BCDS ~ Decades Of The Cold War

Day 8 ~ The END!

Today is a free day – the last day of our project.

You can customize your assignment for this final class period. At the end of the day, the tumblelogs will close, and together we will have created an interlinked, multimedia history of the Cold War.

4 months ago

A few suggestions, as you ponder how to approach today’s class:

If you have not completed any previous assignments, you would likely want to finish those remaining tasks.

You can then add new material to your page, update any content, redesign any colors or styles, or enhance your page with original, creative elements.

You can consider adding an audio file, either downloaded from the Internet or recorded on your own. You might also contemplate drawing an original political cartoon to scan and post on your page. You could include a few primary sources, such as documents or speeches. Or you could browse your classmates’ pages and create text links to their tumblelogs.

You will probably also want to double-check your page for spelling, grammar, and formatting. The evaluation rubric lists all of the criteria for your eventual project grade. For example, it is extremely important to include a source link for ALL of the content on your page.

In the end, your tumblelog will inform us about your insights into the Cold War decades and will also enlighten us about your priorities as a technology artist. 4 months ago

Day 7 ~ Timeline of Key Events

As always, if you have not yet finished any assignments from previous days, you should begin today’s class by completing those tasks.

Today’s Assignment – Create a Timeline of Five Important Events

Choose five major moments from your time period, and list a date and description for each event. This timeline will be slightly different for each of your pages, depending on the nature of your topic. Choose any format you would like for the timeline, perhaps with bullet points or images or even imported files from another programs.

The one requirement is that your timeline should include two links – probably in the first and last entries – that connect your tumblelog to two of your classmates’ pages. In other words, figure out which of the other project topics chronologically come right before and after yours in history. In the text of your timeline, include links to those pages as you explain how your event fits into the sequence of the historical decades. This way, once each of you has made your timeline, together you will have created a long, interconnected timeline of the Cold War from page to page to page.

If you finish your timeline and would like to be creative, consider adding an audio file, either downloaded from the Internet or recorded on your own.

You might also consider drawing an original political cartoon. You could scan it and post it as a picture on your page. 4 months ago

Day 6 ~ Housekeeping and Historical Links

Begin today by finishing yesterday’s work on videos and quotations. Try to find two quotes that offer opposing points of view on the same topic, and then explain the importance in a brief paragraph underneath. If you know the names of historical leaders from the time period, you can perhaps search for contrasting ideas from those individuals. You might also decide to include a brief description of these people, so the reader of your web page will not be confused by unfamiliar names.

After you finish with yesterday’s assignment, review all of your posts up to this date. Make sure you have posted a source link for every piece of content on your page. Please remember that Google is a search engine, not a source of original web material. Also, please go back and check the formatting, the spelling, the grammar, and the design of your entire tumblelog to make sure that everything is clear, legible, and informative.

Today’s Assignment: Historical Links

Once you finish editing your page, now post two links to the best web resources about your topic. You have been researching your event for over a week, so you have likely come across a wide variety of Internet materials. Post links, therefore, to two different web pages that offer the most valuable, the most educational, and the most engaging information about your topic. Beneath each link, include three bullet points that describe the content of the page and that explain why you feel this particular site is so rich. Obviously, you should not use Wikipedia, ABC-CLIO, or any other site we have already investigated.

If you complete all of these tasks, you may decide to post other relevant information. Perhaps a primary source document would enhance the quality of your page, or perhaps a map would add interesting detail, or perhaps an audio file would add a layer of commentary. Maybe you would even choose to record an original audio analysis through GarageBand. 4 months ago

Day 5 ~ Videos and Quotations

4 months ago

Step 1:

Embed a video about your topic. Try to select a video that offers information or points of view not yet featured on your tumblelog.

Search TeacherTube first. TeacherTube is a video sharing website whose content is intended solely for educational purposes. Feel free to use the searchable toolbar built into the video below: 4 months ago

If you do not find a suitable video, you can search YouTube. Be sure to evaluate the accuracy and respectability of each video you find. Examine who posted it and who produced it, before deciding if it is a valuable addition to your educational website. If you have questions about the quality or appropriateness of a video, please ask.

The video I posted above is about nine minutes long. Try to keep your video, however, under five minutes. Similar to the clips we watch in class, shorter videos are often better for highlighting key pieces of information. As always, be sure to list the source for your video.
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Step 2:

Find and post two quotations about your topic from two opposing points of view. Then compare the quotations in a paragraph underneath. The two quotes should be from important historical figures relevant to your topic, or from historians analyzing the implications of your topic. Try to choose quotations that capture pivotal moments of history, or that hint at the importance of your event, or that offer points of view not yet included on your page.

The quotes should be from real historical sources – not from random Internet searches on BrainyQuote or similar sites.

4 months ago