Virtual Field Trip Reflection Blog

Virtual Field Trip Reflection Blog

For my virtual field trip, I concentrated on the idea of Internet Censorship and Freedom.    I chose to focus on this area as most students really don't understand the fact that in countries outside of the United States, the Internet is filtered, or censored, to some extent by the government of that country.  In some countries, the censorship is probably not too bad, but in other countries, the censorship is definitely extreme and the punishment for doing something illegal could result in jail time if not even death!

The instructional goals of my field trip would include:

• The students will learn some of the differences in how Internet is filtered in various countries.
• The students will learn how violators viewing unacceptable information in countries where the Internet is filtered/partially banned are punished.
• The students will gain an appreciation of having uncensored Internet access in the USA versus the censored access that exists in so many other countries.
• The students will be able to identify countries that have filtered Internet and how that Internet is filtered.
• The students will be able to define what censored or filtered Internet means and give examples as well.

As a result of these goals, students will be focusing on the development of the respectful and ethical minds.  As a reminder, Gardner states that the respectful mind "notes and welcomes differences between human individuals and between human groups, tries to understand these others and seeks to work effectively with them." (Gardner, 2006, p. 3)  The ethical mind "ponders the nature of one's work and the needs and desires of the society in which one lives." (Gardner, 2006, p. 3)  So, as a result of taking this virtual field trip, the students will doing the following:

• Learning and appreciating the fact that there are differences in societies in terms of the kind of Internet available to them as well as the kinds of information that is filtered.
• Learning about the different kinds of governments and how their power to affect what is acceptable and viewed on the Internet in different societies varies greatly.
• Learning that different societies have different kinds of information that they deem acceptable and thus, as a result, the different governments desire to filter what their citizens can and cannot see.
• Understanding why these differences in Internet content availability need to exist in different groups and societies based upon their differing beliefs.
• Realizing that if they would be a visitor in a country with censored Internet that they, too, would be required to abide by the rules and regulations of that country while still a visitor in it.

By presenting this above awareness to our students, they would grow in their respectful mind and ethical mind as they would be understanding different groups and societies as well as growing as an individual and citizen of their country, culture and society.

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References:

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

The virtual field trip references can be found online in this document.