If you wish to contact Eric via email, the address is: erangell@gmail.com

This is an excerpt from a speech at an event I recently attended.

This is an excerpt from a speech at an event I recently attended.

This is an excerpt from a speech at an event I recently attended.

This is an excerpt from a speech at an event I recently attended.

This is an excerpt from a speech at an event I recently attended.

This podcast is simply intended to be an educational resource and an illustration of potential educational technologies.  It is not intended to present my opinions or political views.  I am simply selecting material that I have found useful.  I have no affiliation with any personalities or products that may be mentioned on this podcast or website.  All statements on this podcast and website are my own and do not reflect the opinions of any personalities mentioned on this website, or the companies for which they work.

Welcome back to the Mid Atlantic Historic Walking Tour Podcast.  I want my listeners to know that there is no regular schedule for the publication of this podcast.  New episodes will be posted based on content availability and my time constraints.  I am temporarily refocusing the podcast towards study of the crisis in the Middle East.

I encourage my listeners to be critical thinkers and be wary of what they see, hear, and read in the media.  I am posting the excerpts in this series without expressing any opinion or judgment.  These excerpts are simply items that I have found useful in my study of the issues.  Listeners are encouraged to evaluate them in terms of their own belief systems.

I recently started listening to a talk show on WOR radio called "Lionel".  He is encouraging his listeners to study the complexity of the situation without judging the participants.  His primary message is that terrorism is a relative term depending on the perspective of the individual.  Therefore we should look beyond the archetypes of good and evil and understand all perspectives of the problem.

The following link contains the first hour of his commentary about events in the Middle East when they first started happening.  All of his recent shows are available as a podcast from WOR at http://wor710.com

http://podcast.wor710.com/wor/20190.mp3


To subscribe to Lionel's podcast, add the following link to your podcatcher:

http://wor710.com/pages/podcast/406.rss

Lionel's homepage can be found at:

http://www.lionelonline.com

I think we now can update a famous saying to read: "The podcast is mightier than the sword".

I am also reading a book titled "Inheriting the Holy Land" by Jennifer Miller, in which she discusses her experiences with Seeds of Peace (http://www.seedsofpeace.org),  an organization that helps children and teens of various cultures learn conflict resolution skills.  The website for the book is:  http://inheritingtheholyland.com

Remember: Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.  Appeasement did not work with Hitler.

This podcast contains my reaction to the Dateline NBC show that aired on Sunday evening May 28, 2006.  For more information, visit the following link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11648306

Let us express our gratitude towards those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom by being active and informed citizens who will preserve and ensure the continuation of the human rights and values that our country was founded upon.

Welcome back to the Mid Atlantic Historic Walking Tour Podcast
I had to take a few weeks off to complete my move to Exton Pennsylvania.  So in this podcast, I'll tell you a little more about Bear Delaware.  A lot of towns in Delaware were named after Taverns, so you can imagine the good times that were had at the Bear Tavern and the Red Lion tavern; but today's podcast comes from the Bear Diner on route 40 and SchoolBell Road, where they host the Delaware Accordion Club on the 3rd Sunday of every month.  Check out their website at http://delawareaccordionclub.com

I don't play accordion, but I teamed up with my friend Susan to play some Irish tunes.  In this podcast you'll hear me playing clarinet and recorder on the Dorsetshire hornpipe, Fisher's hornpipe, and the Finnish Polka.  So coming to you almost-live from the Bear Diner, here's a musical podcast you're sure to enjoy!

Dorsetshire Hornpipe and Fisher's Hornpipe were arranged by Simple Gifts Music: http://simplegiftsmusic.com

The Finnish Polka was arranged by Susan Shertok.

Performances by Delaware Accordion Club members can also occasionally be heard on the Scratchy Grooves radio show with Brian Lee on WVUD (The Voice of the University of Delaware) at http://wvud.org

Running time: 6 minutes 30 seconds

This is a podcast from the recently renovated riverfront of Wilmington Delaware. There's plenty of great history in it about the shipbuilding industry, military ships, and the underground railroad. It is over 30 minutes long, so take your time in digesting it. I probably won't be able to post another podcast for a few weeks, so enjoy this one.

