Teaching History in the Digital Age

September 30, 2006

Susan on Week 6 web design for profs

Filed under: Uncategorized, ammon, susan — Susan @ 10:46 pm

Sarah Horton’s book begins auspiciously enough with the content, but by the end, it left me overwhelmed by the technical details. While it did help me to understand some of the inner workings of html and web layout, which I have been near but not into over the past several years, I was left wondering if the book isn’t already somewhat out of date. I actually dearly hope so, because I imagined that FrontPage and various programs for creating web sites have interfaces nowadays more like desktop publishing programs, and less like computer programming manuals of the recent yore. Knowing as I do how fabulously well paid web designers are, who have come to consult with educational content groups I have worked with, and then disappear to work their magic, I am left wondering how the average prof could manage to mount content on the web. Sarah Horton’s premise at the beginning of the book was about assessing the possibilities, getting the necessary help, and so on. Certainly, those people who found an entree to the world of html early in the Daniel Boone stage did learn how to “speak html” and learned the hard way how to create web sites, or YLWYNTK (you learn what you need to know). Thus I learned a lot about computers, but never wandered into that design pasture. Horton’s initial cautions about the amount of time it would take are thrown to the wind when the technical stuff starts coming on. Those who learned on their own, or with a bit of help at the outset certainly did so when web sites were much simpler. How one would enter now without  a program for the proverbial dummies, seems prohibitive. Web designers get paid a lot more than professors, methinks, and asking a professor to do that on top of an already full schedule seems too much.  Bass and Rosenzweig’s warning about the type of technology training teachers really need also comes to mind here–it seems that the use of it is more important to foster than the techniques. Innovation must have made the process of building web sites less clunky by now. As a historical artifact, it is interesting to note how the story of web design seems to be one of bending a medium to a purpose it was never designed to fulfill, namely aesthetics over plain vanilla text and image. It shows how technologies evolve in unexpected ways.

Bass and  Rosenzweig highlighted three important uses of digital technology (more…)

Is having fun enough?

Filed under: Uncategorized, gary, history and tech — Gary @ 12:11 pm

Sara Horton’s Web Teaching Guide: A Practical Approach to Creating Course Web Sites, and the Bass-Rosenzweig article “Rewiring the History and Social Studies Classroom: Needs, Frameworks, Dangers, and Proposals,” provide a handy framework, set of guidelines, and best practices for using new media as part of the interaction with the students. These two works show that there is no one formula or recipe — design and content really depend on the teacher’s goals and objectives, the students, and facility resources (h/w, s/w, it support staff, availability of computer facilities).

 

Horton’s reference to shovelware (p. xi) and Kelly’s warning in his article “Using New Media to Teach East European History” not to use new media for the sake of it are spot on. I would guess that all of us have experienced several courses or training where the presenter feels they have done their job of being “with it” by incorporating new media in their course by dumping a bunch of website links in the students’ lap, basically pointing to web and saying “There is it, go get it,” with no thought, organization or purpose. So if just using new media to use is not the answer, then what is, or should be the purpose of goal of using new media. Should it just be easy to use with information easy to find at the fingertips of the student, a mechanism for instilling enjoyment or amusement, or can it, should it be more, a medium to enhances learning?

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History and Technology: or how I learned to love the bomb.

Filed under: ammon, history and tech — Ammon @ 11:35 am

I seem to keep making comments before I’ve even read most of the articles for the week. I haven’t even finished the first one that I’m reading as I make this comment. But if I don’t make them as I think of them, then I’ll forget them and won’t make them…

So, in reading Brass and Rosenzweig’s article, they mention how search engines can help students learn more and different aspects of history. That’s all fine and good, but the examples they give are a bit of a stretch for the K-12 and even college student. They say:

“In other words, the search engines cannot only help students to find what they are looking for; they also allow them to examine patterns of word usage and language formation within and across documents.”
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Links for the articles hosted at CHNM – week 6 readings

Filed under: ammon, announcements, history and tech — Ammon @ 11:00 am

The links from the syllabus are incorrect. They should be as follows:

Bass, Randy and Roy Rosenzweig, Rewiring the History and Social Studies Classroom: Needs, Frameworks, Dangers, and Proposals , White Paper for Department of Education, Forum on Technology in K-12 Education: Envisioning a New Future , December 1999

Kelly, T. Mills ” Using New Media to Teach East European History ,” Nationalities Papers (September 2001)

Kobrin, David, ” Using History Matters with a Ninth Grade Class ,” The History Teacher (May 2001)

Schrum, Kelly, ” Making History on the Web Matter in the Classroom ,” The History Teacher (May 2001)

Weis, Tracey, ” Evaluating Websites for History Teachers: Using History Matters in a Graduate Seminar ,” The History Teacher (May 2001)

September 28, 2006

Could Less Be More? The Possibilities of Learning in the Digital Age.

