Friday, August 8, 2008

Website Review #1

Globaleducation.edna.edu.au
Australia's Answer to Teaching Global Education

Intro:
Never judge a book by its cover.  Some books or in this case a website may look lacking on the surface; however, it is important to evaluate a book/website based on content.  While visiting globaleducation.edna.edu.  Though this particular website is plain or simple, it has a wealth of knowledge that can help teachers, students, or citizens of the world become informed on global issues ranging from HIV/AIDS, human rights, and water quality.  Globaleducation is also very open minded, in other words, it does not make assumptions or judgements, it is fact based and does not qualify people in certain limited categories.  In a wold that is rapidly changing, this website will help individuals become informed and better prepare themselves for the world around them.  

Positive:
While reviewing this website, one quickly notices it's ease of use. The 
website was designed with that particular issue in mind, giving students 
and teachers the ability to navigate the website with relative ease.  
Globaleducation also does a nice job of keeping culture and issues within perspective. For example, they never use words such as everyone or 
everything; instead they may say most or on average. Thus, they are 
allowing the users to understand that there are differences among the 
people or issues that one is studying. As Marjorie Faulstich Orellana and Phillip Bowman put it in Cultural Diversity Research on Learning and 
Development: Conceptual, Methodological, and Strategic Considerations, "Most researchers recognnize that all groups are internally 
differentiated." In other words, the website avoids "lumping" individuals together into problematic groups that may leave us with useless 
assumptions about people.

Negatives:
One glaring issue is the limited number of countries represented on the website.  Despite many updates over the last few weeks, the website still lacks having a sufficient number of countries on their page.  In my opinion, all countries need to have a presence on this type of website, giving the users access to all the information from all of the countries that they may find necessary.  It is hard for individuals to make comparisons based on their knowledge of specific countries; such as, the United States, if that country is not on the current list.  Also, the website is created for use within Australia and it's creators have that in mind.  You will notice that each global issue has a four part section, giving the facts, background, Australia's response, and links to other global websites dedicated to the issues.  Meaning that much of the global issue is viewed from the perspective of Australia, leaving users from other countries with more questions to answer.  However, the use of multiple sources does eliminate some of this problem.  


Use in the Classroom:
For me the globaleducation website could be used in a number of ways in my classroom.  Because I teach social studies, I could find useful information that would supplement my classroom topics.  Also, my students could use this website to do research, debate issues, and gather information they find pertinent to our classroom topics.  We discuss many of these issues located on this website throughout the year, this would be another resource for teachers, students, and parents alike.  Finally, in a classroom situation where we have trained students to be question and answer type of students, we have this resource available to us.  If we were to ask a question and expect a response, students could use this website to answer and gather further knowledge at the same time.  There are multiple correct answers to nearly any question; however, as teachers we are generally looking for one.  As Chavajay and Ragoff suggest, individuals that attend school, tend to interact with their children in a question/answer type of social activities that resemble school, meaning this takes place outside of school as well (pp. 56-57).   


Final Notes:
In my opinion, globaleducation is a well designed, useful, and factual website.  I find this website useful to teachers, students, and citizens of the world.  Thus, giving it the opportunity to reach as many people as possible, not limiting it's information to those paying to subscribe.  Yes, it looks a little plain on the surface; however, within it's links, you will find a plethora of valuable information that you can use for many different tasks.  

Works Cited:
Chavajay, P. & Rogoff, B.  (2002).  Schooling and Traditional Collaborative Social Organization of Problem Solving by Mayan Mothers and Children.  The American Psychological Association, Inc.  Developmental Psychology, Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 55-66.

Orellana, M.F., & Bowman, P. ( 2003).  Cultural Diversity Research on Learning and Development: Conceptual, Methodological, and Strategic Considerations.  Education Researcher, Vol. 32, No. 5, pp. 26-32.


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