Special Education Technology Practice Special Education Technology Practice
It’s hard not to notice this is a presidential election year. The importance of this event provides a useful context for helping students understand the democatic process as it was created by the Founding Fathers and modified in the course of our nation’s history.
Some observers have noted that this will be an interesting election given the widespread use of the Internet. Will voters take advantage of the vast amount of information available from the candidates, from third-party watchdogs, and special interest groups? What impact will the wired community have on the election?
This article highlights a number of web resources for helping students understand the principles of democracy, locate information concerning the candidates’ positions on key issues, and a host of other election-year issues.
The Candidates
To learn more about the Republican candidate, Texas Governor George
W. Bush. visit his official campaign web site at http://www.georgewbush. com.
To learn more about the Democratic candidate, Vice President Al
Gore, visit his official campaign web site at http://www.algore2000.com.
Teaching Resources
A variety of organizations have sponsored web pages that purportedly offer “educational” resources. As with any web site, it is important for teachers to fully investigate a site before giving the web address to students. Teachers should be especially concerned about understanding the political stance of the organization sponsoring a web page. Given that disclaimer, the following sites offer a wealth of teaching and learning resources:
Project Vote Smart
http://www.vote-smart.org/
C-SPAN for the Classroom
http://C-SPAN.org/classroom/
The Almanac of American Politics, 2000 web ed.
http://www.freedomchannel.com/almanac/almanac_of_amer_pol.cfm
Student Friendly Sites
Some students may find much of the information on the presidential election too difficult to read or comprehend. If this is a concern, explore the following two sites that offer information appropriate for students at a variety of age/skill levels:
Kids Voting USA
http://www.kidsvotingusa.org/students4.html
Resources especially identified for students to learn about federal, state, and local elections.
Youth eVote
http://www.youthevote.net
Here’s the chance your students have been waiting for: to have their vote count! Sign-up to participate in a national email vote this fall.
Search for a Candidate
An interesting new innovation this election season allows voters to complete a profile and then search for candidates with compatible views and values. Students are likely to find the process of searching and sorting the candidates to be a learning activitity that adds new relevance to the study of the candidates. Visit the following sites and explore their search tools:
Better Vote
http://www.bettervote.com
Project Vote Smart
http://www.vote-smart.org/
Votematch
http://www.speakout.com/votematch
Monitor the Developments
As election day draws near, most voters are likely to feel a sense of information overload. Create a free personalized election news monitor to manage all the information this election season. Visit your personalized new page and focus specifically on the candidates and issues that you find most interesting:
My Freedom Channel
http://www.freedomchannel.com/myfc/index.cfm
Involve Parents
Looking for ways to involve parents in your lessons about the election? Here’s a web site to share with parents concerning the role of parents in developing life-long voting behavior:
Take Your Kids to Vote
http://www.takeyourkidstovote.com
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