Civil War And Reconstruction

History Institute Workshop Main Menu

Activity Suggestions

K-12 Teachers' Workshop

March 6, 1998

 

Sponsored by the History Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Creating and Saving a Web Page on Disk Using Netscape

• Open Netscape
• Insert your 3.5" disk into the disk drive of your computer
• Name your disk, if you have not previously done so (the computer will bring up a window in which you can do so if it doesn't see a name already assigned)
• Locate and link to web page which you wish to save
• Bring up the File menu at the top using your mouse and holding down the mouse button
• From File menu, select Save As... option
• When the Save As... window opens, do the following:
  • Rename the document (the web page being saved) to the file name of your choice
  • In the upper left corner, place your mouse arrow over the folder selection box at the top and hold down the mouse button
  • Select the Desktop option with your cursor and mouse button
  • Select your disk name from the available options listed for the Desktop
  • Select the Save option from the window choices
• Once the watch icon has disappeared from your screen, the document has been saved to your disk

NOTE: If your disk has been formatted for the Macintosh, you will only be able to retrieve these pages if you are on a Macintosh computer which contained Netscape (the idea works similarly for PCs). To re-open one of your saved pages, simply select the page file from your disk by holding down your mouse button, and move it over the Netscape icon on your desktop. When the Netscape icon is highlighted, remove your finger from the mouse button and your site should open in Netscape.

Site Assessment

One of the skills needed to use web sites in classroom environments successfully is the ability to assess a site critically. The following link will direct you to a format for assessment designed and tested in classrooms at Bemidji State University. You may adapt this format for your classroom use as well.

Assessment Direction Sites:

Evaluating Information on the Internet, Eileen Walsh, Bemidji State University

 

Trying Out Site Assessment

Using the links on the Civil War and Reconstruction Workshop home page, investigate the following sites using 3+ of Walsh's evaluation criteria. Select criteria that would make sense in your preparations for classroom teaching or for in-class use with your students.

• Team 1: Massachusetts 54th Regiment Sites
• Team 2: First Person Accounts by Civil War Soldiers
• Team 3: First Person Accounts by African Americans
• Team 4: Abolition
• Team 5: Civil War Music and Poetry and Archives of African American Music

 

Search Engines

Search engines are tools that allow you to find a list of sites related to a keyword or topic idea of your choice. There are a variety of search engines available to you, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.

To do the following activity, you will need to have a keyword, set of keywords, or topics in mind. Feel free to use something that you learned in today's morning session.

• Using your cursor and mouse button, navigate to the menu at the top of your Netscape window
• Bring up the Directory menu at the top of your window by locating it with your cursor and holding down your mouse button
• Select Internet Search from the options in the Directory menu by highlighting that option with your cursor and removing your finger from your mouse button
• From the list of choices that appear in your web page window on Netscape, select one of the available search engines (examples: yahoo, excite, infoseek...)
• Enter your keyword/set of keywords/topic in the available box and hit the Return/Enter key on your keyboard (please note that different search engines require you to enter text in different ways. Review the instructions for your particular search engine if you need assistance)
• Explore some of the sites brought up by your search, noting the strengths and weaknesses of the sites collectively (did they meet your needs? were there irrelevant sites mixed in with relevant ones?)
• Repeat the same search with a second search engine for comparison (to navigate back to the search engine page, use the Go menu option from your Netscape window and select the Internet Search option.

Classroom Use of Sites

One of the principal objectives of these workshops is to expose you to primary documents and related curriculum development resources on the internet. Using the skills that we have developed, locate two sites that you might use in the classroom and prepare the following for discussion (feel free to use the links we've created for you):

• Why did you select these sites for use?
• What from these sites do you plan to incorporate into your classroom activity?
• How might you present these sites to your students?