I sent this NY Times lesson plan to a friend we know in Volgograd, Russia. The Times lesson plans use current events as content for learning activity and the focus of this lesson was the Sochi Olympics, Putin, boycotts, gay rights, etc. The friend teaches English to elementary students in a Russian school and I was interested in her reaction to the way the description meshed with her personal experiences and the perspective of her country that was being presented to young learners in the U.S.
She must have been on her computer when the email arrived and she provided us with a multi point analysis of the Times content within a half hour or so. She then skyped my wife – we were sitting in a local coffee shop with slow bandwidth which limited interaction (I am also not a fan of phone or online voice communications in public places) so the interaction was brief. The time frame for the entire experience was less than an hour.
This type of thing continues to amaze me even though it is what people like me making our living promoting. Lack of historical context discourages an appreciation of change. Imagine discussing Russian politics in a frank way in real time with a Russian colleague. This is cool on so many levels.