- local
- regional
- provincial
- national
- worldwide
Refer to Figure 1-1 in the text to view an example.
After taking a few moments to write down the connections that you could think of individually, we broke into groups and put all the data together in a pie chart posted at the front of the class. The purpose of this was for us to see whether there was any consistency from group to group in terms of the percentage of connections by level.
Our findings showed a fairly strong consistency. Specifically, that there was little difference between local, regional,provincial, national, and worldwide connections (around 18-22%).
This activity showed us the usefulness of pie charts in terms of how they allow for the quick comparison of data. Throughout the course, you will be asked to assemble data in this manner using a variety of different charts and graphing techniques.
As well, this activity allowed us to do some basic analysis with respect to the data itself (a skill we will be developing throughout the semester). For example, what general conclusions could we draw from the data?
A basic conclusion would be that, "For students in Grade 10 Geography at River East, most of their connections to the world around them are evenly distributed between local, regional, provincial, national, and worldwide."
From this conclusion, we asked the following question:
"If we were to compare Grade 10 students today with Grade 10 students 10 years ago, would we find the same results? Why?"
The class agreed that probably a greater proportion of our connections 10 years ago would have been local and that there would have been a sliding scale of sorts where proportionally the percentages would get smaller from regional to provincial to national and finally to worldwide.
The class further surmised that the reason for this difference would have been the degree to which technology and the Internet in particular make the world a smaller place and increases the likelihood that we make connections with other parts of the world.
We also discussed the way in which the Internet and the Information Age world has changed our patterns of thinking and what we believe to be real, true and possible. In particular, we looked at how we define intelligence differently in the Information Age versus the Industrial Era.
In the Industrial Age, we saw an intelligent person as someone who knew a lot of facts about a wide variety of subjects -- a sort of "Jeopardy" intelligence. In the Information Age, the amount of information being added and the nature by which it changes (look at how long it takes before a new version of a computer application is upon us) has caused us to think of "smart" in another way. In this new era, we consider intelligence to be the ability to find, sort, process,analyse, and evaluate information.
Ultimately, this discussion helped introduce the kind of analysis that can be done once data is gathered. As well, it helped us understand that more and more, we are part of a larger world and as such we need to better understand what that world is all about and where we fit in it. This brings us to our next discussion concerning the world community.
