class notes

Chance- extranormal.com website. Civic values. Deal with a controversial issue. Research issue, take a stance, and create a movie, podcast or other to rally others. Also by petitioning and blogging, wiki. Reflection, whether or not they made an impact.

Zahara- learning about voting rights, go online, use resources, and teach other younger students what they learned through skype.

Michael- nursing homes. People don’t have family that visit. Students go visit people and interview them and make a digital story presentation through garage band and upload them to youtube. Oral history!

Adam- voter registration, voter information. Observe trends over time and create their own resources to get people to vote, or create their own resources on an issue. Then do a community presentation… booth in the school or community center. Media presentations and community outreach.

Megan- human trafficking. 17000 people in this country. Students would get into four groups. Digital story telling, brochure, podcast… compile them onto a website so they have a resource to do a letter writing campaign to send to congress. Promote awareness for this by uploading a blue heart.

Jen- military letter writing. Difficult to read, and snail mail takes forever. Write on the wiki or a blog to talk to all branches. They can send maps and videos, and students send videos to show military.

Josh- Veterans- interview for 30 minutes. Research the history to get basic background knowledge about the war the interviewee was in. Use garage band to do a 2-minute thing. They will then blog about their experience and reactions with the veterans. Then show the veteran what was created.

Jeremy- war on drugs, and awareness. Its intentions. Create a wiki on the war on drugs. Write their representatives, on a drug thing that they wanted to write about.

Megan G- Support a soldier, middle school. Paired up with personal connections. Work with the community to get support (care packages) for the troops. Learn about the geography from the soldiers.

Elizabeth H- operation Christmas child. Learn about the culture that it works with. Interview them and find out what motivates them to, blog about it. Conduct their own learning experience.

Eric- using technology to help the elderly. Can only use snail mail. Have students visit and have them talk to the elderly. Conduct an interview and research. Show them how to email and then re-conduct questioning. Write about it, and compile on an inquiry map.

Elizabeth J- increasing culture awareness, lecture on immigration, focus on culture and language . create a wiki on each country. Poll school on heritage.

Me- Habitat

Louisa- Nursing homes are lonely places, people without purposes. Students will ask themselves questions. Students will present their vodcasts to the nursing home residents. They have a “party”. Teaches students about history and oral history, and they form a friendship and keep visiting them.

Mark- Storybird. Knowing the avenues. Global warming. Talk to politicians. Use wiki. Connecting the class and students to politicians. Update the wiki with updates.

Katie- students will examine impacts on experiences. Visit nursing home, and conduct an interview. Ask questions, about their past, how did it shape their life. Students will create videos, using video or audio from the interview.

Jeff- go to local parks and see how people affect the environment. People leave trash everywhere. Help clean up the parks. Have students learn about wildlife conservation, write a blog what they did.

Megan p- students will research elections, voter turnout and trends. How the government has affected daily lives. Visit retirement home. Class make a podcast. Tied to voting. Send a thank you letter.

Britney- increase young people voter turn out. Mostly during an election year, typically young people don’t vote. Use survey monkey to create questions. Use myspace

Nichole- students will learn about voting and campaigning. They will learn about politics. They will use a google motion chart to look at trends, and create a wiki.

Angie- students will learn about their individual rights and teach them to the community. Students will select a topic, pertaining to individual rights, and put info into class wiki. Create an interactive display on their topic. Write to local government, police, lawyers, local businesses to do raffles.

Trish- have students communicate with students, and expand their cultural horizons. Students can learn about bias, and on the website showcase what they’ve learned. Talk about biases, showcase what they’ve learned. Write a paper talking

Alli- research newspaper articles. September 11th, read tradebooks and add to the project. About the patriot act. Interview what peoples knowledge is about the patriot act. Create wikis.

Carrie- oral history of the cold war of a family member, and create an article based on the interview. Upload onto a wiki, put the interview on. Provide info to the newspaper and bring awareness to the community.

Grieselda- Haiti study. Kids work with Haitian students and learn about the cultural aspects of their lives. Create class website. Collect funds and supplies to send to the students.

Glog Blog

http://mak586.edu.glogster.com/Stock-Market/

service learning- habitat for humanity

Service Learning Project

Title: “Helping Homelessness in a Struggling Economy”

Area of Service: Environment and Civic Responsibility

Grades: 9-12

Subject Area: Economics/Civics and Government

Unit Description:

Students will pair with Habitat for Humanity in their community. Students will get into groups of 4 to do this project. Students will work with Habitat to help determine the costs that are involved with building a house and research cost effective ways of building these houses. Students will use the Internet to do this research, along with working with the Habitat individuals to figure out what a good cost effective solution would be in building the houses. Furthermore, students will conduct an interview with the Habitat volunteers to get a “hands on” account of the way that houses are financed. Students will place their reports on their wikis.

