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NOTE: A great number of the
assignments and exercises outlined in the High
School/College section of this site can be applied in
Middle School courses as well. Be sure to check that
section for additional ideas of use in many
disciplines.
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Hot-Issues
assignment: Assign students to select a topic and
search for and compile the best quotes about it in
the section of the Imagining the Internet site titled
"The Early '90s Predictions Database."
The topic categories include such things as
copyright, anonymity, censorship, crime, privacy,
information overload, e-commerce, virtual reality and
many others, and they can be found in the pull-down
menus at:
http://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/early90s/search.xhtml
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Have students quote 10 to 15
of the best past predictions on the selected
topic and note why they chose them and what they
think about them. Have them focus on any
moral/ethical implications and the future.
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Every technological
breakthrough has its pros and cons. You can teach
this by dividing your class in half and leading a
spirited debate on the good and bad sides of the
internet. Ask one team to make a list of all of
the good aspects of the internet and ask the
other to come up with a list of negatives.
Examples: we can shop from the comfort of home;
share our writing, photos and videos with anyone
anywhere in the world for free; play in fantasy
sports leagues and compete in multi-player games
with people from every nation; VERSUS the fact
that people can easily steal and make unlimited
digital copies of a person's copyrighted
music, writing and other creations; terrorists
and criminals can use the internet to plan
attacks and commit crimes; people are sharing
dangerous information (bomb-making instructions
and how to commit suicide) and pornography,
etc.
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Copyright/Fair Use
assignment: Ask
students to write about the importance of copyright
in today's digital, file-swapping society.
Encourage use of the Imagining the Internet
Predictions Database to find what internet
stakeholders and skeptics have said in arguing this
issue. Many interesting statements on this topic can
be found by using "copyright" as a search
term on the Imagining the Internet page:
http://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/early90s/search.xhtml
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This is also a good chance
to discuss other ethical issues (privacy,
surveillance, anonymity, free speech, etc.). A
list of these controversial topics can easily be
found by using the pull-down menus under
"Subtopic" under the "Advanced
Search" headline http://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/early90s/search.xhtml
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One good way to explore
interesting social and political issues is in an
essay assignment. Students can study a particular
controversial topic and then write a 300-word
essay in support of one side or
another.
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PSAT
Practice: Writing skills are a key component of
both the PSAT and SAT tests. Another way in which
students can use materials on the Imagining the
Internet site to buoy their writing skills is to have
them to write a well-supported short essay on the
future; you can suggest that those students who offer
the best ideas, best writing and best foresight will
have their work submitted to the "Voices of the
People" section of the Imagining the Internet
site. It's easy for you or your students to send
your prediction submissions in just a few minutes by
using the online form found at:
http://www.elon.edu/predictions/SubmitYourVision.aspx
Try to limit submissions to only those that are
original and well-written. Help students carefully
edit their work before pushing the button to submit
each prediction.
You could also have students write an essay in
response to a list of select predictions. Two good
predictions lists are "20 Edgy-Incisive 90's
Predictions" and "20 Brief, Biting 90's
Predictions," found at:
http://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/early90s/edgyincisivepredictions.xhtml
http://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/early90s/briefbitingprediction.xhtml
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A Look Back
assignment: Middle school students should
understand the history of modern communications
technologies, and they should be able to use search
engines to find information. First, they should be
assigned to use the "Back 150 Years"
timeline section of the Imagining the Internet site
to read a briefing about key inventors and inventions
and select one technology to study. Next, students
should be asked to find at least three to five sites
on the internet to use as the additional basis for
their work and then assemble a brief research report,
poster talk and/or PowerPoint or Keynote presentation
about that selected technology and its influence on
social, economic and political structures of human
society. They should be required to include a section
with citations that document all of the sites they
used as resources.
http://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/150/
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A Look Ahead
assignment: Teachers can employ the "Forward
150 Years" timeline and its branching pages to
help students understand how the future may unfold.
