Memorial Day is not just a long weekend for great sales at the stores. More important it is a day to honor soldiers who have fallen serving our nation. Congress declared the last Monday in May a national holiday in 1971. However, the celebration of Memorial Day dates back to Decoration Day, first widely observed on May 30, 1868 by General Orders No. 11 written by John A. Logan. Flowers and decorations were placed on the graves of fallen Civil War soldiers. Today numerous volunteers place small flags at each grave at Arlington National Cemetery and customarily the President delivers a speech at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and places a wreath there.
The political causes of war are often controversial, but remembering and honoring the men and women who fought and paid the ultimate price for our nation should not be. Below are a few sites about modern wars you might visit and incorporate in class discussions about US history.
List of National Memorials
Arlington Cemetery
Vietnam Memorial
Vietnam War Museum
Korean War Veterans Memorial
Korean War Museum
Women in Military Service
World War I Museum
World War II Memorial
World War II Museum
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Geo-mashups
One of my favorite presentations at the eLCC conference was a about educational use of Mashups. What’s a mashup? Wikipedia defines mash-ups as “a web application that combines data from one or more sources into a single integrated tool. The term Mashup implies easy, fast integration, frequently done by access to open APIs and data sources to produce results that were not the original reason for producing the raw source data.”
One of my favorite ideas during the presentation was the combination of Google Maps, a free web mapping tool, for a Business course that asked students research the location of a business and how this effected the possible success of a business. Real estate agents have already been using this tool to add a little information about properties to maps for home buyers.
Like you, I started brainstorming about how to apply this concept to a history course. An assignment might require students to identify key locations on a map such as various battles of the Civil War and then add brief notes about the significance of each. An assignment such as this would not only help students organize key events but also understand more about the significance of geography to history outcomes.
Regardless of whether you incorporate Web 2.0 technology, geography is too often neglected as we race to cover so many events in a short time. The National Commission on Social Studies in the Schools was formed in 1987 to study the state of social studies in the schools and to make recommendations for curricular change. At this site you will find recommendations and strategies for emphasizing history and geography in grades K-12. Additionally, there are many other useful resources to help us teach the impact of geography on historical events. Also, check out the National Geographic web site that has lessons plans that use geography to learn about history.
One of my favorite ideas during the presentation was the combination of Google Maps, a free web mapping tool, for a Business course that asked students research the location of a business and how this effected the possible success of a business. Real estate agents have already been using this tool to add a little information about properties to maps for home buyers.
Like you, I started brainstorming about how to apply this concept to a history course. An assignment might require students to identify key locations on a map such as various battles of the Civil War and then add brief notes about the significance of each. An assignment such as this would not only help students organize key events but also understand more about the significance of geography to history outcomes.
Regardless of whether you incorporate Web 2.0 technology, geography is too often neglected as we race to cover so many events in a short time. The National Commission on Social Studies in the Schools was formed in 1987 to study the state of social studies in the schools and to make recommendations for curricular change. At this site you will find recommendations and strategies for emphasizing history and geography in grades K-12. Additionally, there are many other useful resources to help us teach the impact of geography on historical events. Also, check out the National Geographic web site that has lessons plans that use geography to learn about history.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Questions to Ponder
In April, I attended the eLCC conference and presented with Alice Bedard-Voorhees on New Designs for Assessment. Alice is the person I credit most for giving me an opportunity to teach online and for inspiring me to try innovative teaching tools and concepts. At the conference, I am pleased to share that Alice won the eLCC Faculty of the Year award. You might visit Alice’s blog at for inspiration.
I would like to share two questions that Alice asks that always encourage me to think differently. We all have students who are more difficult to manage. Sometimes students have bad attitudes about the course or fellow classmates. Sometimes they are frustrated with us about the type of assignments given or the technology. Sometimes they plagiarize. The question that Alice always asked me as my Chair and later Academic Dean was “How can we get back to the learning?” Alice empowered me to find a way to have a successful outcome for the student and class rather than getting stuck and frustrated by what wasn’t working. Not only did this help me not take the student’s problems personally, but it also helped me brainstorm ways to avoid the same problems in the upcoming semesters. By always thinking about how to best facilitate learning among my current students, I find that each semester I am more effective and patient. The question reminds me that students are there to learn and its my job to help them.
In a CCCOnline training webinar and at our presentation at eLCC, Alice posed this question for students. “What could you do, use, or create to demonstrate your learning for outcome X?” This question opens a dialogue between the instructor and student to select the method of delivery to demonstrate their knowledge. Students might choose to do something in Second Life, use a Web 2.0 tool like audacity, create a slide show, or write a traditional paper. The question allows students to develop their own assignment to achieve an objective or competency. In correspondence and cooperation with the instructor, a rubric for evaluation of the assignment can be developed and gives the student ultimate ownership of their learning. Imagine developing assignments and rubrics through open communication between the students either one to one, instructor to group, or class to instructor. What a way to focus on the individual learning and outcomes in a course!
I would like to share two questions that Alice asks that always encourage me to think differently. We all have students who are more difficult to manage. Sometimes students have bad attitudes about the course or fellow classmates. Sometimes they are frustrated with us about the type of assignments given or the technology. Sometimes they plagiarize. The question that Alice always asked me as my Chair and later Academic Dean was “How can we get back to the learning?” Alice empowered me to find a way to have a successful outcome for the student and class rather than getting stuck and frustrated by what wasn’t working. Not only did this help me not take the student’s problems personally, but it also helped me brainstorm ways to avoid the same problems in the upcoming semesters. By always thinking about how to best facilitate learning among my current students, I find that each semester I am more effective and patient. The question reminds me that students are there to learn and its my job to help them.
In a CCCOnline training webinar and at our presentation at eLCC, Alice posed this question for students. “What could you do, use, or create to demonstrate your learning for outcome X?” This question opens a dialogue between the instructor and student to select the method of delivery to demonstrate their knowledge. Students might choose to do something in Second Life, use a Web 2.0 tool like audacity, create a slide show, or write a traditional paper. The question allows students to develop their own assignment to achieve an objective or competency. In correspondence and cooperation with the instructor, a rubric for evaluation of the assignment can be developed and gives the student ultimate ownership of their learning. Imagine developing assignments and rubrics through open communication between the students either one to one, instructor to group, or class to instructor. What a way to focus on the individual learning and outcomes in a course!
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