EXAMPLE 1
Should immigration into the United States
be banned?
The Close Up Foundation Online
www.closeup.org/resource.htm
The Close Up Foundation
This
site is maitained by the "non-profit, nonpartisan" Close Up Foundation,
which states that they believe " that textbooks and lectures alone are
not enough to help students to understand the democratic process."
The site offers nine lessons for a civics course dealing with topics that
are both currently and historically relevant. The site offers links
to nine "civic documents" such as the United States Constitution and Martin
Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. The site also offers a link
to "Non-governmental and Private Sectors" that features major newspapers
and magazines, "Think Tanks," and "WatchDog Advocacy Groups." These
groups appear to be of all different ideologies. Specifically, the
site on U.S. Immigration Policy offers overviews of immigration policies
of the past and present. The site also offers statistics on immigration
policy. The teaching activity provided has students evaluate current
immigration policy in their own states after reviewing policies of the
past. The lesson is supported by links to the United States Government
agencies that deal with immigration concerns, "Outside Analysis" (special
interest groups representing different perspectives on the topic), "media"
links and "Historical Sources." This site offers well developed lessons.
However, its resources could be used in many ways to examine the many perspectives
surrounding the issue of immigration. For example, groups of students
might be assigned to role play the perspectives of various groups in a
mock Congressional hearing.
TYPE OF WEBSITE:
TEACHING RESOURCE, REFERENCE (TEXT)
EXAMPLE 2
Should European visitors to the New World be remembered as explorers or exploiters?
The European Voyages of Exploration:
The Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/HIST/tutor/eurvoya/index.html
The University of Calgary
The archive of
the Spanish and Portuguese explorers features photographs and recreations
of original text from the period including diary entries from explorers,
letters to and from royalty of the day, and maps before and after the explorations.
The best aspect of this website is its tutorial feature. This tutorial
includes color photos to enhance its historical content. Each stop
on the tutorial offers the viewing audience an opportunity to read and
see the history of exploration. A positive aspect of this tutorial
is a hyperlink function where the viewing audience can jump to supplemental
websites to gain information that adds additional historical context.
This website offers a great deal of potential for teachers to engage students
in examining primary documents, photographs, and maps in order to evaluate
the actions of the Spanish and Portuguese explorers. Students given
a data-retrieval-chart could easily navigate this website to analyze
the era of European exploration. A missing piece to the tutorial
is the lack of an online notebook that might be used while experiencing
the website.
TYPE OF WEBSITE:
STUDENT ACTIVITY, ARCHIVE (TEXT, IMAGES)
EXAMPLE 3
Housing and Consumer Law -
When should the federal government enact legislation that denies individuals' property rights?