Friday, December 18, 2009

Magnificent Mozambique for Students

As mentioned in my October blog, I was able to share my enthusiasm about our project to Mozambique during their elections with Mr. Massucci’s students at East Hills Middle School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. I was excited at the level of interest and enthusiasm that these middle school students portrayed in our project. I began to think about how I could extend additional information to these and other students that may be interested in African countries. I decided that my individual project would provide students with information that we found during our stay in Mozambique using what students love best…technology.
I thought that creating a website would be useful for both teachers and students to explore different aspects of Mozambique. The website would be a living document, which could be continually updated with student blogs about what they’ve learned. It would also be used by teachers as a way to differentiate instruction by allowing students to work at their individual pace through the unit.
I thought about these students as I traveled from South Africa to travel to Maputo, Mozambique. It is absolutely inadequate to describe the vibrant colors and flurry of activity that we encountered. I then decided to add a photo gallery to capture the essence of what we observed. While reading about the election process, they can see pictures (and eventually) videos of people voting in Maputo and the surrounding areas.
As soon as we arrived in Maputo, we learned that we would meet and interview the former President of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano! The interview process was phenomenal, he took at least an hour to answer questions about Mozambican health care, education and the provided insight into some history of languages in Mozambique. Students visiting the website will be able to see still photos of our meeting and do additional research on Chissano, Guebuza or any other political leaders from Mozambique.
As our larger project team split into our individual groups (health care, education, and culture) as well as our role to observe elections, I thought that students using the website will be able to see what we’ve discovered real-time. Our project teams could post the results of their interviews with religious leaders, medical leaders and see interviews from the University Eduardo Mondlane.
The African Democracy Project Mozambique provides students with a global perspective of democracy. Using web-based instruction methods, students will learn about Mozambican culture, political ideologies and health care concerns. To visit the website visit www.magnificentmozambique.weebly.com. Remember to visit the site periodically as additional materials are continually being added.
There is an opportunity to blog about what you’ve learned, or provide suggestions for other materials. The site is currently geared toward high school students, but extensions to other grade levels are forthcoming!!!