Spreadsheet Integration Project

For this blog entry I reviewed Ms. Eichelberger's "Warlords of Japan" project. I found the project to be interesting although I have my doubts as to how education can be obtained without the use of books. For the project Ms. Eichelberger ordered a kit on-line. The kit contained the necessary materials for her class to participate in a 3-week long project designed to inform the students about feudal Japan through the use of quizzes and spreadsheets. The students were devided into groups ("Castles" named after different Japanese cities). The object was to gain wealth, through correct answers on quizzes and assignments, from the instructor (the "Emperor") to buy armies and attack other "Castles" to gain the Shogunate.

I think that this set up could easily be adapted to a Western Civ history class to teach about alliances and and the political situation in Europe up to and during World War I. The "Castles" in the Japan example could be various European countries. The student groups could form alliances and conduct "battle" through quizzes and assignments with the ultimate goal being the domination of Europe.

WWII Propaganda Cartoons

While our soldiers were overseas fighting WWII, it was important to keep morale up at home and keep the war effort moving forward. Here are 6 cartoons designed to do just that.

slideshare.com Powerpoint Embed

Here is a Powerpoint presentation that is interesting to me in two ways: 1)History is my area of study and 2)I am a Marine Corps veteran. Enjoy!

Marine Corps History

View more presentations from Booboo6572. (tags: marines history)

Here is what I like about this PPT:

- It's information is accurate
- Lots of good information and illustrations
- Follows a good timeline

Here are my issues with this PPT:

- Too long
- Too much text for a good presentation

In reality, I can't see using this PPT in a classroom environment. It seems to me that this PPT would be better for personal information or entertainment.

Google for Educators

I played around on the "Google for Educators" site for a while and there are quite a few good tools. And now for the questions:

1) Name 3 tools that I might want to use with students:

1. Geo Education
2. Google Books
3. Google Docs

2) How do I think I would use these tools?

Geo Education is an awesome tool that works off of Google Earth. It is good for finding facts about target areas of the world and also shows how different places actually are. Would work well for quizzes, short assignments, etc.
Google Books is a tool that I often use myself. It is an excellent source for finding primary and secondary sources for research projects.
Google Docs - well, that will be explained in answer to the next question.

3) Name one advantage of using Google Docs with students.

One advantage of Google Docs is that there is no need for memory devices of any sort (e.g. memory sticks or discs) or paper, which makes organization easy for the absent-minded types (like myself).

Assistive Technology

In spite of the challenges that come with teaching disabled students, there are some very good technologies available to assist teachers of such students and the students themselves. One of these is Spokentext.net.

Spokentext.net is free online service that enables the teacher to convert notes or other written material to recorded speech. Text used can be in either English, French, Spanish or German, making it useful for foreign language teachers and students as well. The audio files are downloadable in multiple forms including mp3. This program would be extremely helpful for students who are blind or have learning disabilities involving reading, such as dyslexia.

Welcome

Well, here it is - the required blog for my Ed-Tech 202. Hopefully this will turn out to be fun and informational. Personally, I'm betting it will.
Ed-Tech 202 is designed to show how technology can be used to enhance the classroom. Here's how I can see a blog being used for a form of communication in the classroom.

First - Assignments. I can't even remember how many times I missed assignments because i forgot to write them down.

Second - Related information. People forget stuff, especially me. If I happen to remember something that should have been said I can just post it in the blog and voila! - problem solved.

Third - Feedback. It's always interesting to have another person's point of view. Comments are a great way to get an insight on a student's interpretation of an assignment or information received in class.

So, there you go. I'm looking forward to a great semester in this class and I'm hoping to learn a lot. (Fingers crossed.)