Welcome to the Culture Project!
At the Microsoft Innovative Education Forum a project examining how culture defines a person was developed by a team of educators from Canada, Thailand, Germany, Bulgaria, and Serbia. Our students will work on the project described below to develop a sense of culture.
Images of Culture Using Deep Zoom and Autocollage
Problem: In an ever increasing technological world, we have more access to information and the ability to communicate with others around the globe. As a result, we need to have a strong understanding of other cultures in order to appreciate and accept the similarities and differences between us. We also need to have a strong sense of our own culture in order to be able to teach others and to avoid stereotyping cultures into different categories.
Essential Question:
How does culture define a person?
Objectives:
The students will:
- define what culture is
- understand the many different characteristics make up a culture
- develop a strong sense of their own cultural identity
- appreciate global cultural diversity
- understand the negative effects of stereotypes
- share and discuss photos and stories relating to culture with students in other countries.
Student Activities:
- Using websites such as National Geographic, have students study and analyze photos of different cultures. Develop a definition of culture through brainstorming using programs such as Inspiration, Mind Manager, or http:\\bubbl.us. Students should be able to understand that culture includes language, religion, food, dress, greetings, architecture, landscapes, etc.
- Students will blog with other students around the world using iefculture.edublogs.org. Students will discuss aspects of their daily lives with others and ask questions regarding the daily lives of others. This will allow students to start to develop the idea that we are all different and to appreciate these differences.
- Students will discuss in small groups and as a class stereotypes of their own culture (ie. Canadians all love hockey and live in igloos) and reflect on how that can negatively impact the global community.
- Photo/song assignment: in small groups, students will take photos of the different characteristics of their culture. Each group will be responsible for one characteristic (ie. Food, landscapes, clothing, etc) Students responsible for music can create a song (national anthem, lullaby, etc) with Songsmith. Students then need to choose one or of the photos that bests represents their culture for that characteristic. Through a class discussion, photos are shared and inserted into AutoCollage to create collections of their culture. The song can be embedded into the Deep Zoom Project.
- Culminating Activity: Students will develop a Deep Zoom project that depicts their culture to share with others around the world and in return learn about other cultures. The project will start in one country and then be sent to the next participating country to continue to add information. Students will have the opportunity to learn about the culture of others as well as share their own culture. Once the project has reached the final country, they will export the project as a JPEG to post on the internet for all participating countries to see.
Identify Resources:
- websites such National Geographic
- edublogs.org
- Songsmith
- AutoCollage
- Deep Zoom
