Diversity, Cultural Understanding, Global Awareness

     Technology can be used to model and promote diversity, cultural understanding, and global awareness in many ways. It enables students to collaborate with students locally and globally. It allows students to hear a multitude of views and learn about cultures throughout the world. Teachers can model these attributes and values by providing students the opportunities mentioned previously and by seeking to broaden their own cultural understanding, global awareness, and diverse experiences.
        One way that I can accomplish this through technology is to provide my students with news from a local, national, and global level that is presented from different viewpoints. One program to do this through is newsela. Newsela provides a multitude of articles from different places and from different perspectives. Flipboard is another program that accomplishes this goal for teachers and students. CivilisationsAR by BBC is a program that provides history from around the world as it has hub points on every single continent. Storybird does this as well because it provides multi-cultural stories with the collection of stories on Storybird. With more information and news, students can truly develop a world-view and show respect for the lifestyles of cultures throughout the world.
     Another way that I can do this is through programs that allow interaction between students within my classes. My students represent a diverse group of people, but students can fail to gain cultural understanding if they are not encouraged to interact with each other. Ryver and GoSoap Box are programs that can provide back channels within the classroom. While face-to-face opportunities for discussion are important, sometimes students are intimidated by this format or are too polite to force their way into organized conversation. Backchanneling allows students to contribute to collaborative conversation within those stresses. For those that either can't attend class or are more comfortable contributing to collaborative conversation after having practiced some, Voice Thread and Skype could serve the purpose of video chat collaboration. Either way, it is all about developing a culture of respect for other students with a desire to learn about the experiences and ideas of fellow classmates and teachers.
     Lastly,  I could encourage students to interact with peers from other places to gain an understanding and appreciation for culture. Etherpad has organized chats that students can participate in with students from around the world. It is here that students can learn to appreciate the viewpoints, ideas, and culture of others. Another way is through One World Classroom or Conversation Exchange where a teacher's classroom can be paired with another classroom in a different part of the world to communicate on a regular basis. Students can also be encouraged to discuss his or her culture or ideas through his or her own blog such as through blogger.com and then utilize the site to view the ideas of other students throughout the world.