Life is like a circle, or at least we can make it look like one--a dog chasing its tail, the head coming round to meet it, and sometimes catching it for a moment or two.
It is this feeling I have meeting you today, my last group in this part of the world before returning to my own culture. It is a meaningful coincidence that most of you are from Poland, and I am here to talk with you about how computers and the Internet can support civics education. It is a coincidence because it was Poland, several Polish friends, and communications across borders via computers which brought me to my work for the Center for U.S. Studies. Here is the brief story.
In 1990, I asked one of my employees, Bogdan, what he was going to do now that he could travel, or perhaps move back to his own country. He asked in return, "What are we going to do?" My answer to that question was an American nonprofit organization I founded, which in turn took me to Wroclaw in 1991 to teach western business practices in the international language of English. The invitation and arrangements for that visit were made via e-mail, electronic chat, and computer discussion boards in Poland and the U.S. I was teaching English at the time in the U.S. and discovering how modern technologies could be employed to liberate teachers and learners from the time and space constraints of the traditional classroom. I then began to live this brave, new, networked civil society.
My visit to Poland in 1991 convinced me that I wanted to continue to contribute what I could in this region. By late 1993, I had settled my affairs in the U.S., and I had an invitation to live and work Jelenia Gora. From a small mountain town in Colorado I aimed for Poland, but the target I finally hit in 1994 was just over the mountains in the Czech Republic. So in these few short years I have learned how to say Dobry den instead of Dzien dobry. From Liberec I was hired here in Germany to teach how to use the Internet and computers to support teaching and learning, something I learned more about by teaching English using networked computers in Liberec and by studying for a doctorate without walls or timetables. But make no mistake: It was Poland, several Polish friends, and electronic communications which brought me here.
So to meet with you is particularly meaningful for me at the end of this journey. I am here to share some "technical stuff" as it relates to civics, I hope in a way that is consistent with educational practices that liberate, a word Polish and other peoples cherish. I am inviting you to experience the potential of democratizing teaching and learning through the tool of the World Wide Web. Democratizing at least means allowing, encouraging, and supporting students--each of us is a student--to develop to his or her capacity as members of large and small societies. Education with this purpose comes with values. Andrea has pointed them out: Students need to be active, engaged, informed, and critical participants in the educational (and other processes) that affect them. I believe these values mediated by technology, a borderless and expansive world, will tempt your students. Let's see.
I wish to allow you to learn by letting you introduce yourself to electronic tools and pedagogies. I can encourage you by assuring you that you can't hurt yourself or the technology in your explorations. I wish to support you by giving you some basic ideas and techniques to begin. We can do all this in the computer labs.
Andrea highlighted research showing that people effectively learn if given an authoritarian teacher/parenting style. Here is a bit of authoritarian direction. The following are the objectives, or tasks, to get you started in networked civics education. Choose your path!
[This piece began a week-long program on civics education. It sets the stage including how I got to the former Eastern Bloc. 2/10/99]
