Review of "Virtual Ideology" (November, 2004)

In this article, the author describes a project where students use online quizzes to help them identify their political values. The quizzes that were selected gave results using descriptive terms like "Conservative", "Liberal", "Centrist", or "Libertarian" rather than the actual names of political parties. Before taking the three quizzes, students were asked to write down the name of the political party affiliation they supported. In the project conducted by the author, 30 of the 50 students participating found that they personal beliefs actually contradicted their assumed alignment with political parties.

Q1: Is this a worthwhile project? What do the students get out of it?
A1: I definitely feel that this project was interesting and a good learning opportunity. Especially during the late middle school/early high school years, students are becoming politically aware, but are often strongly (or exclusively) influenced by their immediate families. As the results showed, a full 60% of the students that took the three quizzes learned that they did not conform within the artificial boundaries of a limited number of political parties. By breaking away from these labels, students can learn that it is misleading to assume that all people of one political party or ideology are alike, and the power of using words like "Neocon" or "liberal" can lose their pejorative power.

Q2: How easy is this project to do? Does it require specialized technology or expensive equipment?
A2: Unlike some of the projects I've reviewed, this one is relatively simple. With the broad availability of computers in schools, homes, and libraries this project seems like it would be well within the reach of school districts of varying levels of funding. Because it is limited to use of the internet and perhaps basic word processing, it would even be accessible to students that did not have a high degree of computer training.