Today's podcast comes from Historic New Castle, Delaware. Most people just drive right through Delaware on Interstate 95, but if you get off and take route 9 south, you'll reach a quaint little town with a rich history. Every year, On the third Saturday in May, the town of New Castle holds an event called "A Day In Old New Castle" where you can take tours of the historic buildings, houses and gardens, and learn about life in colonial times. For more information, visit http://www.dayinoldnewcastle.org

Continuing with last week's theme of trees, welcome to the Tyler Arboretum in Pennsylvania. Before I visited the arboretum, I had no idea how beautiful it would be. There are such majestic trees, for example the Cedar of Lebanon is just humongous and amazing to look at. So as you listen to this podcast, I encourage you to think about life from the perspective of a tree, as you take a longer term view of the cycles of life on our planet.

As you drive down the New Jersey Turnpike, you'll notice that many of the rest stops are named for famous poets. I guess we need to take a break and listen to some poetry occasionally. So let's see what we can learn from Alfred Joyce Kilmer at this rest-stop podcast.

Happy President's Day to all my listeners! This holiday was made possible by George Washington and the soldiers of the American Revolution. Today's podcast comes from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where the soldiers spent the winter of 1777. When you visit Valley Forge, you will see a movie that will give you an overview of the hardships the soldiers faced during the winter encampment at Valley Forge. You will see how they struggled to build huts with very few supplies, and the difficulties they had - how they did not have the proper clothes, shoes, or tools they needed, but miraculously they survived the winter and got the training they needed. This gave them the confidence to fight the British in further battles of the Revolutionary war, which eventually concluded with the victory at Yorktown in 1781. At Valley Forge, you can view exhibits in the Visitor Center, and you can also take a narrated driving tour of the site if you buy a tape or CD in the gift shop.

The following music is heard during this podcast:

Chester

March for the Dead

J.S. Bach Endlessly Rising Canon

J.S. Bach Crab Canon

America The Beautiful

The ending comes from the driving tour CD available at the Valley Forge visitor center.

For more information, visit: http://www.nps.gov/vafo/home.htm

The history channel recently had an excellent documentary on Abraham Lincoln which explored his personal struggles. The message to take away is that every one of us can overcome our personal difficulties and still make great contributions to society. As you listen to these famous sayings by Abraham Lincoln, think about the issues people were dealing with 150 years ago, and how the same principles apply to the issues we face today.

Happy Groundhog Day! If you're tired of shoveling snow, here's something to look forward to... a podcast from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, complete with sounds of the ocean.

During these winter months it's nice to have some things to look forward to. Here's a podcast from Lums Pond State Park in Delaware. Our national parks are treasured resources that we must preserve for future generations. As you listen, you will learn about the planning efforts that went into the creation of Lums Pond State Park, and I encourage you to think about little things that we can do today to preserve the beauty of our natural resources for future generations.

The campus of the University of Delaware is a little gem in the town of Newark, Delaware. In this podcast you'll learn about its architecture and history. The noontime bells of Memorial Hall were mixed in as the background music of this podcast.

Tucked away along the route 40 corridor in Maryland is the quaint little town of Havre De Grace. In this podcast you will learn the historical significance of this town during the war of 1812.

Here is the second half of the Jersey City podcast. In this podcast you will hear a lot of information about transportation: ferries, railroads; and I encourage you to think about how it parallels the development of our information superhighway and what we can learn from it going forward.

In honor of Martin Luthur King's birthday, I am presenting this special podcast from Wilmington Delaware. I will resume the Jersey City - Part 2 podcast next week. On New Years eve I attended First Night in Wilmington. The spirit of community shown during First Night, where art and music is shared across cultures, is one manifestation of Martin Luthur King's dream. We can never forget the hardship endured by those who fought for our civil rights, and must remain vigilant in order to protect them for ourselves and future generations.

We often do not realize the historic significance of many places in our cities. As I read the markers in this podcast, I was grateful that they had been placed there so people like me can appreciate the hard work of the people that blazed the trail for the freedoms we often take for granted today.

