“The True Cost of Coffee” is part of the Volunteer Voices series created by the Peace Corp. I would use this podcast in my classroom for several reasons. It is a firsthand account of a woman’s work in Honduras. It touches on a great number of the issues we discuss in class throughout the year. Some of the issues in this less than ten minute podcast are deforestation, clean water, pollution, coffee farmers, short v. long-term goals, government help/intervention, roles of men v. women, economics, poverty, and survival. This would be an effective way to introduce students to the idea that issues are complex and without easy solutions. I could see using this one podcast as a starting point for a class wiki. Small groups of students could further explore one of the issues mentioned and create a wiki page about it. At the end of the podcast, there is an invitation to request a match between a classroom and a volunteer working in any region of the world. This seems like another incredible opportunity to get personal, current account of life in a place we are studying.
Tags: clean water, coffee, deforestation, Honduras, Peace Corp, podcast, poverty, teaching, Technology, wiki
