As I was loading some videos onto Youtube, I came across an exciting video sharing service - TeacherTube. It advertises itself as a community of teachers loading educational videos and class assignments, and it should be monitored a bit more carefully than YouTube. It does'nt have a ton of material as of yet, but hopefully word of mouth will lead more teachers to share their work and the work of their students. I would love to hear from anyone who has used the site and knows of some great clips for American history and/or for student projects!

With less than a week until the conference, I am putting some of the finishing touches on my presentation. The major problem? The more I look around for excellent ideas about technology integration, the larger the presentation becomes. I may never finish! Hopefully the presentation will be successful, and through discussion we will develop new ideas for technology integration in the classroom.

Music excerpts

iPods are all about music, and music was all over the Vietnam era. Excerpts from songs can be presented, along with information about the artists and timing of the song. With copyright restrictions often a concern, the safest way to do this is send students to iTunes sites with song excerpts. In this example, 4 excerpts are provided, along with some historical narrative from the liner notes of Vietnam - Songs from a Divided House, an 2 Cd compilation from the History Channel. Educational fair use policy was applied when developing this podcast.

What Should We Tell Our Children?

The words of the Vietnam era can come to life through recordings and postings of selections from letters, diaries, memoirs, and other collections. An interesting technique is to involve different voices to give the characters some individuality (if multiple perspectives are used). Context for each of the primary sources must also be provided, whether It is information about the author or the setting of the source. In this example, excerpts of What Should We Tell Our Children About Vietnam by Bill McCloud are presented.

Example interview

Interview with someone from the Vietnam Era. In this example podcast, a student interviews his father about his experiences as a platoon leader in Vietnam. Digital oral history is obviously a powerful method of understanding the Vietnam War as well as storing and sharing the memories of the people who lived through the times. Ideas and gudielines for conducting oral history are avaialble on the main "Using Technology to Teach Vietnam" websiteThe interviewer should make sure to get the permission of the interviewee to cast the recording.

Historical Speech - Beyond Vietnam

Historical Speech. In this example podcast, an excerpt of “Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence” by Martin Luther King Jr. is provided. When an historical speech is assigned, students should be given the context of the speech, either in class, as part of the assignment, or as part of the podcast. A written script of the speech is also helpful to many students. Students should also have some focus ideas or questions in order to both structure their listening and provide some accountability. Great technology integration could be reactions posted as blog entries! Excerpts of historical speeches are available across the internet, and the direct links can be assigned instead of creating podcasts for download. For a complete version and text of King's speech, please visit American Rhetoric Top 100 Speeches.

Historical Fiction excerpt

In this example podcast, an excerpt of Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers is presented. Historical fiction has the ability to inform, entertain, move, and capture the interest of even the most reluctant students. The number of young adult titles devoted to the Vietnam era is growing. By choosing action-packed, or poignant passages from a literary work, students may be drawn to read the book or learn more about the historical topic. If an entire class reads a core novel, a passage can be used as a motivator or a technique to encourage students to make predictions and develop a purpose for their reading.

Intro

Welcome to the Teach Vietnam podcast. Podcasting is an easy, informative, exciting, and effective medium for learning in the social studies classroom. These podcasts should serve as examples for teaching Vietnam and the Vietnam era to middle school and high school students. The podcasts were created as part of a presentation entitled “Using Technology to Teach Vietnam” at the 2007 Teach Vietnam Teachers Network Conference, hosted by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.

The 2007 Teach Vietnam Teachers' Network Conference is scheduled for July 18-22 at American University in Washington, D.C. Hosted by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the conference will bring over 30 teachers from around the nation to hear presentations from educators, scholars, authors, and Vietnam era experts. Attendees will not only learn and integrate new ideas and activities for teaching Vietnam, but they will also develop community outreach projects to further publicize the lessons and impact of the Vietnam War. In addition, teachers will work on a group project examining one of several aspects of how the Vietnam War has affected American culture.

Having attended the conference in the past (and presenting at this summer's conference), I can attest that Teachers' Network and the summer conference are outstanding experiences. The conference provides ideas, activities, resources, and inspiration for teaching the Vietnam War, and the connections made with teachers across the nation are extremely beneficial. I look forward to seeing everyone in DC in July!

For more information about the conference, check out the VVMF website.

A regional conference for educators to learn more about teaching the lessons of Vietnam in their classrooms will be held on Saturday, Oct. 21 at the Milwaukee County War Memorial Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The conference will feature presentations that address various aspects of bringing the lessons of Vietnam into the classroom. One session will show educators how to use “primary sources” such as photographs and letters home to teach students about the Vietnam War era. Other sessions will look at how art can be used to help students comprehend the realities of the time and how technology can be incorporated into both lessons and student research. Another presentation will look at how the media’s portrayal of the Vietnam War and its era has influenced popular thought.

For more information or to register, click here.