Blog on Respectful and Ethical Minds

Blog on Respectful and Ethical Minds

According to Gardner, the respectful mind “notes and welcomes differences between human individuals and between human groups, and tries to understand these others, and seeks to work effectively with them” (Gardner, 2006, p. 3) while the ethical mind “ponders the nature of one’s work and the needs and desires of the society in which one lives in” (p. 3).  When you take those two definitions into consideration with the kinds of projects that are described in the Julene Reed article on Global Collaboration and Learning, digital media could easily play a part in the educational process.  As mentioned in the article, “Knowledge of other cultures around the world leads students to understanding and compassion.  That, in turn, creates students who take action to make a difference in resolving problems and changing the world to be a better place.”  (Reed, 2007, p. 1)  So how can one integrate digital media into a project, activity or lesson that accomplishes this?

Via the use of a Web 2.0 site such as Animoto, students here in the USA could go ahead and create a video documenting what his/her typical school day would be like.  How does it start?  What is it like getting to school (bus, walk, taken by personal vehicle?)  How do they store/carry their materials at school?  What is a typical class period like?  What is lunch like?  Do you take a class such as physical education?  If so what is it like?  How does the school day end?  Do you go home right away or do you stay at school for extra activities?  Do you usually have homework?  If so, when/where/how long do you spend doing it each night?  If you have quizzes/tests, how do you study/prepare for them?  What do you do on the weekends for school?  What are your summers like?  Do you do anything school-related during the summer?  Snippets of each of these could be recorded using a Flip camera or other recording device and compiled into the documentary with titles being used to separate each component so that the students you are sharing with in the other country could know what each part was about.

If there is something that is deemed inappropriate or unacceptable or would never be tolerated in the country where the students are at that you are sharing with, you could take that into consideration when compiling the video and either not include that in the final product or compare it to how the same thing is handled in the other country you are sharing the video with.  That way it is clear that you are taking into consideration the ways, traditions and feelings of the individuals from the other country.  This information could easily be researched via the Internet by visiting websites and by watching videos that have been produced on the traditions and cultures of the foreign country in question.  It would also show to others that they care about other cultures and how what we do as Americans in the educational system could easy affect or be affected by foreign educational systems hence fulfilling responsibilities we have as an American citizen in our educational system.

Another thing that could be done when making the video is to take all of the same questions from two paragraphs above, do the research online about all of the same topics in the educational system of the country you are planning on corresponding with and do your best to put together the same kind of video that would be a ‘Day in the Life for a student in South America’ (or whatever the country is you are dealing with.)  This would show compassion and caring for the citizens of that country, show that you recognize and accept the fact that there are differences in societies and are willing to work within the confines of that society to make an accurate video depicting their typical day as well as accept the fact that the individual from the foreign country has a list of appropriate actions that that they are responsible and expected to follow in order to act appropriately in their culture.

So, once you have this all put together, you can then use the Animoto site to do the actual video compilation and creation.  Once you have your final product, you can then send it on to the students in the other country.

References:

Gardner, H. (2006). Five minds for the future. Harvard Business School Press. Boston, Massachusetts.

Reed, J. (2007). Global collaboration and learning. Retrieved November 27, 2012 from http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2007/09/global-collaboration-and-learning.