Issues Unit Posts (3)

For the community & social issues unit, you should update your blog with at least three posts on the topics below (three well-organized posts will earn full marks for the blog section of your unit evaluation). Choose three from:

1. Provide some background on the issue you chose for the photo-essay. What did you learn from your internet searches? What did you learn from your "field research" with the cameras? This is a chance to show your opinion and fill in the details your photo-essay may not have provided. Giving references would be useful, as would placing your issue in a broader context (e.g. if you did littering at DPTS, how does it compare with littering & pollution in other parts of the world).

2. Identify an important, relevant, and appropriate community or social issue you would like to study or discuss (different from the one you picked for the photo essay). What are the sides to the debate? What arguments do people (or you) give to support particlar views on the issue? Giving examples and references would be useful.

3. Find an online location where you can participate in an activity that supports or promotes human rights. If you can, you could start such an activity (a blog or web forum on tolerance or human rights, email campaign, getting information from a member of the government, etc.). You may also use your blog to evaluate the outcome/s of the human rights activity -- report on whether the activity is effective, etc. (helps address portfolio Aspect 2.3).

4. Use the internet to help identify a local or global situation where action is needed to support or promote respect for diversity. First, define diversity (e.g. cultural, religious, learning, social, gender, generational, etc.). Describe the situation, identify the root causes and appropriate actions that could develop respect for diversity and lessen the conflict (helps address portfolio Aspect 2.4).

5. Affording post-secondary education is a growing issue. Where do you plan to attend after high school? Pick an institution you'd like to attend (even of you haven't made plans). Using the internet for information, write up a small profile of what the college, university, or institution is like (programs, campus, accomodations, recreation, tuition cost, etc.). You can include a picture or link to their website if you like.

6. As we figure out career paths, issues, ourselves, and plan for the future, we are faced with a world that is very small and very big at the same time. One reason I think it is small is because technology has made everything available to us all the time. I also think that globalization has robbed many communities of their identity, making strip-malls out of towns and turning people into buyers, and threatening the environment. I think it is big (maybe cold or lonely) because all of these changes make it harder for individuals to make meaningful connections to the people and places around them. Our Planning course has moved back and forth from the individual (health, careers, skills) to society (issues, health, etc.). One idea that links the parts of the course is "citizenship;" what does it take to be a member of society? Where does personal freedom and social responsibility begin? What's your opinion? Discuss any of these "Planning" issues as they relate to media awareness, globalization, citizenship, fast-food culture, or challenges to identity.

Post your three pieces by the end of the unit, please (June 3)