"Was This Debate Civil?: Observations from HS Students

Last night I fired up my tweetchat using the #MYParty12 hashtag. I knew some schools & students in the New Tech Network were planning on tweeting using it since many of them are in the middle of a project exploring the Election, Government & Civic Responsibility.

I wasn't sure how many students would participate, we continue to hear that the young are apathetic about politics.

 Wow! Over 500 tweets flew across my screen, they were flying as fast at the #edchat feed! Here are a few student observations:

This is just a small sampling of what the students had to say. You can catch the complete stream at this storify archive . (Did you know if you add /slideshow to the storify url you can view as a slideshow? I like reading it better that way)
Some tweets from students that stood out to me were around civility, lack of debate protocol and simple good manners.  I wonder if, as a voter for over 2 decades,  I haven't become somewhat calloused to the lack of civility in this debate process.  The eyes of the students provided a fresh view for me. New Tech Network students are steeped in the words "trust, respect & responsibility". I'm thinking the candidates could benefit from a workshop led by them!

 

Keep following #MYParty12, these students are in this for the long haul, they are creating their OWN parties & platforms based on the issues they believe to be important.