Project+Overview


 * Question for Inquiry **

How can I have my students present their learning to a real world audience in order to make it an authentic anti-racist social justice experience?

I feel this would be level 4a of LoTi because while my students will be engaged in a real world exploration of social issues but I may have issues with sufficient access to computers and some of my students may have some difficulty posting their material due to lack of experience.


 * Why this interests me **

We have been learning about how denial and ignorance of social issues only serves to perpetrate those issues. We have been using an intensive study of genocide as an example of how intolerance can lead to unspeakable tragedy. When these tragedies are ignored or denied, they are destined to repeat themselves, as we have explored in our discussion of the numerous genocides that have occurred throughout history. One of the main objectives for this unit of study is for my students to learn that education is the key to preventing ignorance and this education can only come from openly talking about these issues. My students will be engaging in an inquiry about the history of a particular genocide of their choice and I feel that it is imperative that they have a public forum to share their learning, as this would be allowing them to speak out against racism, thus making one more step towards eradicating it.

Right now, I am planning to have my students present they findings of their inquiry on [|YouthVoices.net]. This is an online forum for youth as young as 11 or 12 to share their words, video, voices and images. One of the reasons I chose this forum because of it’s accessibility to other youth as opposed to our classroom blogs which are usually only read by each other. Another reason is because this site allows you to create a group of which I can be the administrator of. I also chose it because it allows the posting of text, video, voice and images in one post. This will allow my students to post support to their words.

I attended an online PD session on Youth Voices through EduCon on January 30, 2010 and but I still need to explore the site further, which is where I will begin my project.


 * UPDATE:** **After having trouble with Youth Voices approving my account application, I have had to change the format of my project. I will now be having the students contribute to a project** **wiki** **. The project will now include not only my class but the second grade 7/8 class at our school. We will also invite the Grade 5/6 class from Haultain School in Regina and the student's parents as well as numerous teachers from our school to view and contribute to their projects.**