I believe that one of the things that has made the United States the strong country it is today is our diversity.  Exposing our students to diverse ideas coming from an equally diverse set of people and places is a wise idea, because it gives them a wider breadth of information to understand the world and make decisions by.  There are different facets to diversity.  Making things accessible to people is important to me, and I’ve created a page specifically addressing that topic.  Please click here to go to my page devoted to that.  On this page I will focus more on cultural and linguistic diversity.

It is important to make sure that students of diverse backgrounds have access to the same information as their peers.  Here are a few tools that can be useful.

Babel Fish allows you to paste text in one language and it will translate it for you   I remember being amazed when Babel Fish came out.  It was a remarkably simple concept that somehow seemed to have been overlooked.  Babel Fish can be useful for ESL (English as a Second Language) students who want to look up information on the internet and be able to access it, even when it is written in English.  The point is that it puts the information in their hands, when it would have been inaccessible before.

Google now offers a translation service called Language Tools that takes it a step farther than Babel Fish.  The Google Language Tools will translate a block of text like Babel Fish, but also will translate a whole webpage for the user.  All you have to do is type the web address, select the type of translation such as “Spanish to English,” and click “Translate.”

The Urban Dictionary is a site that could be useful helping students learn the slang that their peers are using so they are not left out of conversations.  However, as with any tool, teachers and parents need to be aware of what students are researching.

It is also important to teach students about diverse cultures.  With the advent of services such as Skype, it is possible to let a class communicate with someone on the other side of the world in real time.  As long as the person had a webcam (specialized camera) connected to their computer, the class would be able to see them as well as hear them.  A teacher could set up talks with people around the world to share their culture with the class.  Flying someone in to the country to see the class would be cost prohibitive for most any classroom budget.  Skype service from one computer to another is free.

Another technology that could be useful for teaching students about other cultures is a wiki.  A wiki is a website that allows its users to modify it collaboratively.  A good example of a wiki is Wikipedia.  Teachers could assign their students group work.  A group of students could make a wiki page about another culture.  In fact, they could have a page specifically about each aspect of a culture.  When the groups were done creating their wiki entries, they could share them with the rest of the class.  They could then modify other groups’ wiki pages.

An online bulletin board system (also known as a message board) could also be used by students to ask questions of each other and answer them.   One student could ask another student something about their culture.  Understanding helps to eliminate stereotypes and stigma.  Services like ProBoards make it easy to create and administer a message board.

There are also websites such as Josie True that are specifically aimed at helping students understand other cultures.  Some websites, such as this one, are designed by students to inform others about a culture.

There are also videos available to teach students about different cultures.