High School History Teacher Goes Global

By day he’s a mild mannered high school history teacher, but by night Lars Brownworth transforms himself into a professor whose lectures on the Byzantine empire touch thousands all over the world. Mr. Brownworth’s story, chronicled by the The New York Times, highlights one way learning can be disseminated in unexpected ways, by unexpected people. In fact, more and more teachers are making use of the Internet to connect with students. Whether it’s podcasts, blogs or using the Internet to highlight current events, this new report by the Carnegie-Knight Task Force on the Future of Journalism Education found that 67 percent of teachers surveyed said the Internet has made using news and current events in the classroom much easier. But the survey also found that teachers were tapping into big-name newspapers and not using their local newspapers to help inform students.