This section of the Imagining the Internet site
offers a selection of the predictions that scientists
and other experts are sharing now about what is to
come in the decades ahead. You can assign students to
write a descriptive outline of the key expectations
for the future and accompany it with an essay in
which they speculate about what these developments
might mean for them and for their children in the
years ahead. What will a typical day be like in the
year 2030? What will our homes, businesses and tools
be like? Students can compile their work in a
research report, poster talk and/or PowerPoint or
Keynote presentation.
http://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/150/
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Researching the
Past: Assign
your students to select an internet visionary and
find and study a number of that person's
predictions about our future and write a thoughtful
response with his or her personal opinion about how
each of the predictions are unfolding and will turn
out in the future. Using the "Early
'90s" section
(http://www.elon.edu/predictions/advanced.aspx) of
the Imagining the Internet site and additional web
resources, each student can write a three-page paper,
put together a poster presentation or use PowerPoint,
Keynote or other presentation software to create a
piece of work that includes a number of predictions,
their reaction to them and the visionary's brief
biography. This can also be accomplished as a group
project. Many brief descriptive biographies for
students to begin with can be found at http://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/early90s/briefbiographies.xhtml.
Some examples, each with one sample quote
included:
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Vernor Vinge, scientist,
teacher and science-fiction author: "If we
ever succeed in making machines as smart as
humans, then it's only a small leap to
imagine that we would soon thereafter make
– or cause to be made – machines that
are even smarter than any human. And that's
it. That's the end of the human
era."
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R.U. Sirius (AKA Ken
Goffman), an editor of the magazine Mondo 2000
and social technology critic: "Who's
going to control all this technology? The
corporations, of course. And will that mean your
brain implant is going to come complete with a
corporate logo, and 20 percent of the time
you're going to be hearing
commercials?"
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Gordon Bell, computing
pioneer and internet prognosticator: "Since
we are all spending hours browsing, there will be
info-way addiction. And that's followed by
info-way regulations … And then, 4D so we
can do virtual reality."
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Dorothy Denning, expert on
issues of computer-security threats: "If
encryption comes into widespread use on the
information superhighway, this could seriously
jeopardize law enforcement and the public safety.
Encryption is also a threat to foreign
intelligence operations, and thus can affect
national security."
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George Gilder, futurist and
technology consultant; author of many books,
including "Telecosm" and "Life
After Television": "Neighborhood
children could gather in micro-schools run by
parents, churches, or other local institutions.
The competition of home schooling would either
destroy the public school system or force it to
become competitive with rival
systems."
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Esther Dyson, leading
technology consultant: "Chief among the new
rules is that 'content is free' ... The
way to become a leading content provider may be
to start by giving your content away. This
'generosity' isn't a moral decision:
It's a business strategy."
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Nicholas Negroponte of MIT,
longtime Wired magazine columnist: "When you
come home, before you take off your coat, your
shoes can talk to the carpet in preparation for
delivery of the day's personalized news to
your glasses."
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William Mitchell of MIT,
author of the prescient book "City of
Bits" (available free online and a great
discussion tool): "Buildings will become
computer interfaces and computer interfaces will
become buildings … We are all cyborgs now.
Architects and urban designers of the digital era
must begin by reauthorizing the body in
space."
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Tim Berners-Lee, developer
of the World Wide Web: "I had (and still
have) a dream that the Web could be less of a
television channel and more of an interactive sea
of shared knowledge. I imagine it immersing us as
a warm, friendly environment made of the things
we and our friends have seen, heard, believe or
have figured out."
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John Perry Barlow, expert on
people's rights in the info age and lyricist
for the Grateful Dead: "When cryptography is
outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir
cevinpl!"
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Bruce Sterling, Wired
magazine columnist and author: "Computers
are a challenge and a threat, and they're
changing our society in ways that we can't
control and don't understand. They're not
to be trusted."
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Clifford Stoll, an
astrophysicist, computer user and skeptic who
warns that there are negatives to the technology
revolution: "The heavily promoted
information infrastructure addresses few social
needs or business concerns. At the same time, it
directly threatens precious parts of our society,
including schools, libraries and social
institutions. No birds sing."
Teacher's Zone
Links:
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Additional Resources
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