David Black posted on October 05, 2009 22:18
Today I worked with my 7th grade World Civilizations class on an activity designed to connect their thoughts about the decline of the Roman Empire with what they see happening within our country today. As a result, the class designed a short survey to gauge the thoughts of others on this topic. While I am proud of the thought they put into this survey as the collaborated together, what amazed me is the value of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) in engaging others to complete this survey.
I intentionally invited a few professional educators in my PLN whom I follow on Twitter, including a few people I have never met. Before long we were receiving responses from all over the nation and from three other countries, and that in just the first 12 hours since the survey was open. My daughter, who is in this 7th grade class, is amazed that so many people from different places would care enough to take a survey created by 7th graders. It is clear that this experience has already empowered her to understand that her ideas matter.
The next challenge will be to lead the class in a process for interpreting and reporting the data they are collecting. Stay tuned for the next step in this adventure.