An Interesting Day in Elgin, IL

I spent this morning at the Elgin Academy in Elgin, IL I was invited to speak to their 11th and 12th grades about the video, Nicholas Winton: The Power of Good. The students saw the film last week. Today's discussion considered whether or not people are inherently afraid of difference and willing to do what it takes to make themselves comfortable when facing difference. At the end of class, we reflected on the fact that one person has the ability to enlist others in a project and accomplish much.

I was really impressed with the quality of the students' comments and their insight.

I really enjoyed speaking with the head of the school, Dr. John Cooper and the history teacher, Mr. Steve (I wish I wasn't so bad with names.) I showed Steve a few Internet sites including Marco Polo, The U.N. Cyber School Bus, World History for Us All, and of course my living textbook.

It always amazes me how easy it is to show other people Internet resources. There's just so much stuff out there. I wonder, however, if it's possible to take the leap into Web 2.0 before one is comfortable with Web 1.0. I think it is possible. But then again, I think it's possible to entirely miss the resources available in Web 1.0 and just use Web 2.0. To some extent this might be comparable to just throwing out a bunch of opinions without having anything with which to support them. Web 1.0 provides the content material with which to support thoughts and opinions. It's not something that should just be skipped over in favor of the tools of Web 2.0.

Since my parents live in Chicago, I was able to spend yesterday with them. I catch my flight out in a couple of hours.


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