SESSION 17: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK
2. EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION
2.1 HUMAN RIGHTS: What do you think of these being included in the United Nations Human Rights? What problem would there be?
- Internet Access
- live everywhere
- a well-payed job
- free education/university
- free legal services
- social networking sites
- news sites
- online music
- English study sites
- gaming
- Google search
- to find information
a) What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘Internet’?
b) How important is the Internet in your life?
c) Do you think people in different countries have different views of the Internet?
d) How has the Internet changed the world?
e) Is the Internet a source of enlightenment for you?
f) What have you learnt from the Internet?
g) Do you think Internet access should become part of the United Nation’s human rights?
h) In which areas of your life is the Internet vital?
i) How would your life be different without the Internet?
j) How do you feel when you’ve been unconnected for a long time?
k) How would you feel about going on vacation for a month to a place with no Internet?
l) Do you think the Internet gives you greater freedom?
m) What are the dangers of the Internet?
n) Do you worry about what you write online? That this will become part of your ‘digital footprint’?
o) What will the Internet look like in 10, 20, 50 years from now?
PREPARING A DISCUSSION IS FUNDAMENTAL:
THIS MUST BE DONE IN TWO DIRECTIONS:
FIRST, YOU NEED TO LEARN NEW VOCABULARY AND EXPRESSIONS THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO USE FOR THE DISCUSSION.
SECONDLY, YOU HAVE TO PREPARE THE TOPIC BY LOOKING UP INFORMATION IN THE INTERNET, BOOKS, ENCYCLOPAEDIAS.
THIS WAY YOU WILL FEEL MUCH MORE CONFIDENT AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU WILL HAVE MUCH MORE TO TALK ABOUT.
FINAL TASK:
HERE IS ONE FINAL TASK THAT YOU MAY DO IN ORDER TO COVER THE FOUR SKILLS YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON WHEN LEARNING A LANGUAGE: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING.
Write a composition and leave it in the blog as a comment to Session 17, I will edit it in the blog so that everybody can learn from other people´s opinions. Choose one of these two options:
- ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE INTERNET.
- HUMAN RIGHTS ARE RESPECTED IN MY COUNTRY. EXPRESS YOUR OPINION
In Spain there is a Constitution which was done including every Human rights. It was made with the collaboration of all the most important political parties that there were in that period of the history of Spain. It was a difficult task due to the amount of interests that everybody had.
ReplyDeleteAround the world, nobody can tell us that Spain has lack of rights, on the contrary, everybody knows that Spain is one of the countries that have amount of rights in its society. These rights go from free elections to adopted people who get here from countries with difficulties. It is known that Spain has a great well-fair State which gives protection to either, Spanish people or people who come from other countries, but not only immigrants but people who come from the north of Europe, especially people looking for our health care system which is cheaper and better than they have in their countries. Another aspect we can mention in our rights, it is the freedom we have to protest against great number of issues. Some examples can be, work conflict, violence, terrorism, homosexual meetings, etc. Although these rights can be done by everybody, they must be organized and permitted by authorities.
However, we have some rights which are not respected by officials recently, such as the articles about living in a decent house or about getting a job for a living. Those articles were written in the Human Rights but they are very difficult to carry out. Personally I think that these rights which talk about a decent house and job, they are not followed from almost any countries around the world. There are several reasons why these topics cannot be followed, and one and more important is the crisis that we are suffering recently. In addition, we cannot forget that we do not only have rights but duties as well. It seems to me that living in freedom, it means for us to enjoy every rights we have and forget all the duties the Human Rights show us too.
In conclusion, Spain is a country where the majority of the Human Rights are performed by government and society, although we have to learn that we do not only have rights but duties as well. Besides, some problems which have difficult resolution, they made almost impossible to ensure their performance.
