Synthesis Paper 4

As we advance in technology and education, teachers need to be better prepared to help students learn about the changing world.  Technology is advancing every second which aids in expanding the education field altogether.  With this expansion, teachers will need to adapt to a new way of teaching, development and advancement.  The teachers have a responsibility to expose the present and future trends of the global world; issues and conflicts of human society.  Teachers must aid the students in learning about themselves, the society and how they fit into this society.  The webquest is the learning tool to address technology and the ever-changing global conflicts.  Through the webquest, students are able to learn about a given topic with many more options. They can do cooperative and collaborative team projects, data rich research and a platform to show and display all their work.  The webquest aids in learning technology as it covers all or almost all the available advanced methods of learning using technology. 

The ideas in the webquest are closely related to social justice issues around the globe.  It covers topics from every continent and almost all the different regions of the world.  The webquest makes learning interactive as much as you want it to be or independent as much as you want it to be.  Using webquest, students have access to cross cultural resources as well as opportunities to explore at any idea they choose.  The topics in webquest will help students to be more aware and tolerant as they may encounter first-hand experiences with different cultures.  Students will truely be global learners in a global age.  

The webquest is a channel for many opportunities.  My webquest asks the students to analyze what would have happened if technology and science was not present during their chosen topic or if it was present.  They have to synthesize why or how science and technology has or has not impacted their human rights conflict and how it could have been different if it was the other way.  For example, in the Vietnam war, how did technology and science play a role in the victory of the Vietcongs or how would it have been different if science and technology had played a role in the war.  For this example, students must first assess if science and technology was a factor and analyze the process of war.  In the case of the Cambodian genocide, Khmer Rouge, science and technology may have played a bigger role.  

The students will develop awareness of the global world as they learn about the different human rights issues and conflicts around the world.  The webquest essentially has cut "distance" in everything including physical, mental and emotional.  This means that everything- learning about other countries and interacting with people from other countries have become easier.   In the future, the whole world may be one- one education system and program.  Education may not be limited to just its own county and country but it may become global, the way technology, science, communication, transportation and trade has become.  In the future, poverty, human rights, peace, conflict, and disease will not be a regional problem but a global problem that everyone will need to fight together.  And this may be more evident starting in the classrooms.