Topics:

Louis L. Redding - Delaware's first African American attorney

Holocaust Memorial

Gravesite of Bishop Peter Spencer and Annes Spencer

Cesar Rodney

The Liberty Tree

Thomas C. Maloney

Happy New year to all my listeners. I'm very excited about this upcoming year and hope you all are motivated to give the best of yourself to the world each day. In celebration of the new year and our 10th podcast I have a new intro with a song I dug up from my Band-in-a-box archives. I think it is important to occasionally change things around and keep your listeners excited. People learn in many different ways, and I personally learn best through audio, which is why I love podcasts. They are an opportunity to bring back the excitement that my parents told me about when they listened to the radio and had to use their imagination. I intend to keep my future podcasts under 15 minutes so you can digest the material in reasonable chunks.

In this podcast you will experience several Jersey City landmarks. The photos shown here are as follows:

Merchant Ship Propeller, Newport

Mariner's Fountain, Newport

Memorial for the Katyn massacre

Memorial for Sept. 11

Girder from World Trade Center

Sculpture commemorating the Morris Canal

Close-up of sculpture: slaves escaping via the underground railroad

Photo of a lock in the Morris Canal

Korean War Memorial

Close-up of sculpture at Korean War Memorial

When you listen to this podcast you will learn about the many innovations at Menlo Park which affect our quality of life today. I had a lot of fun doing this Thomas Edison "mash-up" using MP3's from the Edisonia collection of the National Park Service:

http://www.nps.gov/edis/edisonia/sounds.html

The website for the Menlo Park museum is: http://www.menloparkmuseum.com

The Eastern European songs that I refer to in the podcast were collected by ethnomusicologists Zinovy Kiselgof and Moshe Beregovski and can be heard on the album: "Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys". For more information, visit http://www.klezmermountainboys.com

Music Credits:

The intro and trailer bumpers came from:
Collection: Popular Songs, Tin Pan Alley
Which switch is the switch, Miss, for Ipswich? - from "Rosy Rapture"
Performed by: Billy Murray
Composed by: David, Barnett, Darewski
Record format: Edison Diamond Disc
Matrix number: 4047-B-3-2
Recording date: 1915
Release number: 50293-R
Release date: December 1915
NPS object catalog number: EDIS 40585

The background music played during the narration came from:
Collection: Popular Instrumental, Ragtime
Flow gently sweet afton & Bonnie, sweet Bessie
Performed by: Robert Trucksess - American guitar
a.) Composed by: J.E. Spilman
b.) Composed by: J.L.B. Gilbert
Record format: Edison Diamond Disc
Matrix number: 8211-A-4-2
Recording date: September 12, 1921
Release number: 50994-R
Release date: August 1922
NPS object catalog number: EDIS 42253

Thomas Edison's voice came from:
Collection: Very Early Recorded Sound
Around the world on the phonograph
Spoken by: Thomas A. Edison
Record format: Edison yellow paraffine cylinder
Recording date: c. late October 1888
Location: West Orange, New Jersey or local vicinity
NPS object catalog number: EDIS 566
** Historical note: This is believed to be the earliest existing recording of Thomas Edison's voice.

Here's another New Jersey Turnpike Rest Stop Podcast where you can learn about Molly Pitcher and her heroic efforts to provide supplies to soldiers during the American Revolution. The background music for this podcast is titled "The Federal March", and is an example of the musical style of the colonial period. It is being played on an antique computer - an Apple //e with a Mockingboard.

You'll be amazed about what you can learn at exit 7A of the New Jersey Turnpike.

Here's the full version of the podcast from Market Street in Wilmington DE.

This podcast happened totally by accident (I think I was concatenating MP3 files with different bit rates). Anyway, the result is totally fun and in the spirit of the holiday season. The background music is the Hebrew melody "Maoz Tsur" or "Rock of Ages" which is traditionally sung during the holiday of Hanukkah. The name of my band is "Chaverim" which translates as "friends" or "comrades". We performed this piece at a local nursing home on December 4. I will repost the full content of this podcast without the chipmunks at a later date.

