Many educators today recognise the importance of online data sources for all sorts of research and writing projects. Some now permit students to include online sources in their work and others actually require their use. There are abundant resources available online, including real-time video; radio stations from around the world; reference tools, such as encyclopaedias, dictionaries, thesauri and collections of quotes; libraries of poetry, short stories, images and music; critical studies and research articles on every conceivable topic; information about authors (...) and historical figures; government and public policy data; current events; interactive software; and much, much more. At the same time, most users quickly see the problems that arise. Issues of privacy, plagiarism, pornography, hate sites, commercialism and simply wasting time arise regardless of the topic. The abundance soon yields thousands of Websites of dubious quality and relevance. (shrink)

Many educators today recognise the importance of online data sources for all sorts of research and writing projects. Some now permit students to include online sources in their work and others actually require their use. There are abundant resources available online, including real-time video; radio stations from around the world; reference tools, such as encyclopaedias, dictionaries, thesauri and collections of quotes; libraries of poetry, short stories, images and music; critical studies and research articles on every conceivable topic; information about authors (...) and historical figures; government and public policy data; current events; interactive software; and much, much more. At the same time, most users quickly see the problems that arise. Issues of privacy, plagiarism, pornography, hate sites, commercialism and simply wasting time arise regardless of the topic. The abundance soon yields thousands of Websites of dubious quality and relevance. (shrink)

Our embodied capacity for action and our dispositions towards goals define our perception of a situation and possible actions. Thus, situations are not constitutive of action, but they demand that we act. For Shane Ralston, the situations that call for action are historical, imagined, or projected debates involving John Dewey. When Dewey is portrayed not just as a presenter of theory, but as an actor in debates grounded in time, place, and daily life consequences, we understand his arguments in new (...) ways. When he is called upon to act by engaging in debates that arose even long after his death, the interaction (or transaction) of philosopher and situation produces new meaning.The non-teleological, creative .. (shrink)

John Dewey's writings make a compelling case for the importance of linking school and society and for conceiving education as the development and articulation of lived experience. In recent years, however, a focus on discrete topical learning, along with narrow definitions of achievement, have left us with few good examples of that conception of education. The best examples often represent one-time experiences, or more limited linking of school and society.This article explores an example of what we call community inquiry1, as (...) it has developed within a school and community life. The community's inquiry builds on student experiences and exemplifies integrated curriculum, community-based learning, projects .. (shrink)