Here’s the skinny on my project…
I originally had the thought to use the Simile Timeline to show data from some random historical event. The interactive part would be to have the student enter their age. This would plot a static bar along the timeline so that the students could visually see what they would have lived through from that historical time frame. They would also be able to add the ages of their parents for the same effect.
After looking around for data from some historical event, I found that there is no good timeline for World War II. I did find lots of data, just no good format. So my purpose is to present a World War II timeline, but instead of going the route of showing a static bar for the students age, they will have to read a little bit about the War, some of the contentions on why some details might be more important to some people than others, and then give them the opportunity to pick the top ten most important events of World War II and generate a timeline of that. They will also have to explain why they chose the dates they did. I’ll probably limit this to a high school level, so I’ll give them 20-30 dates to choose from.
So basically the site would be 1) a description of how the interpretation of history is often relative to the researcher, 2) give the students an opportunity to order history and defend their reasons, and 3) provide a time line with as many dates as possible. I could also show how it can be important to limit the historical data in order to understand what’s going on (too many dates just make for a lot of points on a line).
I’ll probably start off with a lot of the data on the wikipedia, if I can figure an easy way to scrape all of that data.
Hello all!
My friend, Dr. Cathy Waegner, who lives in Germany recently sent me an email in regards to my post on Utopia. Dr. Waegner conducted research on Utopia a few years ago. Dr. Waegner is a professor of English at Siegen University in Germany.
Her comments are as follows:
“Dear Matthew and Sal, Thanks to you, Sis, for forwarding Matthew’s email. I looked into the blog and the DAACS database – hot stuff! First of all, I loved Matthew’s description of his relationship to Utopia (and Sal’s excellent photos brought back memories for me too…) Secondly, the database was mind-boggling – and to think that Utopias 1, 2, 3, and 4 are just a stone’s throw away from 160 John Browning! I noticed that Garrett Fessler and his James River Institute for Archeology will be excavating a new site (First Settlers’ Campground) in Williamsburg in 2007. Do you know where that venue is? Maybe Matthew can be in on that from the beginning. There are also two other slave cemeteries which have been researched by Colonial Williamsburg – I’d like to locate them the next time I’m in W-burg. That database didn’t exist when I did my modest work on Utopia, but Garrett Fessler gave me photocopies of his findings and reports which obviously were fed into the database. (By the way, I noticed that his name is listed as “Dr. Garrett Fessler” – he was too busy to complete his doctorate back when I was interviewing him, but I’m glad to see he finally did it!) I have to quit now, but we can keep in touch on all of this. Good luck with your investigations, Matthew–
Lots of love, Cathy
P.S. I was also fascinated by your sleuthing with regard to your English grandmother!”
I would like to personally thank Dr. Waegner for her kind words.
Albany Congress of 1754 Project
The objective of the project is to provide a learning module that exposes high school or undergraduate college students to primary source documents, gives the students experience in interpreting these documents and historically thinking about the issues and decisions that faced the Indians, American colonists, and the Board of Trade in England. The module would occur sometime during the middle of a course on colonial America and is estimated to take approximately two weeks to complete. In the weeks leading up to the module we would have sessions giving the students a sense of the historical landscape from the perspective of the Indians, colonists and English in Britain. (more…)
To help everyone remember what you presented tonight, please write up a 2-3 paragraph summary of your final project and post it here. And, as you think of other suggestions for your colleagues, offer those as comments.
Someone has already hacked together a plugin for WordPress that incorporates the simile timeline.
See a working copy of it at MissionJournal.org.
Dr. Kelly indicated that we would receive word about what to read up on for Tuesday’s class. I haven’t heard anything, have you?
Dr. Kelly, do you have any indication of what we should read for our visitor on Tuesday?
It certainly isn’t like I have nothing to do, but I want to be prepared.
Michelle
Don’t let the spartanesque look of the initial web page on the website fool you (http://www.virtualjamestown.org/. This project is rich in primary and secondary sources as well as ways in which both students and teachers can interact. There are ten teaching scenarios ready for use that students, or any user for that matter, can work on that require historical thinking. The maps amd images show how the area was settled and populated from 1607 onward as well as photos of aritifacts with explanations of the artifacts which allow the user to get a good idea of what kind of tools, pottery and various items were used by the Jamestown population of the 17th century. (more…)
Muchen is an article written in 1942 by my late grandmother, Elisabeth Gravely. I would love to share this with all of you.
My grandmother was an aspiring actress while growing up in England and always was inspired by the arts. She was casted in some early British films playing the roles of Bessie Surtees and Grace Darling. (I have looked fervently for copies of these movies, but I haven’t had any luck.)
She moved to America in the late 30’s-early 40’s to marry my late grandfather, Dr. William Gravely. While living in America she started her career as a freelance writer for The Post, and afterwards she subsequently became a famous local muralist, whose work was exhibited in such places as The Capitol Lodge and The Reeve Gouche (a once bustling restaurant located in Georgetown that played host to a number politicians.)
This is one of the few articles of hers that I found while conducting a search on Pro-Quest Research Database about a year ago. Thanks to Dr. Kelly’s History 312 class, I found out about this wonderful tool that led me to a gold-mine.
Munchen
The fellow Karl that she speaks of was a suitor of hers. The story in my family is that when he visited my grandmother in England, he spent a lot of his time studying the British coast line while sailing with my great-grandfather. As it turns out, he was a spy for the Nazis – or at least this is how the story goes. In a letter written by my great-uncle Nory (or, as he calls himself both “Fish Taco” and “S32″…no, seriously) he mentions this account:
“I think my parents were afraid that E was going to marry Karl when she went on that Munich safari. Before that my Dad had taken Karl sailing on the Walrus all the way up the north east coast to Lindisfarne. Karl took continous photographs of the coastline – even when there was nothing to see except sand dunes. That puzzled everyone. Just recently I’ve been reading about Hitler’s invasion plans of England. The main Nazi thrust was of course to be in the south around Dover, but a divisionary strike was planned from Norway to exactly the northeast coastel area that Karl had been so busily documenting. Little did my Dad know that he was entertaining a spy!” -Nory a.k.a- “Fish Taco”, a.k.a- “S32″