I received an email today from Andrew Seymour, one of the Ed-Tech musicians, suggesting that I describe how I feel at each location when I read the signs. I will try to do this for new podcasts and add additional podcasts where I go back and describe how I felt at the time. Often in the moment I am simply trying to capture the text into my recorder quickly and avoid picking up background noises, so my reaction isn't always spontaneous. But when I listen back to what I recorded I feel the connection to the places and people. I do remember feeling like crying when I learned about the buried tracings from the Washington DC vietnam memorial, and the letter from the President of Korea expressing gratitude. At the Ben Franklin exhibit I was speechless to be in front of artifacts such as an original Poor Richards Almanack and Ben's own personal glass Armonica. But it was actually the exhibits in the constitution center that touched me the most - a multimedia presentation about supreme court decisions and examples of cases which set precedents for applying the constitution throughout the years. But I am most touched by the Constitution Center's podcasts that I listened to after the visit which have given me insight into politics that shape our world today.

I want all educators to know that I am releasing all content on this blog and podcast in the public domain, so it may be used as you see fit for any purpose.

Also, if any of you develop lesson plans that use these podcasts and want to share them, email me at erangell@gmail.com and I will post them here.

I especially want to thank Andrew for reading my email on Ed-Tech Musician on his December 21, 2005 show, titled: EdTech Musician 43 Ready For Christmas?

The show notes for that show can be found at: http://andrewseymour.com/etm_shownotes.htm

The MP3 file for that show can be downloaded from: http://media.libsyn.com/media/edtechmusician/EdTechMusician43.mp3

I have about 8 more tours that I am working on which will get posted as they are completed. Happy Holidays to all of you and best wishes for the new year. My Odeo channel is: http://odeo.com/channel/48675/view Wow! Almost 50000 channels! The cable company can't beat that!

Podcasts in the queue (Click each link for more information)

University of Delaware

Tyler Arboretum, Pennsylvania

Wilmington - Market Street

Lums Pond State Park, Delaware

Havre De Grace, Maryland

Wilmington - Riverfront

Jersey City, New Jersey

New Castle, Delaware

Some topics covered at these historical sites include: the Railroad industry, Ferries, the Underground Railroad, the war of 1812, and Environmental Conservation.

On Dock Street near Penn's Landing there are memorials for soldiers who served in Beirut, Korea, and Vietnam. When you hear this podcast you will learn about the extraordinary sacrifices that were made to preserve freedom.

Philadelphia is having a huge party this year for one of its most famous citizens, Ben Franklin. A fabulous exhibit has just opened at the National Constitution Center near Independence Mall. Listen to this podcast to get an idea of what you will see there, and visit the NCC website at: http://www.constitutioncenter.org Also, this museum is really on top of technology - they have an excellent Podcast with insightful speakers talking about issues which affect all of us. The URL for this podcast is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/NCCPrograms There is so much to see in the exhibit - original artifacts that have never before been displayed to the public, interactive video presentations, and hands on fun for kids. After the Ben Franklin exhibit be sure to watch the Freedom Rising show and explore the multimedia exhibits about the constitution throughout history. Then take pictures with your favorite constitutional delegates in a hall of their statues. You just gotta see it!

This podcast gives introductory information about my intentions for this podcast.

Here is a 30 second promo for this podcast. Feel free to download this MP3 file and play it on your podcast. It is published in the public domain.

Hello world! Welcome to the historic walking tour podcast. This is intended to be a grassroots educational resource to help people learn about historical places and events. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to devote to it, but we'll take it easy and enjoy the walk as we go. You can email me at erangell@gmail.com The music used in this podcast is composed by me and has been released in the public domain. You can download MIDI files at the following website: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/erang/freemidi.htm You can visit my blog at: http://ericbrain.blogspot.com And I need to acknowledge that I am standing on the shoulders of giants - those indie podcasters who took the plunge into this brave new world. Thank you to all edu-podders with the vision that will transform lifelong learning for all of us, to the ed-tech musicians which inspired my creativity in the sound of my podcast, and to Todd at GeekNewsCentral.com for his book which gave me the push to trust enough to actually do this.