Google Voice Debates
During my time in ECI 524, Theory and Research in Global Learning, I learned about the importance of global inquiry, especially in the social studies classroom. My inquiry project for the course discussed WWII and the use of the atomic bombs against Japan. I went about answering the following question during my inquiry, "Was it moral for President Harry Truman to order the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II?" Discussing the morality of the atomic bombs encourages a lot of discussion, especially when thinking in a cosmopolitan way. Would the answer vary for American citizens versus citizens from other country? The following is a copy of my inquiry paper and my findings.
One of my personal goals within graduate school was to ensure that I could bring what I learned into my classroom. I like to utilize my time wisely and so whenever I could "double dip," I would do so. I created an interdisciplinary debate project with the language arts teacher on my academic team. We brought our students together for a unique project that required them to use many of the sources that I utilized for my inquiry project. Students were assigned a side of the argument and were asked to discuss whether weapons should be used for deterrence purposes or not. Because we combined our students from language arts and social studies, we had to determine an effective tool to use to deliver the arguments and rebuttals of the debate. It was commonplace that students were "debating" peers who were not always present at the same time. Because of this, we decided to use Google Voice to record our debates for most of our students. This tool allowed the students to listen to the statements of their opponents and then respond in kind with their own recording. Students were encouraged to listen to the entire debate at the end of the project to allow them an opportunity to put all of the arguments and rebuttals together. Some of my students worked with the AIG coordinator to put on face-to-face debates, which we recorded and allowed the other students to view. Below is a copy of the assignment sheet that students used during the project, as well as an example of one of the arguments from a face-to-face debate.
This project definitely showed my students the importance of global awareness. First, it was shocking to many of them that the United States is the only country who has ever used an atomic weapon against another country. They didn't understand what the big deal of the atomic bombs were at first because they knew it helped the United States win the war. However, when my students begun researching the topic in more detail, they were able to look at the atomic bombings from various perspectives and began to understand how actions are viewed differently depending on the perspective. This also was a nice connection to our discussion that followed on the Cold War and gave my students a good context and allowed them to consider the impact nuclear weapons can have on the world.