Finding Resources with Del.icio.us

For those of you who don't know, del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site where people can store links to their favorite websites and access them from anywhere rather than being tied to a single computer.

One of the cool things about del.icio.us is being able to search for websites that others have bookmarked with del.icio.us. This website works with what is known as tags. These tags are words that people use to categorize their bookmarks. For example, you could have several websites related to the Battle of Antietam and when you bookmark them with del.icio.us you might give them the tag Antietam. Then the next time you want all of your bookmarked sites on Antietam you simply click on the Antietam tag within your del.icio.us.

Here is a link to the CommonCraft Show called Social Bookmarking in Plain English

Another interesting thing about social bookmarking is that you can subscribe to these tags via an RSS feed. For example, you can do a del.icio.us tag search for Gettysburg by entering the URL, http://del.icio.us/tag/gettysburg into your web browser. Once the results appear, if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you will see an icon that says RSS feed for this page. If you click on this link (or right-click copy link location) you can add this RSS feed to your Bloglines or Google Reader account. Then, every time someone tags a website with the word Gettysburg, it will appear in your RSS aggregator.

You can also check out The Connected Classroom wiki on Social Bookmarking and RSS Feeds.

Try it out and let me know what you think.

More Gettysburg YouTube Videos

Here are a few more short videos related to the Battle of Gettysburg for you to view:

Three related to the story of Wesley Culp, Jack Skelley and Ginny Wade:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti2PcQR-SdU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBi_Vgt2MWs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5jaJyJKY3s

Story about Spangler's Spring:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj-mWP_H8P8

Just another great way for you to bring subject matter experts into your classroom.

Enjoy

Civil War Preservation Trust 7th Annual Teacher Institute

I recently received an email indicating that I'll be presenting at this year's Teachers Institute conducted by the Civil War Preservation Trust. Here are the details:

The Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) will host its Seventh Annual Teacher Institute from July 25-27, 2008 in Hagerstown, MD. This free weekend will feature "field trip" tours of Antietam and Harpers Ferry, focusing on techniques teachers can use to make a battlefield visit a central part of their Civil War curriculum.

Teachers will attend their choice of workshops on Friday and Sunday, covering a range of military and civilian topics. Past presenters of these workshops have included leading historians and educators, and topics have ranged from tactical military history to strategies for teaching the Civil War to struggling readers. These workshops are designed not only to impart specific information about the era but also a variety of pedagogical strategies to help teachers bring the Civil War to life in their classrooms.

Once again, Virginia Tech's Center for Civil War Studies will be an active partner in the institute, and Dr. James I. "Bud" Robertson, director of the center, will be a keynote speaker at the institute. Through our partnership with Virginia Tech, CWPT is able to offer Continuing Education Unit credits to participating educators.

The CWPT Teacher Institute is provided at no direct cost to teachers, who have only to pay for their room and travel. CWPT anticipates being able to provide travel stipends for 10 or more teachers who would not otherwise have been able to attend due to geographic or funding constraints. Stipend applications will be made available to teachers in the near future.

For more information, contact John Blanton at (202) 367-1861 x223 or by e-mail at jblanton@civilwar.org.

Registration forms and details on the CWPT Teacher Institute can also be found on the web at http://www.civilwar.org/historyctandclassrm.htm.