Next, students will interview families that have received homes through Habitat for Humanity to create “poster families,” and build support and recognition for Habitat. The students can chose a variety of ways to create these “Faces of Habitat.” Students have the choice to do a podcast, with uploading the audio of their interview. Students can also do a video blog with a video of the interview. Students can take pictures and write a story on their blog. Or students can create an “article,” in which they could e-mail out to individuals. By interviewing the families, and finding out their biographies, students are able to understand who the families are that receive the housing, and understand how their situation occurred. Biographies are very important for understanding the past and moving forward to the future, and it is necessary for any social studies student to be exposed to recording the biographies of others.

Students will then tie in what they have learned with Urban Economics. Students will write a post on their wiki tying in the details of the families and the costs, with how homelessness and poverty affects cities, as learned about in the urban aspect of economics. Students will research the effects of homelessness on a city, and what can lead to this issue. Students will then propose a solution to the problem. They will write this and post this in their wiki.

Next Generation Sunshine State Standards:

SS.912.E.2.11: Assess the economic impact of negative and positive externalities on the local, state, and national environment.

SS.912.C.2.5: Conduct a service project to further the public good.

SS.912.C.2.3: Experience the responsibilities of citizens at the local, state, or federal levels.

SS.912.C.2.2: Evaluate the importance of political participation and civic participation.

NETS Standards:

1. Creativity and Innovation

Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:

a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.

b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression.

d. identify trends and forecast possibilities.

2. Communication and Collaboration

Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:

a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.

b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.

d. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.

3. Research and Information Fluency

Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students:

a. plan strategies to guide inquiry.

b. locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.

c. evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.

d. process data and report results.

4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making

Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources. Students:

a. identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation.

b. plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.

c. collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions.

5. Digital Citizenship

Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students:

a. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.

b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.

c. demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.

6. Technology Operations and Concepts

Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Students:

a. understand and use technology systems.

b. select and use applications effectively and productively.

Technologies and Web Applications Applied:

Students will be using a wiki to complete their cost assignments. They also will have the choice of any type of technology to complete their biography and advocacy assignment. They will be able to chose from a podcast, a blog, a wiki, an article, or etc. to make their Habitat advocacy assignment. They will also be using technology to figure out the cost benefits of building homes in different ways.

Assessment:

Part 1- Research and participation- Each group will be graded on the participation within the group. The group will be graded on the research and conclusions they present about the cost analysis of financing a home, and the solutions they present.

Part 2- Interview and Response- Each group will be graded on quality of interview and creativity if the technology and response they present. Students will be graded on the quality of they information they include, and the neatness of the presentation.

Part 3- Individual wiki- Each student will tie in what they have learned with the economics that have been presented in class. Students will individually draw conclusions about urban economics and will present this on their wiki. They will link homelessness to economic downturn, and create conclusions based on their analysis. They will be graded on the content of what they produce.

Gandhi and his "followers"

I thought that this video was very interesting. I thought that it was crazy that people had reported the earthquake before it was truly "reported." With the technology we have in our hands today, we have the power to rapidly spread information, important... and not so important. Life for everyone would have been completely different had they had the technology we have today. Think if Paul Revere would not have had to make his midnight ride because he used technology to send the information. Imagine if there were modems like facebook and twitter during the Holocaust or Vietnam. These mediums would have changed the entirety of our history books.

Imagine if Mahatma Gandhi had "followers" on Twitter! Think how much quicker he could have spread his information to his true followers. He could have led India to independence and inspired the civil rights and freedoms much quicker than he did. He could have sent out a mass facebook message, or tweeted information about the Dandi Salt March,a march to the sea to collect salt in protest of the British salt tax, by informing everyone with ease the details of what would take place. He could have protested through technological mediums, along with his non violence protests. He could have easily spread information about the removal of the concept of untouchables and increasing the popularity of hand-spinning. Gandhi made an impact on the world, but think how much more he could have accomplished with these technological advances we now hold so dear to our hearts today.

Sure, in retrospect, technology could have been a wonderful asset to much of our history... It could have saved many time and effort in making a difference, or to promote the good for mankind. We like to think how much easier and better technology has improved our lives, and how much better it could have made the lives for those in the past... But what if this technology was used for evil? What if Hitler had the power to mass message Hitler's youth through facebook or twitter? What could have made history worse by having these technologies?

