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What choices do we expect them to make if their pockets are loaded with cash and the shelves bulge with penny candy—especially when there's no parent in sight? The choice won't be between yes and no, but between what kind? and what next? Maybe someone needs to watch over this New WWW.

Children believe that getting whatever they want will make them happy. As adults, we know otherwise.

engaging in personally meaningful actions, and performing service to something larger than themselves.

we must also acknowledge that schools have too much of both. But the joy of learning has neither! One of the most powerful definitions of teaching I know comes from Maria Harris: “Teaching is the creation of a situation in which subjects, human subjects, are handed over to themselves”

We can “hand students over to themselves.” We can engage them in the joys of learning, of making meaning, of being part of something larger than themselves, of testing themselves against authentic challenges. We can shift them from passivity and consumption to action and creativity. And believe it or not, the New WWW can help us.

New WWW shifts learning power to the students themselves.

students can demonstrate their learning in a persuasive essay, a sardonic blog, a moving short film, a robust wiki entry, or a humorous podcast, why would we demand deadening conformity?

I call this kind of Web site a ClassAct Portal: Class because the site involves a whole class of students; Act because it supports authentic, active learning; ClassAct because it provides a real-world forum for students to exercise their best efforts; and Portal because the site serves as a window to resources, information, activities, and communities.