Podcast Reflection #4: Inside Eracism by Vicki Davis: K12 2009 Online video, 12/18/09

This podcast was done in 2009 and has to do with the K12 online conference. Here is the link to the K12 webpage. The podcast was slightly interesting as it had to do with debating the topic of Racism and it's prevalence in our society.
The first part of it had Julie Lindsey talking about the project and here is the link to the description of the podcast I listened to  - Eracism -


Basically the project is about identifying a global issue and also how to deal with it. Eracism stands for erasing-racism - and the fact that we have the power to make a difference, and building information bases and understanding of other cultures. The students behind this project believe "You/We have the power to make a difference!"


I personally really like that students were the brainpower behind this!
-The students presented this at Qatar...


The project overview provided in the podcast pictures is:

Project Overview..

Phase 1-Voicethread Debate

-3 debates

Phase 2- virtual world debate

-1 final debate

-k12 online event

They were trying to figure out how can we debate, and make it feel synchronous? Simulated synchronous…

-in this you listen to the other debater

-respond in real time

-no re-record unless a technical malfunction

-teachers agree to protocols

Berna Jean - a lady that spoke during the podcast said that they needed 

-Objectives to create a rich debate and learning environment.

-Wanted to be able to debate across time differences

-they really worked hard to stick to the formal format of debating

Something I found interesting Diigo to have the kids collectively gather their research, and we just learned about this resource in class

Some basics about their form of debating is... 

-They researched debating protocols around the world…

-Each side has to respond 3 times, an affirmative and a negative, and this was repeated

 -Teachers and students are assigned to various debates and ability to view and debate on the voice-threads posted… 

 -There were judges that judged the voice-threads and who won the debate…

 -They have 3 judges for each debate, and work to include adults who have been debaters or who have been part of a debate.

 -After they declare the winner they are to give narrative comments back to students.

The overall topic of this debate is that differences make us stronger!

With my ESL background due to taking classes here at K-State I think this is a great subject to debate, and I concur that differences make us stronger! 

Also- the global collaboration of the teachers and the use of google docs is really really impressive! 

Overall, this podcast was very interesting. Here is another link that provides more information about this project Eracism Project