During my teaching at EIU, I have [attempted] to get students interested in research, a task far easier said than done at times. However, they seemed particularly pumped when I introduced the freepress.net.
If you are new to freepress, it is a free website that takes on issues with media, ownership, censoring, net neutrality, and lots of other issues that may be buried in the news (if mentioned at all). Most of the issues on the website were completely new to my students, and they seemed very excited about learning things that actually applied to them ("Disney owns ESPN? No way!").
I was shocked that so many of the topics were new to them, and I must admit I was a little shaken by it. Regardless of whether you side with the corporation or the activist, it is important to know the issues and the sides that are arguing for things that will not only be put into action at the present but could also affect you a great deal. So, as far as my students go, if freepress.net is the way to get them excited about research, I consider it a double win!
Now if they would just get an RSS feed...
freepress.net
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