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- LET'S EXCHANGE FOLK SONGS
-
- It is unfortunate but true to admit that there are some countries in
- the world that are associated in the mind of young people of American
- with apprehension. Walls of fear have fallen down on the young
- people of America and of these countries alike. And the fear that is
- perpetuated by default ends in utter ignorance of each other culture,
- art, music and overall form of cultural identity.
- The application calls for the exchange of folk songs from one (or more)
- of these countries. The educational objective is to learn a little bit
- about the culture that is behind it, the origin of this song, what does it
- represent to the people who sing it and for what social event is it
- used?. I leave the context of the grade level to the choice of the
- teachers who choose to use it. The objective of this application is to
- call the attention of kids along the boarder of fear and ignorance to
- the other dimensions of love, art and music that exist in the other
- countries.
-
- This application relies on two Internet resources; electronic mail and a
- discussion group and the assumption that students have the
- knowledge of how to use these services. The application also calls on
- teachers of cultural studies across the border to use it within the context
- of one of their cultural study section.
-
- The educational learning goals of this application are:
- 1) to expose young people across the boarder to the cultural
- manifestation of other civilization through folk literature.
- 2) to develop a sense of bonding with kids of other countries.
- 3) to introduce the students to the new forum of learning and
- communication through the new form of telecomputing.
-
- Steps in implementing this application:
-
- 1) The teachers and students across the boarder must identify the
- themes for the exchanged songs.
- 2) The choice of the songs is left to the students who will choose
- several candidate songs, compile their lyrics and uploaded them across
- the network for each group to chose from. (Extra work is expected
- from the non-English speaking students and their teachers to translate
- their candidate songs into English).
- 3) When the choice of songs is made, the students will be divided into
- two groups, the first will write a short essay about the historical and
- cultural background of the song they chose and the second will write
- the story that is woven into the song. In each group across the
- boarder two students will be teamed together.
- 4) E-mail messages will be exchanged between the students of
- corresponding team who can communicate with each others before
- they upload their essays across the networks for approval of content
- and accuracy of tale.
- 5) In the discussion group students are expected to post their views,
- opinion and reactions to the songs.
-
- The progress of the students can be evaluated based on the research
- students do, the final essays they write and perhaps a new dimension
- of an experience of cultural conversion made possible by networking
- facilities and services.