Reflections

This student worksheet encourages you to explore the effects of change on communities as shown by the personal expression of observers and participants.

1 Cultural Change in a Community

In this activity you will write a short script of an interview about cultural or technological change in your community or in some other setting and perform it in class.

What To Do

1. Read 'Eskimos Warm to the Digital Age', an eyewitness's 1998 description of an Eskimo community's cultural response to modern technology.
2. What kinds of things have changed in the Eskimo community? What traditions or customs have been retained? Why has this happened?
3. Discuss the information with your group.
4. This article was written in 1998. What is likely to have changed in the intervening time? How would you research this topic?
5. Develop a script of an interview with three members of a community (perhaps from different generations) talking about--or arguing about--the kinds of changes that have happened in the community. What have people chosen to change and what have they chosen to keep with the passing of time? Perform the interview in class.

Extension Activity

Learn more about the relevance of technologies to developing countries at Hello … The World's Calling on the Global Education website.

2 Demands for Change in a Community (External or Internal)

Here you will discuss cultural or technological change in a community or country. What have people chosen to change and what have they chosen to keep with the passing of time? How are some groups working to preserve traditions?

What To Do

Choose one of the following topics.

A.  The International Monetary Fund and Change

1. Read the article 'Cultural Changes Gnaw At Heels of Asian Tigers'. Read the responses by Asian people to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) demand for changes to deal with the 1998 economic situation in Asia. The article tells how people in a community feel when a powerful outside or foreign organisation demands that they change. Discuss the power of the language used to describe each country's situation. How important is national sovereignty and the right for countries to define their own solutions to challenges? Debate this topic. (Note that this article was written in 1998 when some Asian economies were in crisis and that the global economic situation has changed significantly since then.)

B.  Keeping Languages Alive

1. Every two weeks, a language in the world disappears, according to the Enduring Voices Project.  Explore their website.
2. Watch the video titled Expedition Video, set in India, on the Photos & Videos page. What connections are made in the video between the loss of languages in India and in Australia? Discuss the ways in which technology is assisting the process of retaining languages? Analyse the way in which this website uses technology to inform us.
3. Read the Full India Expedition Synopsis under the heading India November 2008 on the Expeditions page. What modern strategies are being used to retain Aka as a language?
4. Develop a dialogue between a teacher of Aka language and a group of young people about the place of Aka as a language that should be retained in their community.

3 Mountain Voices: An Oral History Project

 Mountain Voices is a project devoted to “amplifying the voices of those at the heart of development: people who are disadvantaged by poverty, gender, lack of education and other inequalities”. It collects the oral testimonies of people from ten countries including four countries of Asia. In this activity, you will draw conclusions about the impact of change over time within a country.

What To Do

1. Go to the Mountain Voices website and choose from one of the countries of Pakistan, China, India and Nepal. Select a theme of interest to you. Read through the oral testimonies attached to the theme. For example you could select ‘Pakistan’ and ‘Gender’ or ‘China’ and ‘Identity’ or many other combinations. As you read through the test, use a coding system to respond to the writing (you can use sticky notes or write in the margins).

        TS (Text to self): anything in the text which reminds you of yourself, something in your own life or own experiences.

        TT (Text to text): any part of the text which reminds you of something else you have read or seen (book, film,

         article, television program).

        TW (Text to world): Any part of the text which reminds you of similar issues or events in the local or global context.

2. Once you have completed this task, discuss your reading and the coding you have made in small groups. Use this discussion as the basis for a piece of personal writing.
3. Discuss the ways in which globalisation and new technologies have both enabled the global publication of stories like these and simultaneously led to the homogenisation of cultures.

Extension activities

1. Read the story A Single Lucid Moment on the Peace Corps site.  This story deals with a sudden and profound change in worldview that occurs when individuals from a modern, technological, materially wealthy culture encounter individuals from a traditional, materially simple, communal culture in Papua New Guinea. It raises questions about the meaning of individualism and community and about the values of generosity and self-sufficiency. Teaching activities accompany this story.
2. Undertake the Webquest Globalisation - what does it mean for me?