Exploring History with Web 2.0
Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 1:14PM The history of our world is absolutely amazing and extremely exciting. The way we teach it can be equally engaging. From wordles to glogs, there are so many web 2.0 tools that can be incorporated in your curriculum to make history come alive for students. I would like to share how we have used these savvy tools to get the creative juices flowing while studying the history of our world.
This year we are combining two history curriculums in order to accommodate the various levels in our homeschooling. For first and second grade, we are using The Story of the World Vol. 2 and we are using History Odyssey Level 2 for our fourth grader. We have been studying the First Kings of Great Britain with a focus on The Battle of Hastings and William the Conqueror. I have to say that I am completely blown away that our children even know who Harold the Unfortunate and Guthorm the Viking even are. Amazing what children are able to learn if only given the chance! As always, I am looking for ways to effectively integrate technology in their learning. I love all of the Web 2.0 tools and find myself using many of them on a regular basis. I want to share some of the ways we have either used these tools or plan to use them during this unit.
After reading from The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
To review events leading up to the Battle of Hastings, Abby, our fourth grader, created a wordle highlighting the important events and people.
This was a great tool! After she completed her review, she used the wordle as a way to quiz her younger brother and sister. You have to love teamwork!
Throughout History Odyssey Level 2, literature plays a key role in the curriculum. I read Macbeth from Tales of Shakespeare written by Charles and Mary Lamb to our children. I was excited to find Google Books has a full preview available to all.
We reviewed the key events and talked about the definition of a tragedy. There are lots of resources at The Folger Shakespeare Library that we will work through. The kids have informed me they want to create their own version of Macbeth. I thought I could record the play with our Flip camera and create a movie of their masterpiece! I also could envision Luc, our second grader, creating a Lego version of Macbeth using stop-motion animation. Maybe we'll do both!
In addition to reading Macbeth, we read and discussed the Rudyard Kipling poem, Norman and Saxon. I set the stage for this activity by reminding them that William the Conqueror had just defeated Harold the Unfortunate and Britain was now under Norman rule. I wanted to stop and reflect on what Kipling had to say about the differences between these two cultures and how this can be applied to our lives now. I created a wordle of the entire poem omitting frequently used words.
We used this wordle to look at several things:
- the mood of the poem
- common themes
- key ideas and facts
- important beliefs to both the Normans and Saxons
These ideas led us to a discussion about differences between conquerors and those whom have been conquered. For a complete look at this lesson, please stop by our school's Time Travel portal.
Our final web 2.0 project involves a research project our fourth grader will do on William the Conqueror. She is going to use eyePlorer to gather information. This is an amazing tool that literally puts a wealth of information at your fingertips while allowing the user to easily manipulate and organize topics. Check out the early stages of her research on William the I. Upon finishing her research, she will type her paper in Google Docs. From here, I think she is planning to incorporate her report in a digital poster using Glogster. I'll happily share when all of this is finished!
Today, I have simply highlighted how we used technology to enhance our learning. All of these ideas can easily be adapted to various topics. Hopefully, this will be a source of inspiration! From history to math and all places in between, I feel technology can play a vital role in the education of our students (in my case, our children). One of my goals for this blog is to show, hopefully, how to incorporate technology in such a way that promotes learning and encourages critical thinking. I welcome feedback and love to bounce ideas around with people.
Note: There are lots of other great ideas to quench your thirst at Thirsty Thursday!