Serendipity35

It's back-to-school and political party convention time all rolled into one. So it's a good time to think about what teachers might talk about in their classrooms about politics, the election and all this online technology.

At the start of this year, I blogged about the Net effect on our Presidential Election, and back in April 07, I wrote that I thought a large part of the campaign would be online.

Though there are plenty of campaign sites both official and not, lots of video and commercials being watched there, and far too many blogs about the candidates and the process, the biggest impact of the Net may be in fundraising. The Net has brought all kinds of new small donors into the process. Sort of the long tail for fundraising. Using social networking tools is aiding campaigns and supporters to organize in new ways. YouTube has gained legitimacy with its CitizenTube blog. What impact did YouTube have on the last election? It didn't exist 4 years ago.

The Barack Obama official site continues to get lots of traffic and his people continue to put him and his material into Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and every other social site. When I first posted on all this, I didn't even have the John McCain site linked. (I assume it did exist then.)

Google worked with the National Student/Parent Mock Election, to create a site called Elections Tools for Teachers where you can find descriptions and suggested learning activities for tools like YouTube, Google Maps, Elections Video Search and Power Readers.

You can also enroll your students in this year's National Mock Election on October 30th.

Google, working with the National Student/Parent Mock Election, created a site called Elections Tools for Teachers where you can find descriptions and suggested learning activities for tools like YouTube, Google Maps, Elections Video Search and Power Readers.

At PCCC, one of our librarians, Ruth Hamann, has put together a site using LibGuides called “Election Webliography 2008" that gives you links to resources about national, state and local politics and elections in the United States. The Webliography includes information about voting, political parties, candidates, and issues. While many of the sites she has collected can be used to justify, or develop, your own personal choices in the upcoming election, Ruth recommends that you take a look at the "Issues" tab. She especially likes the Annenberg Political Fact Check  “…a nonpartisan, nonprofit, ‘consumer advocate’ for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics.[It] monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases…”

There's also "Election 2008: ACCESS, ANALYZE, ACT: A Blueprint for 21st Century Civic Engagement" which was developed in partnership with PBS Teachers and Temple University’s Media Education Lab. This project encourages teachers, particularly in grades 6-12, to experiment with social media/Web 2.0 tools in the classroom in order to promote both civic engagement and critical 21st century skills. It has lessons that teach media and information literacy, critical thinking, communication, collaboration and technology skills. There are more than a dozen social media tools showcased in this curriculum to engage middle-school and high school learners in the political campaign process.

"Elect a US President in Plain English" is a short and simple guide to understanding the U.S. election process from the folks at Common Craft. Take a look.

Finally, I can always rely on comedy to help keep us on track. I love watching John Stewart throw up political video clips side by side and let them speak. It's almost too easy to make comedy out of politics.