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Education in the 21st Century
Teacher's Student Activities
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MIDDLE SCHOOL
The Future
Social studies
English, Math, Technology Education, Visual Arts.
Students will:
- gather, analyze, and use information from a variety of sources on addressing a specific
problem;
- select and use appropriate materials; and
- draw inferences and conclusions.
A study of Jules Verne's novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea would provide an
interesting historical perspective of the issues of futurism. Author, Ursala Leguin would
provide an excellent source for contemporary models.
The future is a favorite topic for speculation. Prior to viewing the ATV video tape, lead
your class through an examination of three visions of the future home:
- "There Will Come Soft Rains," a short story by Ray Bradbury
- "The Jetsons" animated TV series
- Bill Gates' home, companion CD to The Road Ahead
As a class, develop a mindmap comparison and contrast of these homes. Note the year
each vision was created. How are these homes similar? Different?
How are the people who live in these houses affected or changed by technology? Is
education a concern with each vision of the future home?
How is communication built into the home? What are the benefits? What are the dangers?
What role does household income play? What ideas from each home should be kept? What
ideas should be eliminated? What should be added?
Divide the class into cooperative learning groups. Assign each group to write/design a
prototype of an interactive electronic agent/robot as a teaching assistant for the home or
classroom. It could be the "Virtual Socrates" mentioned in the video. Or the personality
could be based on any of a variety of historical figures: Benjamin Franklin, Jules Verne,
Thomas Edison, or Eleanor Roosevelt.
Possible questions/issues each group could address:
- To what extent should the digital agent/robot help/work for the human "master?"
- What kinds of information should the agent/robot be programmed to collect?
- Where do the human responsibilities and the agent/robot's responsibilities begin and end?
- What physical shape/appearance should the agent/robot take?
- Humanoid? Disembodied voice? Computer screen?
- What personality should the agent/robot have? Why?
Group reports could be simple or complex:
Each group could present and explain a "poster" of the main ideas generated in discussion.
Groups could present a 3-D mock up or drawings of the agent/robot. Depending on the
technology available, groups could give multi-media reports.
Groups could produce written reports on a variety of topics: the historical model for the
virtual agent, robotics, or the social impact of technology.
Use the rubric at the end of this curriculum for assessment.
DIGITAL TIME CAPSULE: An Interdisciplinary Thematic Unit.
HIGH SCHOOL
The Evolution of Media
English
History, Technology Education, Visual Art
Students will:
- construct meaning, elaborate and respond to a variety of materials;
- write in a variety of modes and purposes to a variety of audiences;
- communicate ideas in an organized manner; and
- utilize historical perspective for decision making.
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris looks at three generations of women in a
Native American family living in contemporary Montana.
Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club examines intergenerational and cultural conflict in a
Chinese American family living in San Francisco.
INTRODUCTION: The following thematic unit has been written with four assignments
addressed to an individual student. But the project can be adjusted to work with
cooperative learning groups or with the entire class. Not all students will have access to
information about their family history. It will be important to establish an atmosphere in
the class that encourages the imaginative creation of both the past and the future.
I. What do you know (or what can be imagined) about your great-grandparents? Where and
in what historical context did they live? What can you find out about their education,
family, jobs, art interests, goals, expectations, and dreams?
ASSIGNMENT: If your great-grandparent could talk to you today, what would s/he want
to say? Would s/he offer advice or tell special stories about the family history? Write an
imagined letter from one of your great-grandparents to yourself.
II.What if you could respond to this imagined letter and communicate with your great-grandparents? What would they want to know? What would you tell them about yourself
and the modern world? What changes would s/he be pleased about? What changes would
s/he be unhappy about?
ASSIGNMENT: Compose a message to be sent in a time capsule to your great
grandparents. What medium will you use: letter, package, video, cassette tape, compact
disk, multimedia?
I.As presented in the ATV video, great changes are occurring in our society. Humans are
being given an opportunity to shape the future. How people learn, work, and communicate
will be quite different. However, there are important things to remember about the
present.
ASSIGNMENT: Design/create/collect/write an e-mail time capsule for your great
grandchild. Imagine that it will be embedded in a major electronic bulletin board system. It
will be encrypted so that only your great-grandchild will have access to the message.
II. A generation is approximately twenty years. What will the future be like? Imagine that in
60 years the problem of time travel/communication has been solved. The day after you
post your time capsule to your great-grandchild, s/he e mails you a response!
ASSIGNMENT: Design/create/collect/write an e-mail time capsule from your great-grandchild. The message from the future could contain a warning. What is it that society is doing today that could cause problems in sixty years? Or, what is it doing right?
CONCLUSION: All four assignments could be collected into a portfolio or mounted for a
display. Use the rubric at the end of this curriculum assessment.
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