Using this Website in Your Classroom

There are a variety of ways of using Be the Change with your students, depending on the number of computers--as well as type of Internet connection--available to you.

Regardless of how your students experience the site, they may find the following questions helpful as they explore:

• Who is the upstander?
• What do you know about this person?
• How does this person define his or her "universe of obligation" – to whom does this person feel responsible?
• What is the violation of human rights this individual is trying to address?
• What tools does this upstanders use to make a difference?
• Why do you think this upstander made the decision to “be the change”? What motivated this individual to participate as an activist for human rights?
• What surprised you about this individual’s ideas or actions?
• After learning about this upstander, what is one idea about activism (“making a difference”) you hope to remember or you wish others would keep in mind?

Scenario #1: INDIVIDUAL USE (two-three hours)
In this scenario, you have access to enough computers with high speed Internet connections, so that each student may explore the site on her own.

This option has your students take the full journey through the website, explained on the Take the Journey page. Successfully completing the journey by answering at least one question for each of the five award winners can take from one to three hours, depending on the student, and how thoroughly he explores the site. You may want to tell students they have to answer at least ten "What do You Think?" questions.

Scenario #2: INDIVIDUAL USE (1 class period)
If you do not have the time to let them take the full journey through the site, here are some ideas you may want to consider:

• Choose one award winner. Rather than trying to learn about all five upstanders featured on the website, let students focus on one of them. Either break the class into five equal groups and assign each group to one award winner, or simply let each student choose which award winner she wants to learn about. After having students register and login, make sure the students then check out their award winner's profile before looking at the interview video clips. Have them respond to at least one of the clips.
  
  Think about saving some time at the end of the class period for students, in either small groups or as a full group, to share about what they learned. If you had divided the groups evenly, you could then create small groups of five in which each student has explored a different award winner. This will allow everyone to get a sense of all five award winners. Encourage students to also share with each other one of the responses they submitted.
  
  
• Guided journey. Based on your own exploration of the site, give your students an instruction sheet of specific video clips to watch and bios to read.
  
  
• "Be the Change" as an optional homework assignment. We know that not every student will have computers at home, and those who do may not have high-speed connections at home. For those who can view video at home, you may want to have them explore either one award winner, or take the full journey.

Scenario #3: SMALL GROUP USE
If you have access to only a small group of capable computers, here's a suggestion on how to proceed:

Groups of students could be assigned one activist to study. Then each group could present its activist to the class. The key questions listed below might be a useful guide to students’ work. Alternate method: After students learn about one activist, you could then "jigsaw" the students by creating small groups of five in which each student has explored a different award winner. This will allow everyone to get a sense of all five award winners. In the mixed groups, students might synthesize what they learned about all of the activists in order to answer questions such as:

• What does it take to be a human rights activist?
• What tools do they use?
• To what extent are the upstanders on this website different from you and me?

Each group could then present its answers to the whole class. 

Scenario #4: PROJECTING THE SITE FROM ONE COMPUTER
If you only have access to one computer, we offer this alternative effective way to explore the site with your students.

*Please note that projecting the site does have some specific technical requirements. You will need:

1. High speed Internet connection (that is, a connection which allows download of video).
   
   
2. You will need to have the Flash Player installed on your browser.
   
   
3. Your laptop or desktop computer must allow video and sound.
   
   
4. You will need speakers to be able to project the sound to your classroom. (This is key. If speakers are built into the lab or classroom, great. If you are running it off a laptop, or desktop that does not have speakers, however, you must bring a pair of external speakers. And be aware that sometimes, small external speakers will not be loud enough for a room of 25+ teachers or students.)

Once you have given an overview of the website to your students, go to the profile area of any of the award winners and view the video clip that tells his or her story. Then close the profile window and show a video clip in which the students ask a question of the award winner. After watching the clip, either through journaling or small group discussion (or both), have the students respond to the question as they would if they were sitting at the computer submitting their response. Some of the questions work better with discussion in pairs or groups of three. Others would work well in groups of four-to-seven. You decide.