Collaborating to Broaden Understanding: An Article From Technology and Learning Magazine

This is an article from the September 1996 edition of Technology and Learning about the on-line activities of George Cassutto. Here you will find a description of 9th grade interdisciplinary activities and AP US History Page.

The ninth-graders in George Cassutto's government class at North Hagerstown High School in rural Hagerstown, Maryland, were not particularly computer-savvy, but they were fascinated by the point-and-click information access on the Internet. To build on their interest, Cassutto began with an e-mail social issues essay exchange, in which he asked scholars to give the students feedback over the Internet on essays they had written about topics such as the presidency and propaganda.

The success of this classroom endeavor led to the creation of a school-based Web site in 1995. Since then, several other schools have accepted the "Call for Participation" to publish on the site.

What kind of online exchanges take [took] place at http://www.fred.net/nhhs/nhhs.html? One recent project was called Prejudice Reduction Through Global Telecommunications. It was designed "on the basic concept that if we get to know each other, we can bridge the many miles that separate us," explains Cassutto. Included were a range of interesting topics, from On the Road Again, a data collection research project about the government, history, economy, and environment of the 50 states and other nations to The Beast Within: A Study of the Holocaust.

In the Holocaust pages students discuss the causes of the event; write essays comparing authoritarian government to democracy; and express their emotions and opinions in poetry, artwork, and short stories. Cassutto leads by example, including a moving personal essay on his own parents and their experiences in Europe during the Holocaust.

In Cassutto's class, students work in small groups, sharing the five computers in the room to do their word processing and text editing. Some are learning how to develop HTML documents to post to the Web site. They get responses and feedback from peers and scholars all over the world.

Cassutto observes that through the exchange of cultural data, his "students have become enlightened and aware of the global village in which they live...reducing ignorance and prejudice regarding their fellow human beings."

Arli Quesada is a freelance author who writes about technology and education.
 
 

Reprinted with permission, TECHNOLOGY & LEARNING SEPTEMBER, 1996