HAPPENINGS AT SEEdebate FALL 2008

SEEdebate Presented Live Online Session at Tapped In

Tapped In is a wonderful tool for teachers giving them access to an "international community of education professionals." Their summer festival July 23-24 was a great way for teachers to learn about interesting new sites and tools for using technology in the classroom. Tapped In's 2008 Summer Festival theme was Beyond Conflict: Building Peaceful Communities. SEEdebate presented a live 90 minute session on July 24th at 12:30pm EST.

SEEdebate prepares for the Presidential Election

Highlights of the presidential election at SEEdebate:

• Election-specific, international articles and issue overviews in our Election 2008 Forum
• Live Debates: Have your students sign in during the live, televised debates to discuss their ideas and viewpoints.
• New Forums for Ongoing Discussions based on Topics: Students can debate general topics such as global warming, religious rights, gun control laws, etc., in an open-ended forum [unlike the article]. Assign them research to find facts to back up their ideas!
• Weekly Polls and a SEEdebate Election on Election day!

In Development at SEEdebate

• Tutorial: Get the most from our free tool
• >Teacher's Exchange: Find teachers who want to connect classrooms, collaborate, expand their curriculum with you, or just talk about the joys and challenges of being a teacher. DONE! CLICK HERE TO JOIN
• Increased social interaction: Students can show off more of their personality in their viewable profile area
• ...and more!!

Excerpt from the Sept Cable in The Classroom article:

Meghan Connelly, president and curriculum
director of SEEdebate, uses current events to
instigate student commentary and exchange.
“Students are exposed to current news and
empowered to learn more about each topic
with online background resources. They respond
to the news and to each other in writing,”
says Connelly.
The site will have weekly online debates on
election issues, online discussions of the debates
as they are televised, and a SEEdebate user
vote on Election Day. In addition, the site
provides multiple articles on the same subject
from different sources, asking students to compare
and contrast the presentation. “This is a
wonderful way to develop media-literacy skills,”
says Connelly.