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What can SNS do for you? Home Learn More Standards Inspiration About the Author |
My Process
I always wanted my students to be more than who they are now and who they could be. The best way for them to reach this expectation of being more than what people expect is to get involved within their community. When students gets involved they learn so much more than from a textbook. Students learn more how to be engaged with their community and in their own lives. Students learn how to investigate and become more curious on how things work and how the world interacts with each other. Lastly, students learn act and find creative solutions to problems that may seem impossible at first.
Even before Donald Trump took the presidency and started his Twitter tirades online, I always wanted my students to be more proactive and interact more with the world around them. I want for my students to have a voice within our government and know that the power of change is within them and not with the almighty dollar. For many years, I have promoted community-service learning projects to teach my students the value of hard work and community values. I have also implemented different ways to infuse current issues and modern day events into traditional lesson plans about government and economics to my seniors to give them a better understanding on what is happening around the world and how it relates to their own personal lives. With this goal in mind, this is the basis of my study, to determine whether Social Network Sites can influence students to become more proactive within their communities and within our government. Help from my community |
LESSONS
HOW-TOs
REFERENCES
ASSESSMENT
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To help me motivate my students and educate them on the importance of voting, I have reached out to my community and asked assistance from the League of Women Voters of Benicia. The League of Women Voters is an organization of men and women that is non-partisan, community-based and organized at the local, state and national levels. The purposes of this organization is to promote political responsibility through educating and actively participating within their communities current policies and governmental issues.
For the past 5 years, these men and women who volunteers their time, would come to my school site and talk to our senior class about the history and importance of voting. They would always have an engaging lesson with the seniors teaching and inspiring them to have an active voice within our society. At the end of the lecture, they would motivate a substantial number of seniors to register to vote for the upcoming election and make them feel empowered for the future. Teaching and inspiring young adults, such as these seniors, to be more proactive and display more apathy in their communities is a constant uphill battle, but at the end of the day it is all worth while to see them feel included and empowered by their power to vote.
For the past 5 years, these men and women who volunteers their time, would come to my school site and talk to our senior class about the history and importance of voting. They would always have an engaging lesson with the seniors teaching and inspiring them to have an active voice within our society. At the end of the lecture, they would motivate a substantial number of seniors to register to vote for the upcoming election and make them feel empowered for the future. Teaching and inspiring young adults, such as these seniors, to be more proactive and display more apathy in their communities is a constant uphill battle, but at the end of the day it is all worth while to see them feel included and empowered by their power to vote.
How To Vote in California |
League of Women Voters |
My Reseach
Round 1
My first round of research examined how high school students (ages 17–19) from low‐income families used online social networks for political and social involvement. The main goal of this work was to uncover how the use of technology, especially SNS, can be used to motivate students to become proactive within the communities.
The data collected revealed that SNS served an important role for these students. They facilitated emotional support, maintained relationships, and provided a platform for self‐presentation. The data revealed that SNS did not show a significant increase for students to become more proactive within their communities, yet it did show an increase in students awareness of social issues. |
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Round 2
My second round of research also examined how high school students just like in the first round. However, the second round focused more on celebrities that students follow instead of just reading random posts or tweets on current issues they would find on their SNS.
The data collected in the second round revealed that SNS still served as an important role for students that maintained relationships and emotional support like in the first round. Yet with the new focus on celebrities and their stance on social issues on students SNS, it revealed an increase of students becoming more proactive in their communities and more knowledgeable on social issues compared to round one when they did not follow a celebrity. The data also showed an increase of students registering to vote or will vote in the upcoming election when following a celebrity compared to round one. |
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Round 1 Results
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Round 2 Results
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Standards Addressed:
Learn More Videos
America is not the greatest country anymoreImportance of Civil Service |
The American President Speech
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What is the power of voting?
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To gain more insight on the power of voting and getting more involved in our communities, these videos helped my research and focus for my Capstone project. I used ideas and tools from multiple sources to help create ways to empower my students and to find their inner voice. To learn more check out my Lessons and How-To pages.