Hi,  I added some ideas to the google docs today.  Look it over, add to it... we have a lot to accomplish on this project and cant' wait till the last minutes. 

Hey guys I will have my websites posted by mid night thanks brandon

http://www.mikvgs.org/historical_records/historical_records.aspx
        this website you can find records of people of their birth and death. 


http://www.kalamazoocity.org/docs/KalamazooHistory.pdf
      This website gives a brief discussion on the history of Kalamazoo. Talks about when the fur traders came and settled in the region during the 18th and 19 century up to the year 2005.

http://kalamazoogenealogy.org/
        This website is basically like a database that has records of cemeteries in Kalamazoo.


http://kvm.kvcc.edu/localhistory/researchhistory.html
       This website is Kalamazoo Valley Museums website. They have some information posted. You can also find photos.

Hi group!

I peeked ahead to this week's module, and went ahead and created a google document and invited everyone as an editor. You should have received an email notifying you. Let me know if you didn't and I'll try again. We'll need someone else to open a map and invite members.

Judging by the assignment description, I think a cool idea would be to have our "students" link up with another group of students in a different region or country over ePals and compare and contrast local history. I think that would make for a reasonably straight forward lesson to create as a group, that would also be cool to actual do with a class. Thoughts? Once we decide on an assignment we can all start chipping away at creating our document and map!

Hi Group,
I wanted to share a little about the websites I found.  The first one is
http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-Midwest/Kalamazoo-History.html
It talks about he original settlers in Kalamazoo and the different stages it has seen for ex.  the first crops that were plentiful there was celery, giving Kalamazoo the nickname The Celery city! 

The second site I used is http://www.migenweb.org/kalamazoo/history.htm, and it has pages of information on everything about Kalamazoo.  I think this is a great site to use for students, it has a search bar, genealogy, history, etc.  It is easy to follow and you can add to it through the host.

The third site I chose is http://www.swmidirectory.org/History_of_Kalamazoo_County.html, which is a reprint of a magazine article.  This reads like a history book, but it is short and has some good information in it.

Looking forward to seeing what all of you have found!
Meg

http://www.kpl.gov/local-history/all-about-kalamazoo/

http://www.kalamazoocity.org/docs/KalamazooHistory.pdf


http://kalamazoogenealogy.org/
 -this website is full of records. They can find information of a person, businesses and stuff on here.
Here are my three websites.

My 3 Websites

Here are my websites:

http://www.kalamazoomi.com/hisf.htm
http://kpl.gov/local-history/all-about-kalamazoo/
http://www.wmich.edu/~asylum/history/legislative_timeline.html

The last site is focused on the Asylum Lake Preserve in Kalamazoo. So, it's a little more specific, but that's definitely a topic students might be interested in, so I think it's still valid.

Hi all,
Here are three websites I am looking at.

http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-Midwest/Kalamazoo-History.html

http://www.swmidirectory.org/History_of_Kalamazoo_County.html

http://www.migenweb.org/kalamazoo/history.htm
  Meg

Hi everyone hope all is well and everyone got my email. I apologize for not being available this past weekend and am trying to get on the same page with everyone but am kind of confused. Would anyone be willing to give me a call to get me caught up? My number is (586)291-3474. I like the ideas so far, everything sounds great. Thanks and sorry again.

Brandon Stewart

Completed Inspiration Concept Map

Drafted Map

I made our concept map. I didn't know if we'd decided for sure what the project was actually going to be, live museum or some sort of filmed product, but I figure the process of getting there would be basically the same either way, and it would just be the end product that varied. I made it with suggestions for both projects, so we can just delete the bubbles for whichever one we choose to drop. So, I'll be emailing that to you so that you can review and make suggestions. I won't post it until tomorrow night probably around 10 pm.

Let's decide...

 I really like Meg's technology driven idea where students could be in groups of 4-6. They could film a documentary detailing a specific person or event in their local history. Like you said, Meg, that requires a writer, director, cameraman, and at least one actor, maybe more. They would also have to do internet-based research, use a video camera, and potentially learn how to use editing software.

Does anyone have any specific objections to this idea? As I said before, I'd be happy to make up the first draft of our concept map, and email it to everyone prior to posting it so everyone could make suggestions, but I need to know our topic so I can do so. So, let's shoot for a group consensus on our topic by Saturday afternoon at the latest. I agree, Kara, it is stressful to do this online. Hopefully for future group assignments we can try to meet as a group on campus.

Hello, Im sorry for taking so long to get back to you all. Im not a big fan of blogging. I like the group work better so we can communicate faster and work on it together at the same time vs over computer. I am only able to get on at certain times due to my schedule being so busy between work, school and internship. Ok..I like the idea for students to pick their own locations but due to the vast amount of information, i think that a class should be divied into groups to work on different cities within their county. For example, divide a class into groups of 4 and allow them to choose the local history of Kalamazoo, MI. For our topic I think we should choose a city just because of the vast amount of information. I like the idea of the daily logs to montor the students progress and work. This can help teachers to see if they are able to judge websites (true information vs. false information). I like the history museam idea and the timeline idea. Other types of technology that can be incorporated in the project are monitors, projectors (to show presentations/slides), camcorders to tape a video, laptops, microphones to be able to commmunicate with one another/record statements.

 Here are some ideas of what we need to think about on our concept map.  I am sure there are many more details that we still need here.

local history

technological presentations

      people

      places

      events

tasks

    research

     teacher approval of subject

    outline of information

what method to present

what event to present

time frame for project

groups- what size

length of presentations

documentation

Hi Group,
I've been doing more thinking on the topic of "local" and I think that we can create this project to be used wherever local is to the teacher using it.  We are creating lesson plans, projects and it would be great if is where something that each of us could use in different locations.
What do you think?

As far as ideas... we have two right now and need feedback from everyone.  The first one is a  living history museum where students are historical characters.  The second one is having the students creating different technology driven projects about their local history, including videos, movies, things like that.  The students would have to be the researchers, writers, directors, maybe actors in their projects and then it can all be tied together in a public event at the end of the project.
Again, we need feedback, ASAP.  This is due this weekend as a concept map!
Thanks!
Meg

Concept Map Ideas

Here are a few of the things I am thinking will need to go into our project's concept map, assuming I'm understanding the role of the map correctly, and assuming we're going with the live museum idea.

-Region of study: Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County, SW Michigan- this will need to be decided
-Would this be a solo or partner project?
-What modes of research would the students use? This is a tech class so we may want to focus on tech-based research strategies. Good chance to teach kids how to use the internet safely and appropriately.
-How would we monitor progress while students research and prepare? I've made projects where students would use daily logs to record what they researched, what they learned, what they need to look into more, etc.
-What other types of technology can be incorporated into the  project?

What do you all think? I would really like to get started, but it's hard with 4 people communicating over blogs and emails to make ONE map. So, let me know what you are thinking : )

testing.