Planning for Human Rights Day Participation: Dec 10th

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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humanrightsday2007, humanrights, education, schools, collaboration, activism

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On this day..

• Learning about Schoolwide WordPress Blogs with Andrea Hernandez – 2015
• Tough Creative Love: The Why and How of Creative Action – 2012
• Breakthrough Thinking by Peter Diamandis – 2012
• Encouraging Creativity in Education through Community & Technology – 2012
• Leading a Culture of Innovation by Sir Ken Robinson – 2012
• Creating Oral History Interview Videos on an iPod Touch – 2011
• iPad Doorprizes, Clearly Announced Conference Recording Permissions, & Ustreaming #micon – 2010
• Carl Anderson on Learning and the Purpose of School (video) – 2010
• Controversial Anti-Abortion Education Campaign at UNT – 2010
• Utilizing Social Media (in schools and for citizen journalism) #collab21 – 2010