13th November 2007

Planning for Human Rights Day Participation: Dec 10th

posted in blogs, ethics, globalvoices, web 2.0 |

We generally “observe” holidays in U.S. public schools, but we don’t often “participate” in them. Sure we have class parties and sometimes have different school-wide celebrations, but do those activities really constitute “participation” or “commemoration?” In the case of Veteran’s Day this week, some schools did invite veterans to come and speak at special events. Even better than passively listening to a presentation on a special day, however, is the chance to actively participate in the commemoration of a special day designated to draw attention to a specific issue, event, or cause. In the case of veteran experiences and the history they’ve lived, conducting an interview of a veteran and then sharing a digital story of the interview as part of the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project, or more locally our statewide Oklahoma World War II Stories project, is a recipe for a meaningful learning experience students and teachers won’t soon forget.

We’ve all probably heard about Veteran’s Day, but what about International Human Rights day, designated as December 10th of each year?

Alice Mercer has created a Pageflakes portal for Human Rights Day, which is coming up in a month. Alice is calling on educators and learners around the globe to get involved, tagging posts humanrightsday2007.

The discussion on the Women of Web 2.0 webcast this evening about citizen journalism and the work of Beth Kanter for Global Voices Online, in Cambodia empowering people to blog there, and elsewhere was really eye opening. The discussion about the need to design webpages and websites for fast loading on slow Internet connections reminded me of Liz Kolb’s great preso for K12online07, “Cell Phones for Learning.” If you design your content for a cell phone screen, you’re likely designing fast loading pages that are very accessible even for people on slower Internet connections. Winksite is a great tool Karen Montgomery told me about several months ago, which streamlines the process of developing a website friendly for cell phones and other mobile devices capable of accessing the Internet. Karen’s free workshop curriculum “Think Handhelds” is full of additional links relevant to the mobile web. I know I need to reduce the number of sidebar “extras” I have on my blog, to make it load faster for people with slower connections. Certainly RSS readers configured for mobile device access can help in that regard, but I think it’s important to keep “regular” websites as accessible and “friendly” from a downloading speed standpoint as possible.

Do you have plans for Human Rights Day on December 10th? Let’s join Ms. Mercer and many others in not just acknowledging the day and what it represents, but PARTICIPATING and actually getting involved!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 at 10:45 pm and is filed under blogs, ethics, globalvoices, web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

There are currently 3 responses to “Planning for Human Rights Day Participation: Dec 10th”

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  1. 1 On November 14th, 2007, Beth Kanter said:

    Hi,

    Thanks for the great notes here!

    I’m thinking about a wonderful young woman from Cambodia who is also a blogger. Her name is Sopheak and she works for the Human Rights Center in Cambodia. Here’s a post about her:
    http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2007/09/why-is-sopheap-.html
    http://www.blogher.org/meet-cambodian-blogher-sopheap-chak

    I bet you could do some sort of blog exchange with her.

    Anyway, I spent the weekend visiting my family, and my Dad who is 87 spoke at Veteran’s Day Celebration in my hometown. The school also ran an essay contest and the winners got to read their essays.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kidsorg/1972427669/in/set-72157603075867945/

  2. 2 On November 15th, 2007, Wesley Fryer said:

    Thanks for the links and idea, Beth! This is a great suggestion. Thanks also for sharing your experiences, perspectives, and passion via the WOW2 webcast last night. I REALLY learned a great deal and appreciated the chance to learn about your work. Aren’t we living in an amazing world? There is still a TON of suffering, corruption, exploitation, and other bad stuff going on… and perhaps that will always continue to a degree… but I think the opportunities that we all have to take action and make a difference in our own contexts, as well as to connect to others in meaningful ways that make a difference is truly unprecedented. Your work and your vision inspire me.

  3. 3 On November 16th, 2007, Beth Kanter said:

    Let me know if you want an intro to Sopheak.

    My dream is to go back to Cambodia and help develop a Web2.0 in the Classroom curriculum guide - or more like a project guide. To really think through how to adapt web2.0/social media student projects for low bandwidth countries like Cambodia.