More uses of Web 2.0 Tools

Mr. T, an 8th grade American Cultures teacher at Hershey Middle School, is the author of the American Cultures 2.0 blog. While reviewing his blog recently, I noticed that he has developed two great uses of Web 2.0 technologies for teaching the Civil War.

The first one is called What stories do these Civil War photographs tell? In this short blog post, Mr. T uses a quick VoiceThread video to get students to look at a photograph and answer questions. There are even several student responses to this post. Very cool!

The second one is called Civil War Day and shows a very nice Animoto photo slide show. The photo slide show is a collection of Civil War era photographs from the Library of Congress and is set to some somber period music.

So, here are two more examples of how you (and your students) can create and share things you are doing in your classroom.

Create & Collaborate!!!

Until Next Time...

More on Using Blogs to Teach the Civil War

I have talked about Eric Langhorst's Speaking of History podcast and blog in the past. While searching TeacherTube recently, I came across this video that he created about how he is using Web 2.0 technologies to teach a book that deals with the Civil War called Guerrilla Season by Pat Hughes.

Be sure to check out Eric's website for some great information on how to use technology in the History classroom.

Antietam under the Surface

I'm an avid reader of the My Year of Living Rangerously blog done by Ranger Mannie. Back in December, he posted Antietam Under the Surface and I began to think about the educational aspects of this post.

Here is a debate topic for your class: What can we learn by excavating a Civil War battlefield? There are those who would say that it is hallowed ground and should not be disturbed. Others say that we must learn from our past in order to preserve the future. I believe that what they did at Antietam was very interesting and will benefit generations to come. How does your class feel about it? Not too long ago, they found bones of a Civil War era soldier near the famous railroad cut at Gettysburg.

What about the actual excavation process? From the photos it appears that they used precision survey equipment and some type of computer software to map coordinates on a graph in order to see where the various items were recovered. Why is this important? It's important because depending on the type of item found and what they know of the actual battle, they can make assumptions as to the unit that fought on that location or how heavy the fighting was in a particular area.

What about those bullets? I read somewhere that they estimate that three million bullets were fired during the Battle of Antietam. If a typical soldier could fire three rounds per minute, how long would it take a company of 100 or a regiment of 1,000 men to fire that many times?

Next time well talk more about weapons. Until then, read the other posts on Ranger Mannie's blog and let him know what you think. You may also wish to explore Virtual Antietam and listen to their brief podcasts and search the monument database.

Using Blogs to Teach the Civil War

Today’s post will be used to list some blogs that talk about the Civil War and could be used within the classroom. You can view these blogs individually or add them to your RSS aggregator.

Civil War Photos: This blog has some excellent photographs from the Gettysburg National Military park and other Civil War battlefields around the country.

Civil War Memory: This blog contains the “reflections of a High School History Teacher and Civil War Historian” and was created by Kevin Levin. Kevin’s blog contains some great posts and links to various ways to teach about the Civil War.

Blog 4 History: This American History and Civil War History blog contains some great research articles that can be incorporated in numerous ways. I especially like the Demographics of the 11^th Wisconsin post and the Civil War in 90 Minutes or Less posts.

Civil War Bookshelf: This blog provides some very good reviews of books related to the Civil War as well as insights into authors and historians.

So, how will you be using blogs in your classroom? Let me know.