Web pulls world into classroom

Blogs, video-sharing websites, and social-networking sites give students the opportunity to tune their thinking and writing to a larger audience.

from the September 10, 2007 edition

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In several profound ways, the classroom is no longer a pedagogical "black box." The powerful features of the Internet are even starting to enrich conversations in real time.

When Michael Richardson and Don Imus slip up, the following day there are teachers around the country ready to pounce. Imagine an English teacher leading a discussion on race relations and racial-identity development in the context of Ralph Ellison's classic novel "Invisible Man." Imagine the same teacher in a room with an Internet connection. There is nothing like the Web and a video-sharing site, such as YouTube, to make the invisible visible and immediately relevant.

The possibilities are endless.

During discussions of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel "The Great Gatsby" last year, I took my class to the computer lab and sent them on a scavenger hunt. Twenty minutes later, we were all watching video clips of Model T Fords bumping across dusty roads, a couple engaged in a dance called the Charleston, and a ruddy modern-day man giving a tour of a speakeasy that he had found in his basement.

Some of my teaching peers in the foreign-language department are using YouTube to locate advertisements and music videos in the target language, thereby fostering language acquisition. Another teacher – in concert with teachers in Canada and France – has even led her students to produce a video (in French) about our school and post it on YouTube.

PowerPoint presentations will never look the same. Matt Domenick, an 11th grader from Philadelphia, explains: "On my 'elections project' in history I used YouTube to show a recent political debate, furthering my peers' understanding of the electoral race. Most students love to watch movie clips instead of the primitive listening we do in class. I would rather use new technology. Wouldn't you?"

I didn't know that "primitive listening" was what I sometimes perpetuate as a teacher, but I get the picture – literally.

What will my students be able to do next year with the help of new technology? How about five years from now? Who wants to be the brontosaurus of the classroom? Not this T-rex!

Mark Franek is the outgoing dean of students and an English teacher at the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia. He is currently teaching composition at Philadelphia University.

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