Kiva Research in Progress

The students have completed their research and today have created an outline for their paper.  Most students seem to have learned things about their country that they did not know before.  Additionally, because students have researched the country that their Kiva borrower is from they have a better understanding of the economic situations in these countries and why they may need a loan to begin  with.

Next week students will have time in class to work on writing their essay.  After writing the essay students will present their borrower to the class.  The borrower with the most votes will get the class money to donate to their borrower (if he/she has not yet met their goal) or another borrower from that country chosen by them.

The road to Kiva...

The beginning of our Kiva Research journey was a good one.  We have created steps for the students to complete.  Students have looked at the site and are surprisingly into the idea of Kiva.

Today students began to write an expository essay on the validity of the Kiva site.  Students answered questions like: how it works, where did it start, what is micro-financing, explain risk and due diligence of the site.  This is an important step so that students have a full understanding of where and how their money is being donated.

Florence and I have agreed on a solution to our problem.  We will have students present on an existing loan from the site.  Students will fight for their loan.  The winner from each class will be allowed to choose the loan the money gets donated to (depending on if their initial loan is still in need, students may choose a loan other than the one they fought for).