For the last month, Mr Weber's grade 12 English students have been breaking down the traditional borders of their classroom to drive their thinking as far south from North Vancouver as Scottsdale, Arizona. 60 teachers and students from both Carson Graham and Chaparral High School agreed to participate in “1984 Wiki- A Student Centred Online Learning Community & Totalitarian Resource for all Thoughts Orwell”.
As the title suggests, I intended this project to be a student centered learning community where two groups of young adult minds from different countries would use technology safely and effectively as a learning tool. I hoped that together, they would each come to find that their perspectives and ideas, while different, might be equally valid. As the classes study Orwell’s work in their respective schools, the students spend their own time extending their thinking and thus their learning by posting and responding to relative topics, “enabling them to develop, organize, articulate and debate ideas within a local and international community of their peers.” (Herb Weber, English 12 teacher, Carson Graham).
It is clear through the quality of their ideas, the depth of inquiry in which they are engaging, and the word on the street that this wiki is a success.
Love the Library!