The use of computers is clearly affecting our lives. They let us spend less time on doing things that could take us years. The technologies are growing up at a frenzied rhythm which sometimes is very difficult to follow. But, are the computers making us lose the traditional ways of working in a wide variety of areas? I am going to analyse the advantages and disadvantages that computers are having in today’s world, beginning with the advantages.
ReplyDeleteThe greatest benefit of using internet is that it allows you to work quicker. It can take you years to look for any information on books. Searching on internet is very fast and you can find what you want. In addition, it let people take up less space at the work place, as the entire information can tidied in the computer instead of having it in shelves. Finally, using computers is cheaper and more ecological. It is cheaper because people do not have to buy encyclopaedias and loads of paper and it is more ecological due to the paper that can be saved with the use of the internet.
On the other hand, there are negative effects that internet is having in our lives. One drawback is that the interaction between people is getting worse because the only “friend” people communicate with is the computer. It make us lose the ability to socialize and interact with other human beings. Another negative side people complain is the chaos that it means for older generations who have not learnt how to use the computers. Internet is already used in a great variety of areas but the elderly do not have internet searching skills to use it. The last downside is that, more and more people are getting used to using the computers for their diary lives, apart from the time they spend on it at work. It leads to make people more sedentary, which can result in diseases such us obesity.
To sum up, although it is true that our lives have improved thanks to the internet, its use once and again could make lose the ability to communicate to each other. On balance, I feel we should use in an intelligent way without exceeding the time limit in front of the computers.
A constant fight to be stronger than the other, this is the energy which has moved our world from the beginning of time, this fight has caused much pain and death, every century more and more.
ReplyDeleteThese days I have seen a pair of chapters of a TV documentary about the 2nd Great War and you can avoid feel the horrors that human beings caused just sixty years ago, how millions of people died, how towns were totally destroyed, how people escape from their houses and walked lost with their children looking for a safer place. All this and much more happened in the centre of the most ‘civilized’ continent.
Just three years after the war ended, our feeling of guilty for that horror caused gave place to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the most important law written throughout the history.
Sadly, this rule is still largely disobeyed all over the world and even our children do not know much about that horribly war. This is the pessimistic part but there is a optimistic one, at least human beings have been able to approved this universal rule, maybe a little bit utopian and maybe not perfect but in my opinion it is a target to achieve, so, the closer we are of this, the happier human beings will be.
Advantages and disadvantages of The Internet.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the internet has more advantages than disadvantages. I agree with the quotation of the text: "…The Internet is the most powerful potential source of enlightenment ever created." At least, in our times, it is being a revolution of human communication and relationship.
The Internet has so many possibilities that we are half astonished half afraid of its potential. People - like me- who have attended to the beginning of The Internet, are still feeling a kind of vertigo looking at the speed of the events and what is going to be the next findings. We begin to see this changes in movies like Facebook. When a young group of university peers are able to develop one of the most successful social net all over the world.
it cannot be doubted the usefulness of the access to the world Wide Web an its resources. In fact, we have the term of digital illiterate to talk about People unable to handle The Internet. I can say in my case that I am getting hooked on The Internet day by day. Everything is so immediate and you can find almost everything, that is perfect for me. Perfect for a society that lives in a hurry and demands everything right and now. Needless to say, the importance of The Internet in education and communication aspects. It means free access to the world. That is amazing and overwhelming at the same time.
An adequate use of The Internet can help a lot as a resource of information and communication but always under a critical point of view. But it is dangerous to believe that everything can be done through The Internet. Moreover, the amount of information is so huge that we are not able to span every knowledge or information downloaded on The Internet.
Is it a Human Right? I would say yes but we need to be conscious that there is still a long way to achieve the balance and global regulation of the Net. The Internet can not have free access without rules, the same codes we follow in our social coexistence. We can not use The Internet under the statement of "anything goes".
I have a reflection for my mates:
ReplyDelete"The technological connectivity can give the sensation of acceding easily and rapidly to many things. But to deepen involves deeper dedication." (Esquirol, J.M, February 2011- philosopher and writer)