your class to the sights, sounds and pulse of foreign countries. Engage your students as global citizens in an interdependent world.
- Build knowledge, critical thinking and group skills.
- Provide context for important issues facing the world.
The site thematically assembles many of their documentary shorts (most are 20 minutes), pairing the video content and extensive video specific site with suggested resources specifically developed for educators. These include lesson activities, cross-curricular exercises, and related reading lists. Consider the thematic example, “The Role of Women in the United States and Kenya, ” which features the documentary “Kenya: Run Lorna Run,” related interviews and documentary specific content, including a game, and related readings lists on the roles of women and suggested activities.
While the FrontlineWorld educator’s site has valuable resources, the priority is clearly presentation of the PBS product – FrontlineWorld documentaries. Frontline is the journalistic gold standard for broadcast documentary today and the content and the creation of the FrontlineWorld “two or three "short stories" told by a diverse group of reporters and video journalists” demonstrates a specific commitment to raising awareness of global perspectives in the United States. The FrontlineWorld Web site has separated the broadcast programs into discrete 20-30 minute video stories which are perfect length for both classroom and public viewing and discussion format.
The films and their supporting sites are clearly the main draw of the site and the educators section, although somewhat useful, appears to be an afterthought. The films are clearly categorized by content, so the cross-curricular activity associated with the film about Kenyan women runners is actually about prenatal care in
Clearly the Kenyan film and share the “women’s issues” tag. Also the related literature list is themed “Role of Women” and although it is a decent cross cultural list of readings dealing with the role of women, it has no direct connection with the very compelling Kenyan story and there are no Kenyan readings on it. A far better resource on Kenyan-related topics is the video site itself, however that site contains no related reading lists.
Although there is a “react to this story” link, the forum for the
Overall, the video content and the related web site are an excellent resource for educators looking for up-to-date and socially relevant global materials for viewing and discussion. I think that educators will need to tailor their own activities and discussion questions to their classroom, just as I plan to develop of resource guides for discussion of some FrontlineWorld programs in public libraries.
It's worth noting that the educator’s resources have been developed by consultants who are teachers and clearly demonstrate sensitivity to the intersection of culture and the classroom. Notable among the FAQ’s on the educator’s site is the first FAQ - What are some ways to ensure that classroom discussions of race and culture are respectful and productive? However, the site would be enriched by additional resource development, creation of more video specific lesson suggestions, discussion questions and cross curricular activities as well as a place for students to voice their opinions and feedback online.
AnalysisAfter years of dealing with out-of-school learners, I have observed the validity of the point Oakes raised about the fusion between social settings and mental processes and its alignment with “Dewey’s notion that children learn as they participate in social settings – not as they interact with knowledge but as they interact with their culture’s use of knowledge.” (p. 82) I find this to be true to some extent with adult learners as well. Cultural use of knowledge, or applicability seems to be a driving force. That notion is at the core of the viewing and discussion model of programs that I feel can be supported with the FrontlineWorld content.
Although I feel that their educator’s site has some valuable resources (discussed above), I am more interested in the documentaries films and the film specific site resources. I plan to use these as the framework to develop a facilitated viewing and discussion series for adult audiences.
For adults who will commit to participation in a five part viewing and discussion series on “global culture,” the viewing content must be engaging, the points of entry into their “culture’s use of knowledge” readily accessible, and the discussion must be facilitated in a way that engenders participation and critical discussion.
The curricular components to this series I would develop would in some ways mirror the offerings of the FrontlineWorld Educators site:
o To avoid making overly general statements
o To ground cultural observations in the historical, dynamic processes of communities, labels that refer to research participants can be treated not as categories but as narrative descriptors of the participants’ backgrounds (e.g., middle class, Catholic, farming, of Armenian heritage, in California, immigrated to escape massacre, two generations ago).
o To examine how aspects of participants’ community background cluster and how they change … focus on the dynamically changing configuration of relevant aspects of people’s lives.”
o To avoid over generalizing, statements based on single observations should be made very cautiously; The aim is to ground observations across multiple settings and communities and to assume various vantage points to understand the complexity of human activity. (p 23)
Works cited:Gutierrez, Kris D., and Barbara Rogoff, "Cultural Ways of Learning: Individual Traits or Repertoires of Practice." Educational Researcher 32 (2003): 19-25
the Humanities in partnership with the National Trust for the Humanities, and the Verizon Foundation's Thinkfinity.org. This educational partnership brings online humanities resources from some of the world's great museums, libraries, cultural institutions, and universities directly to your classroom.http://edsitement.neh.gov/tab_lesson.asp?subcategory=39&grade=9-12&Display=Display
The Choices for the 21st Century Education Program is a national education initiative based at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies.
Choices mission statement: All Choices programs engage students in exploration of complex international issues—both past and present—from multiple perspectives. Our resources and programs bring ground breaking research on critical turning points in history and pressing issues of today to secondary classrooms. In order to ensure high quality, balanced, and accurate materials and programs, Choices draws on the content expertise of scholars at the Watson Institute, Brown University, and a range of other universities and research institutions.
Your task is twofold:
(1) Examine your websites with a critical eye, using the various lenses of the course readings as your tools. Your analysis should address the following questions: What are the implicit models of learning employed by the site? What are the learning goals that the site is geared toward? What seems to be the model of culture put forth? How does the site account for the intersection of culture and schooling? You are not limited to these questions, obviously, and some may be more relevant than others, depending on the sites you choose. Add your own critical criteria based on the readings and accompanying course discussions.
(2) Develop some ideas for how you might use one of the websites in your teaching. (Note that this means you have to find at least one resource you actually like.)
The “paper” is actually a series of blog entries that you will create on your own blog. You will write up an analysis of the websites, cite literature from the course readings (no outside references are required), and link directly to those pages on the websites where want to direct your readers’ attention. You can also include some images in your blog entries. The length of your blog text for the “paper” should be 1200-1600 words (approximately 5-7 double-spaced pages in a word processor).
