Rationale

To engage students in past history using current technology.

Students are to design a blog using the format from CNN.com., reporting on a last day of the year. There are 30 years to choose from, December 31, 1977 through December 31, 2007.

The pages will be entitled MNN.com or My News Network

What was the world like in the year you selected? What was popular in music, T.V., Film? What about in 1985? 1977? What were the issues of the day? What was being advertised? How have things changed? What role does the internet play in our lives? Write 100 word, single spaced paper discussing the above.

Objectives:

• Students will immerse themselves in a particular year,contrast it with present day events and be prepared to provide detailed, diverse analysis and commentary.
• Students will learn how to create a blog
• Students will learn how to write for an online audience
• Students will learn how to express themselves using different fonts and graphics
• Students will learn how to import still pictures onto their blog
• Students will learn how to import video clips onto their blog

Resources

Influence of Music Through the Decades

http://library.thinkquest.org/5651/

Historical Broadcasts - BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/radio_newsroom/1789117.stm

Google News Archive

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?hl=en&q=top+news+stories&as_ldate=1976&as_hdate=1976&um=1&ie=UTF-8&scoring=t&sa=X&oi=archive&ct=title