"...if the children are untaught, their ignorance and vices will in future cost us much dearer in their consequences than it would have done in their correction by good education." Thomas Jefferson, 1818 U.S. President

GeoElections WebTools Survey of Florida Directors of Curriculum for Social Studies K-12

Freedom through democracy cries out for an informed electorate reaching across the digital divide.

In an expanding world with rapidly evolving means to educate through more economical and enrapturing technologies, the people at ICW believe a chief differentiator between our internet empowerment and the also rans, includes not only the presentation of elections data through interactive maps, but also the means for the elections office to reach out to the next generation of voters.

In an effort consistent with the philosophy of the people at ICW, we have reached out to 67 school districts in the State of Florida to ascertain the value key educators place upon the web delivery system we have crafted for the elections office to use in the process of serving up elections data through interactive maps. In the process of the embrace of this technology by the educators, the elections office connects not only with students, but also with the voting members of the households where these students live.

The issues that dictate precinct design, ballot content, district representation and polling location will come alive for the participating student like never before. The child will be able to type in their residential address. See where they live. See the polling location that serves their home. See the districts their home is contained within. See and print a ballot. Go back to the classroom and participate in a mock election. Run home and say, “Mom, Dad! Look at this!” Using their home computer or library access they will show their parents this new found knowledge and receive the parents’ praise and a request to print out sample ballots for the parents.

Survey Methods

1. A copy of the survey attached was faxed to the Director of Curriculum for Social Studies or corresponding responsibility in each of the 67 county school districts in the State of Florida. These faxed documents were followed with phone calls to introduce the recipients to the Flagler GeoElections Web site and subsequently requested to return fax their assessment.

2. Personnel from ICW where invited to attend the Florida Association of Social Studies Supervisors Spring Conference in Tampa, Florida to provide a live presentation of the website. We gained additional reviews and input focusing upon methods ICW could employ to make the site more useful as a classroom tool. The creation of a lesson plan was the number one recommendation.

We have created that lesson plan, which is accessible via the For Teachers Only button!

Survey Summary

27 Responses

Question 1 - From 1 to 5, how user friendly? 5 being the most friendly and 1 being the least friendly.

Question 2 - Does the help system contain adequate instructions?

Question 4 - How much time did you spend through the site and experimenting with features?

Question 5 - Which age group would you find this information appropriate for?

Quesiton 6 - Will the PDF file be useful as course material?