Learning without Borders - revamped questions

July 23, 2007

Thanks for the feedback thus far, keep it coming!

As per a great suggestion, I revamped question 2 to be a bit more friendly in general. For one, it didn’t allow much answering from students inside the western culture so mentioned.

So here is the revamped version and a choice depending on where students are located…

How is culture being affected by the United States of America? (for schools outside the USA)
How is culture being affected by other countries (choose a country or region)? (for schools inside the USA)

Next question, should I add the word your?

As in, How is your culture being affected?

Or is that far too relative, should it be, How is your region’s culture being affected?

Curious. A good question is worth so much, isn’t it? Yay UbD!

Category Posted in International Project

2 Responses to “Learning without Borders - revamped questions”

Matt said:

July 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 pm

I like the adjustments you have made. Yes, “your” is tricky because it is so relative. To adequately answer it requires defining the term per individual (my culture as a ________ teen, American, ethnicity within America, male, female, etc).

I like “How is your region’s culture being affected?” because that helps define the term up front and shows students that their own, local culture is being impacted by larger pressures just as other countries are.
AllanahK said:

July 23rd, 2007 at 4:51 pm

What about changing the maybe your to OUR- be inclusive.

How is OUR culture being affected by other countries (choose a country or region)? (for schools inside the USA)

I don’t know what age group you teach but I did a similar thing for my 8-9 year olds some time ago and they found it very difficult to identify what their culture was. You really need something to relate it to- if you have only ever lived inside your own culture it is hard to qualify what you do that is just yours an not other cultures.

Children needed to understand that McDonalds and Burger King were not actually New Zealand icons before they could identify some of the things that were part of OUR culture!!!!