Dr. Rev. Billy Graham - "He is Risen"

In this podcast episode, we feature Reverend Billy Graham sharing a five-minute, low-key talk about importance of the Easter Story that he recorded in 1960 while on location in Jerusalem. There is a video of the same speech available through YouTube (click this link to watch it). Dr. Graham has retired from active preaching and lives in an assisted medical care facility. His wife passed a few years ago. I attended one of his revival meetings in a crowded Royals baseball stadium in Kansas City many years ago. It was an experience that I still remember today. Here is just a little bit of information about him. He was an active preacher and author for six decades. Dr. Graham sought to relate the Bible to contemporary social issues. He preached jointly with Dr. Martin Luther King at some crusades in the 1950s. Graham provided some of the bail money to release Dr. King when he was arrested after a civil rights demonstration. It is estimated the total audience at revival meetings, listeners on radio, and viewers on television of Dr. Graham’s messages exceeds two billion people. Click this link for a PDF from Wikipedia on the life of Dr. Graham.

Updated 2017 Guide to iPad Apps for Academic and Personal Use

I updated by 2017 Guide to iPad Apps for Academic and personal Use.  Click on the following link to download the PDF document. <click on this link>.  I added a collection of apps for listening to podcasts on iOS devices. Whle the Apple Podcast app is my preference, there are others that provide different ways to sort through the 250,000+ podcasts available through the iOS ecosystem. 

Recommended History Podcasts

Click on this link to read a handout I prepared on podcasts related to history that I have subscribed for free through the iTunes Podcast service. I do not claim to listen to all the episodes obviously. However, I go through and select episodes of particular interest. I do make sure to download all episodes and went into the settings for my podcasts so that past episodes that are played do not automatically become deleted. Apple does that by default so that your hard drive is not becoming overloaded with media that you may not ever play again.  While this is not a big issue with most audio podcasts, some video podcasts have enormous file sizes simply because it takes more room to provide them. Several of my personal favorites are the video podcasts from NASA. If you subscribe to the HD quality video podcasts, individual episodes can exceed 200 MB. Fortunately, most recent personal computers are increasingly providing standard hard drives of a terabyte or more.  As a history teacher, I like to keep all the episodes for future reference. I think of them as my personal library like some people like to collect movie DVDs.

In 2013, Apple reported that a billion people world-wide have subscribed to a quarter-million podcasts in 100 languages, and that more than eight million episodes have been published in the iTunes Store thus far. Searching for podcasts through the iTunes Store can be a challenge. The following list is merely a sample of the history podcasts. They were enough of an interest to me to subscribe.

Many of the podcast shows can be subscribed to through iTunes, Google Play Store, and other mediasubscription services. Since I am most familiar with the Apple media ecosystem, the following podcasts are available through the Apple iTunes store.  These are identified by the iTunes name appearing in the title line for the podcast. Formal subscription to the podcasts are not required for some of the series. With these podcasts, go to the podcast web site and click on the show to immediately listen to it. A few of the podcasts are available through the iTunesU in the Apple iTunes store.  Those podcasts are identified below with iTunesU. These will not appear in the search window if you look in the Apple iTunes Podcast page. You need to select the iTunesU library instead.

Using iTunes makes subscribing process easier for the podcast series. If the iTunes name appears in the podcast title line, go to the iTunes web site after you have downloaded the software to your computer (available for free from http://iTunes.com). Type the name of the podcast into the search window within iTunes and a window will open with information about the podcast. Simply click on the “subscribe” button within this window and the podcast series is automatically downloaded to your iTunes library account. New ones are automatically posted in the future. If you use another subscription service other than iTunes, or if the podcast show is not listed in the iTunes directory, you may need to enter the “subscription link” address by copying this link URL into your podcasting software (like iTunes, Juice, iPodder, or other RSS radio podcast client). This link is different than the URL for the web page.

Click on this link to download the my directory of favorite history podcasts you can subscribe for free through Apple iTunes. These should also be available through the Google Play Store as well.

Using Social Media in My Introductory Global History Course

With class size increasing in an introductory global history course, more academic support was needed to support students achieving high grades and engagement. Universal Learning Design (ULD) provided the guiding educational theory for using this pedagogical approach to make course content accessible through alternative formats and for all students in a class.

Objectives for students enrolled in course included increasing engagement with the learning process through direct involvement with producing and sharing new information related to the course; stimulating learning through use of emerging technology-based learning venues; building a sense of community by involving students in teaching one another; empowering students to become co-producers of the learning process and the outcomes; and increasing measurable student outcomes, such as lower rates of course withdrawal and higher final course grades.

Interactive Social Media Channels Used by Instructors and Students

iPad. Students use iPads to complete readings (paper textbook eliminated), audio and video files, and create a group visual history project through an ePub for their iPad.

Podcasting. http://iTunes.com For the past five years, podcasts, audio or video recordings delivered automatically to a subscriber through their computer, iPod, or smartphone. Students co-create weekly enhanced audio podcasts to review course material, interview history informants, and create international-themed music programs. The history course podcast is called Then and Now, http://thenandnow.org Weekly podcast episodes provide a review of class topics, exam preparation, interviews with people with life experiences related to class history events, and music reflective of cultures studied during the course. A key for the podcast was that it was co-produced by the course instructor and the students. Individual episodes can be downloaded or free subscription through iTunes. Nearly 200 episodes have been produced during the past five years.

Animoto. http://animoto.com/education Instructor uses online music video software to create reviews of critical slides from the PP presentations for exam review. Students create history music videos of topics of high interest to themselves. Users have the ability to upload digital photos, use the Animoto free music library, add text and title slides, and the online service does the mixing of the videos. Highly professional videos with sophisticated transitions created. Up to 50 free unlimited accounts are available for students in a class each semester. Anyone can obtain a free license to create limited, 30-second music videos. Contact the company to make a request at the web address identified above.

Xtranormal. http://www.xtranormal.com/ Instructor uses the online animation software to create short dialogues among historical characters to illustrate major concepts reviews in the course. Educators can obtain an unlimited license for creating the animated videos. Others can make short ones for free and pay a fee for longer ones. An example was created by the course instructor of a fictional dialogue between Adam Smith, an early proponent of capitalism and Karl Marx, co founder of socialism. The short animated video is available through YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnRNXVLu3ek

Twitter. Instructor alerts students to relevant news stories related to class topics. The history course Twitter feed is http://twitter.com/pstl1251

iPad TV apps. Free apps permit watching during class TV news stories produced in France (France24), Middle East and England with bureaus worldwide (Al Jazeera, BBC).

Wiki Web Page. Students create an exam review web site before major exams. UMN Google Sites is used to host the web site, http://myworldhistory.org

UMConnect. http://www.oit.umn.edu/umconnect/ Use for online interactive study review sessions before major exams. A previous recorded session is available at https://netfiles.umn.edu/users/arend011/PsTL%201251/Exam%20Two%20Review.mov

For more information contact David Arendale, Associate Professor, Co-Director Jandris Center for Innovative Higher Education; University of MN, College of Education & Human Development, Postsecondary Teaching & Learning Department, Burton Hall 225, 178 Pillsbury Drive, SE, Mpls, MN 55455; 612-625-2928; arendale@umn.edu http://arendale.org; http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidarendale