Social Bookmarking/ Excel

Social Bookmarking would be great for teachers who embrace technology and the internet. For instance, my high school history teacher loved using census data. Since the data could encompass 10+ pages when printed, he often gave us the links so we could access them in the lab or at home. Typing out a link of roughly 100 characters was incredibly tedious. If my teacher would have been able to provide links on a social bookmarking site, my life would have been made so much easier.

I think social bookmarking is nice too because you can use the highlight feature to make sure students note essential pieces of the readings. They may also use the highlighter to indicate small sections of a large website that students should read. Finally, I plan to use social bookmarking to help streamline current events. I'm a social studies teacher. Current events are a must. Traditionally, each student printed or cut out their article and brought them to class. Then, in class, everyone reads their article. I would like to use social bookmarking so all the students could post the links and I could display them on a monitor for everyone to see and read. This would also create a record of everything that happened in the world while they were in my class.

My Diigo page is http://www.diigo.com/user/chaser90

Now that I have been reacquainted with Excel, I really like it. I've created a budget and spending spread sheet which has actually enlightenment me in terms of my spending habits (let's just say I show my Irish heritage). Unfortunately, my Excel program is not working for some reason so until the issue is resolved, I'm without my new favorite program.

5 ideas for using Excel in the curriculum:
1) Using online census data and excel, students will create graphs to show population fluctuation in selected towns over the decades
2) Using historical figures, students will create graphs illustrating the casualty rates of battles during a war (ex. American Civil War, WWI, WWII, etc.)
3) In an addition to the stock market game, students will plot the value of their group's stocks each morning for one month. At the end of the students will present their graphs and explain fluctuations
4) Using election data, students will create a chart using Excel, illustrating election trends either locally or nationally
5) Students will answer a generic survey, and then together, we will fill in the data to create bar graphs. The goal will be to teach students about how surveys are constructed and the data they can compile. A possible extension could be a complete lesson on statistics.