Constructing a Textbook

For the last several years, I've had the students in my class set up an account with Google. This has been for two main reasons:

1.) It gives them access to Google docs which saves us tremendous
amounts of paper and lets us find whole new ways to collaborate on
creating information.

and

2.) It allows students to set up a set of feeds with iGoogle.

IGoogle is where we construct our social studies textbook. Throughout
the year, we generally become heavy users of RSS. One of the main goals
I have in my classroom is helping kids to understand the differences
between perspectives available to them around the globe and to begin to
understand how and where information is available to them. To start
that process off simply, I construct a tab with a few feeds on it which
I then share with each of the students in my class. This tab becomes
the seed of their textbook. Each year, I go through the process of
selecting the feeds which will begin their look at global information.
I search for things that give the students current events on diffeent
issues. I want these sources to be clear and coherent and I want them
to push students into new sources of information they are unfamiliar
with.

This year I've selected seven sources to start us off:

1.) CBC World News – This is the
first time I've chosen an "official" news source as beginning feed. The
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is a constantly updating source of
international news and events so it wil be a constant source of
information. As well, I've chosen it because later in the year I want
to give students feeds from other sources (the BBC? the global edition of the NY Times? CNN? Al Jazeera?) and I want them to be able to contrast the persepctive on news we get in Canada with that found in other parts of the world.

2.) Worldchanging.com -
Worldchanging was one of our seed sources for last year as well. I like
it's focus on environmental issues and on change. It gives students a
look at many stories they will get no where else.

3.) New Scientist – As a
global leader of breaking science news, New Scientist gives us access
to a lot of information. While a more challenging source of material
for students to read, I believe it is vital in our world that students
begin to understand the constant change and advancement that science is
undergoing and its impact on our world.

4.) Afrigadget – I believe
that in the West we get far too little news from Africa. Afrigadget
highlights African ingenuity and progress through beautifully
documenting different projects that individuals have underway. While
Afrigadget would not be considered a traditional news sources, I think
it is an inspiring and valuable read for students to have. Later in the
year, I would like to add Afrigator to the information sources we use
as it will provide us with more content, but this is a good beginning
point.

5.) World Photo of the Day from iGetty.com – I chose to include this
widget from iGoogle for two different reasons. First is that I would
like students to have something visual on their pages to catch their
attention and interest. Second is that I want the photos to be a point
of entry for students. I want them to look at a picture and then
question in their head where this place is or what is happening. I was
frankly disappointed in the "news" content that is available on iGoogle
that will include images directly on the page. I would have loved to
include the feed from the Big Picture blog for example, but do to the way the RSS is configured, pictures do not show up on the page, simply more text links.

6 and 7.) CBC Dispatches and BBC Documentary
podcasts – I am including links directly to audio files on their page
to begin this year to again inlcude more multimedia content. I have
been surprised how willing some students are to populate their ipods
with news content and suggested feeds you give them. Both of these
podcasts provide great weekly programs on international issues, news
that students will probably hear no where else. Others I considered
including were programs from PRI and NPR.

Once students have these feeds, I will also have them choose two feeds, one topic and one country, from Global Voices Online, giving them more international content.

As the year passes, we will add and subtract from this list depending
on what we are studying, but the model remains the same; I give them
some content to begin and then ask them to find, evaluate and choose
others. This model could be changed and refocused depending on what you
teach, If you only teach science for example, you could seed your
classroom with only feeds that are science related.

While school is still almost a month away for me, choosing these feeds
is a large step for me begining to think about my classroom opening up
again for the year.

Photo Credit: The Web that is us: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ecstaticist/1340787730/