Hello everyone:
It was great meeting everyone last night. We’ve got a great mix of talents and interests in the group and I know it’s going to be a great semester.
I’m on my way over to the Library right now to place four things on reserve for next week:
1. Report of the Conference on History in the College Curriculum (AHA, 1906)
2. Report on the Conference on the First Year of College Work in History (AHA, 1905)
3. Larry Cuban, How Scholars Trumped Teachers (chapters 1-3)
4. Robert Orrill and Linn Shapiro, From Bold Beginnings to an Uncertain Future: The Discipline of History and History Education, (American Historical Review, June 2005, 727-751)
This last item replaces the Paul Ward essay–I just couldn’t locate my copy of the first few pages–filed in the wrong folder somewhere!
Once you’ve read through the readings for the week, I’d like you to post a reflection on what you’ve read, thinking particularly about common threads you can find in the readings and common challenges for those teaching history. What’s changed over time and what hasn’t? Finally, post any and all questions that you’d like us to discuss next week. And then be sure to comment on at least one or two of the posts of others in the class.
See you Tuesday!
My name is James Feenstra, and I am beginning my Master’s degree in History here at Mason this fall. I was born and raised just outside of Toronto, Ontario, and graduated with a BA in History from the University of Guelph, Ontario with a year spent on exchange at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland. I am interested in reading scholarship on how effective various types of new media are as a means of teaching history. I hope that by the end of the semester I will be able to have a grasp on what are and what aren’t effective uses of new media, particularly in the museum field. I would like to be able to look more critically at how museum and historical sites have used new media, and whether this has been at the expense of the quality of historical education, or whether it provides an engaging, fuller account of the history being presented.
My name is Gretchen Beasley and I would like to discuss the following this semester:
- How to take traditional sources and integrate them into non-traditional sources
- From an art history stand point – the importance of introducing multi-media
- Creating websites that are appealing to students while maintaining the scholarly purpose of the website.
S Douglass: A topic of interest would be designing interfaces for teachers accessing sets of lesson plans related to historical topics or history education resources such as documentaries, etc.
I am a 2nd Lt in the United States Marine Corps and a recent graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. I am in my third semester at George Mason University and hope to complete my M.A. this fall.
I want to learn how to maximize the use of technology in conveying important concepts and ideas in history as well as other subject areas. A second consideration is to gain comfort with the applicaple software for high tech teaching.
My name is Kurt Knoerl. I’m a PhD student in my third semester at George Mason U. I’m also the Managing Director of the online Museum of Underwater Archaeology. I’m interested in how new media can be used to teach history both in the classroom and through the web. It seems a natural way to bring in material culture that might not otherwise be available. This goes to the heart of how I’d like to combine, history, archaeology, and new media.
I am Michelle Carr. I’m the one with an unruly teenager who refuses to read but loves TV.
I am interested in evaluating the “accuracy” of online and non-traditional sources, especially secondary ones; and the use of other visual media in teaching History. One of my questions is “What is the responsiblity of the producer of non-traditional Historic sources to provide citation of work and how should they do it – especially in a public, non-academic setting?”
MLC
This is Gary and this is what I want to talk about this semester. I hope to discover new methods of teaching using various forms of media. I would like to learn which media is more or less effective given topic, classroom situation, class size, and other elements that a teacher must consider when planning lessons. I also would like to learn more about how students learn and how they perceive the various media formats relative to comprehension, retention, and recall.
This is myself
Height: 6 feet.
Weight: 141 lbs.
Eye Color: brown
Hair Color: brown
Marital Status: Great
Offspring: 2 (1 boy, 1 girl)
Purpose in Life: Please spouse and play with kids.
I’ve lived my whole life in Arizona, in the same house, except for two years. Those two years I lived in Germany as a missionary for my Church. I was married in 2000 to the mostest bestest gal in the world (of course)! We had our first child in 2002, a really cool kid we named Jonas Ammon Wade Shepherd (because his initials spell JAWS). Then in 2004 we added a little girl to the mix, and named her January Edel Shepherd (Edel is German for precious, and she is).
I received my first two BA’s at Arizona State University in History and German. I am in my last year (last three classes) of the History M.A. I’m aspiring to become a History professor, focusing on 20th Century German history, specifically post-WWII until Re-unification of West and East Germany. My main focus at GMU is History and New Media, so I took this class as soon as I could.
I have a small web presence at Mossiso.com, ammon.pewfamily.us and a family site at pewfamily.us. I work as the Tech. Coordinator/Webmaster at the Center for History and New Media.
I forgot to add a couple of things that I hope to gain from this class. Firstly, I want to learn how to teach history with technology. What are the best practices for using technology in education? What is helpful or hurtful when using technology with students?
Secondly, I want to improve my ability to do technology based historical research. The final project should be adequate in allowing me to create a historically technical teaching tool.
Welcome to the class weblog for History 689–Teaching and Learning History in the Digital Age. One of the things we are going to do tonight is get acquainted with the class blog. To get you logged on, I need you to send me an email and a preferred username. Then I’ll make you an “author” and we can start blogging.