Whateva, Whateva! I do what I want!

The video Michael Welch posted was entertaining and interesting. I dreaded watching it at first, thinking to myself that this was going to be a boring video repeating the same things the media claims about technology. This video was very entertaining, and brought the audiences attention in with the YouTube clips that he interspersed throughout the video. It definitely kept my attention and focus on the information presented. Though I wish that he would have touched on the different technological mediums, I think the YouTube part was very interesting. Though I really only watch the "typical" funny clips shown on YouTube, it does play a very large role in the lives of our youth. So many people utilize this website to watch a myriad of things. Really, any video you could think to want to watch, is on YouTube. I was shocked to find that so many videos are being uploaded, that they are being uploaded faster that it could be possible to watch them all. With all of this being poured into the web, it is very much a big part of our "media ecology." Throughout my entertainment I still feel the same way about social networking... to me, not much has changed.

I am not big into all the "latest trends" when it comes to internet technology. I rarely used a myspace in high school, and before this class, never used anything but facebook. It annoys and bothers me to watch videos of people just talking, pouring out their souls to God knows who. It makes me super uncomfortable to see people be uncomfortable in their video posts of their lives. To me, it just reinforces the fact that the "self" is very narcissistic. People need to stop posting these ridiculous video posts describing what is going on in their lives, how a workout didn't work for them, how their boyfriend broke up with them, or what class they just hate... NO ONE CARES. While it allows the person to experience things without fear, it is not how the real life is. Many people hide behind their computer screens thinking that they can post what they like, but that is not how the real world is. People need to be able to connect in the real world with people. They need to be able to talk and interact and have human contact. The self needs to be more like the video with the "one world." Not all for one, but one for all. In the words of Bob Marley... "Sayin' One Love, One Heart
Let's get together and feel all right
I'm pleading to mankind (One Love)"

While I believe that using certain sites on the web can be very beneficial to use in the classroom, I do not believe we should focus a major amount of time. It can be very useful to use Ning, Netvibes, and Twitter for a classroom. I think showing some videos on YouTube can add to the learning environment of the classroom. But I feel if we stray too far over this very fine line, that students will lose the real life engagement in the classroom. I think that students are now sitting back and hiding behind their computers, disengaged, and this has to change!

When do we have our students voice their opinions online? It helps loosen them up, that is a certain... but where do we draw the line? When do we lose classroom debate and move to debates on blogs? Are we forgoing too much of the real life interaction? Can too much of a good thing be a bad thing?

Watergate

We found some very interesting podcasts by Nixon about the Watergate scandal. Many of the podcasts we found were Nixon's phone interviews about the scandal. This was very interesting to hear, and I believe that students would find this to be far more interesting and entertaining than reading about Watergate in the texts (though it was one of the more interesting things I studied in history). I feel like these podcasts would be very useful to integrate into an activity for a lesson on Watergate.

I think an interesting assignment would be to have the students study the case United States v. Nixon. The students could read up on details of the case and get in groups and discuss key points. One they decide on the basic facts of the case, they could discuss and decide on the constitutional issues regarding the case. They then could research and state why the Court made the decision that they did.

In addition to researching the details of the case, which students should do on their own or in their groups to work on their researching skills, they should be provided the podcasts to listen to so that they can get a different perspective on the case. Through these podcasts, Nixon is confronted with the scandal at hand, and students can see how he reacts to the accusations and questions. I think that these primary sources would certainly prove to be great additions to the lesson on Watergate. Furthermore, one of the podcasts is a video podcast, which is an interesting bonus for students to watch. Students could also be given the website http://www.oyez.org/cases/1970-1979/1974/1974_73_1766 which they could research the basic information of the case, and listen to oral arguments and the opinion announcement.

What students really are researching and deciding on (though the Court already made the decision) is this... Is the President's right to protect certain information, using his "executive privilege" confidentiality power, entirely immune from judicial review? The students can discuss this issue via groups and present their findings to the class.

Another perhaps more engaging activity would be for students to have a "mock trial" with the United States v. Nixon case. Students could each be assigned certain roles, including prosecutor, defense, witnesses, jury, etc. Students could research for their role, and be prepared to "go to trial." This would be a fun topic for students to participate in. They could use the podcasts as "evidence" for the trial, and it would make the trial more engaging because they have "actual proof" of what has been said by Nixon. It just makes the process seem more realistic!

Another great source for information...
http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/museum/exhibits/watergate_files/index.html
(I love the set up of this website!)

This is also a cool site with Nixon's resignation letter...
http://www.landmarkcases.org/nixon/home.html