Two of the 5th grade teachers at Dubois school are working in partnership with staff from the Lincoln's Home National Historic Park to create a living history project for their students.  The following video is an introduction for students and mentors to explain what the project is and how it works.
 

Get RealPlayer	Open in RealPlayer
Powerpoint presentation	Text only

Technical Issues:

1.  The URL for the clip is http://cternt1.ed.uiuc.edu:554/ramgen/edpsy490i/madkins/trainer.smi

2.  I used the following embed code:
<center>
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<br><object width="650" height="75" classid="clsid:CFCDAA03-8BE4-11cf-B84B-0020AFBBCCFA"><param name="_ExtentX" value="17330"><param name="_ExtentY" value="1984"><param name="AUTOSTART" value="0"><param name="SHUFFLE" value="0"><param name="PREFETCH" value="0"><param name="NOLABELS" value="0"><param name="CONTROLS" value="all"><param name="CONSOLE" value="_master"><param name="LOOP" value="0"><param name="NUMLOOP" value="0"><param name="CENTER" value="0"><param name="MAINTAINASPECT" value="0"><param name="BACKGROUNDCOLOR" value="#000000"><embed src="http://cternt1.ed.uiuc.edu:554/ramgen/edpsy490i/madkins/trainer.smi" width="650" height="75" type="audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin" controls="all" console="_master"></object></center>

3.  The clip lasts for about 4 minutes and 36 seconds.

4.  The quality of the sound/picture is fair to poor.  I have not been able to get it to play beyond the first slide.  Most of the time the sound is very tinny and the picture has large sections missing.    I included both the streaming clip and the powerpoint presentation to show the difference in quality.  The powerpoint gives much clearer images because of it's larger size, but needs a long time to download.  The streaming clip downloads much more quickly, but I had to adjust the graphics in the slide to accommodate the smaller size.  The playback is also extremely unreliable.

5.  I evaluated this clip using a 56Kmodem.

6.  My students will be viewing this clip using a LAN Ethernet connection.  This will probably improve the accessability and quality of the clip.
 

Pedagogical Issues:

1.  This clip will be used as part of our Social Studies curriculum focusing on 19th century history.

2.  I will be using this clip as an introduction to our Living History Project.  I will also use it to help mentors better understand the project and their role in it.

3.  Since this clip is a basic introduction, there will be no immediate activity following it.  The activities for this project are spread out over a 4 month perios and include research, creating a display board, creating a presentation, and performing a reenactment.

4.  After viewing the clip I will answer questions that students have about their involvement in the project.  The student interaction and collaboration are an integral part of the project itself.

5.  This lesson will address a wide variety of learning styles.  It includes visuals including images and text and well as audio narration.  It can also be stopped and/or reviewed in order to vary the pace as needed.

6.  Student learning is assessed throught the project.  Assessments include grading note cards and display boards and evaluation of participation in group activities and of reenactment performances.