How is our world connected? In the beginning of the semester, I posted a few videos about the Columbian Exchange and how it changed the landscape of the world we live in by connecting the Old World to the New. Prior to the voyage of Christopher Columbus and other explorers like him, the two worlds were completely isolated from one another for thousands of years. This isolation lead to two worlds existing in parallel, without any knowledge of the other. While Europe, Asia, and Africa were connected with vast networks of trade, the American tribes in the North and South lived separated from one another with little, to no continental trade. If you have ever played Sid Meier’s, Civilization, you know how important trade can be to the advancement of technology, industry, and culture.
Examine the pros and cons of Globalization. What is Globalism? In the simplest terms, it is the movement of people, information, and stuff around the world. It is the connection between you, me, and everyone else on the planet. It is fueled by international trade and information technology. The effects of Globalization can be seen in everything we are and do. It is has economic, social, political, and cultural effects. Even though humans are more connected than ever before, we are still shrouded in ignorance when we look beyond our own communities. What do you imagine a Russian classroom looks like? What about the bedroom of a boy in China? What about the shirt you are wearing…have you ever considered the journey it took to get to you? We often don’t think of ourselves from the global perspective. It can be difficult to see ourselves so small. In modern terms, globalization is about people around the world becoming so connected that local life is shaped by what is happening in other parts of the world.
For this final quiz, first I want you to read Introduction to Globalization by Bridgette Byrd OConnor. Then I want you to watch the following videos by Crash Course: Globalism 1, Globalism 2, Globalism 3, and What is History?. These resources offer a summarized and simplified explanation of globalization and its consequences, as well as some modern day context. As you review the information, I want you to think about and answer the following questions:
Why has the scale of global trade increased so dramatically since the mid-twentieth century?
How has the nature of global trade changed since the 1960s?
What are some of the advantages of globalization?
According to the video, people are moving around more than ever before. Why has migration become easier during the era of globalization?
In addition to people, how has globalization caused an increase in the movement of ideas and cultures?
How has globalization changed the scale of human communities across the world?
The first video is subtitled the Upside, but John Green still seems to give a lot of downsides to globalization. Do you think the advantages of globalization are worth it? How might your answer change if you lived somewhere else or in different circumstances?
Some argue that globalization has flattened experiences around the world? What evidence from this video supports or challenges this narrative?
Globalization isn’t reversible, so how can we eliminate some of the negatives as we move forward and continue to reap the rewards of working together and exchanging ideas?
After you have digested all of the above information, this is what you should submit to the dropbox:
1. Choose and create your format, pick one, : Essay, Outline, or Video Presentation.
2. Present your educated opinion: Are you pro- or anti- Globalization? Fuse what you learned with your fact based opinion and show evidence of research through examples…I believe X to be true. For example, according to so and so…
3. For your conclusion, I want you to answer the question 9 above. You are the next generation…what do you think we should do?
4. Prove your work is valid: Present a work cited page showing the sources you used to support your fact based opinion. List out all the sources you used.