Filed under: Uncategorized, history and tech, matthew — Matthew Gravely @ 6:56 pm

In the now copious realm of using digital media for educating our students, does the adage “less is more” make any sense? Since many educators are now reforming their pedagogies to teach history through using the web, a concern for many historians, oral historians in particular, is that learning through the internet may ultimately result in not emphasizing what needs to be learnt. Are they correct in their assumptions? Possibly. However, what we should focus our efforts on is not a swift and immediate relapse into teaching history before the introduction of the web; we should focus on making the net easier to use for the history student. These articles reflect on the possibilties and concerns for students who are learning and living in the age of the Internet.

There are those hardliners who believe that the Internet is interfering in the educational process that takes place between the teacher and student. What they fail to realize is that the web can offer a myriad of possibilties; it just needs to be used in the proper manner. In the article, Beyond Amusement: Reflections on Multimedia, Pedagogy, and Digital Literacy in the History Seminar, author David Ringrose of Minot State University believes that using the web for multimedia projects is a very useful way to convey well-thought ideas to everyone in the seminar. He writes that a common, but misguided goal for students is “to satisfy one reader: the professor.” He goes on to mention that these kinds of projects would require the presenter to”satisfy a broad audience.” As a result, everyone would take away a sense of what the project is about, thus making these projects a collaborative effort in learning. This should be the goal of all educators: to create a balanced environment that allows students to feel comfortable with giving presentations, participating in discussion, and lessen the polarity between the teacher and student. I believe that this sort of thing can be achieved through the teaching and learning how to use the web as a source of multimedia. But why use multimedia for teaching and learning history?

In Mary A. Larson’s article, Potential, Potential, Potential: The Marriage of Oral History and the World Wide Web, she makes a great case for the usage of the web as a beneficial tool in oral history…

(Oral historians – do not fret! The web has got ya covered.)

There always has been a concern about plagiarism among historians in academia. This is why I believe that many historians find it hard to shake their nervousness and reluctancy towards using the web. However, the issues that constitute what type of material is fit for using in the public domain has been carried over from the transcribed world, so its not like every web creator has a knack for plagairising. Yet, many hardliners still believe that using the web in the classroom may put their jobs in jeopardy. Or, could it be that many of these traditionalists have no clue how to teach in a web-based environment? By either standard, we should promote using cutting-edge technology in the classroom for the reason that it seems like such a natural progression; a progression that is inevitable. Am I wrong to say this? Larson acknowledges that their are many programs (in both K-12 and college) that are using the web to document oral history – such as taped interviews, sound-bytes and pictures. The goal of the web is not to make things harder for the historian; the goal is to integrate these elements into an easy and efficient interface, or web design, that would ultimately make learning history easier for the student.

So, is less actually more when talking about implementing digital technology in the classroom? Or, maybe we should rephrase this adage: Could less difficulty while using the web contribute to more learning? Sure, I don’t see why not.

(I’ve been patiently awaiting the arrival of the Sarah Horton book from Amazon…It should have been here 3 days ago.. I will post on that book before Tuesday.)

Matt

September 25, 2006

It’s the Design, Stupid!

Filed under: Uncategorized, history and tech, ken — Ken @ 10:28 pm

There seemed to be some disconnect between the various readings this week. Two major topics seemed to be the focus of the authors’ concerns. Some wrote on the creation of digital content which might be used in a classroom setting, while others explored the utility of such documents in both classroom activities and in planning a curriculum. In both cases however, the underlying theme was the buzzword of the semester so far: design.

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History digitized

Filed under: ammon, projects — Ammon @ 10:17 pm

Here we go, our adventure into the digitalness of history….

I start my blog entry (late as it is) with a question and comment about Prof Kelly’s experiment written about in the JAHC.  The questions: I wonder if there could be more reasons why students didn’t venture outside of the class website?  Comment:  I think sometimes students are conditioned to only use the sources that teachers give them.  They are taught that using material supplemental to what has been given would be called “cheating.”  Another, and probably more accurate reason students didn’t venture out into the wild web, is because they are lazy.  In general, I would say most students want to do the bare minimum.

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Week 5: The Digital Age

Filed under: gretchen, history and tech — Gretchen @ 5:45 pm

Reading the articles for this week as well as viewing “Exploring the French Revolution” and “Who Killed William Robinson” makes one realize that the digital age is rapidly changing.  The articles set forth, although varying in their relevance to digital media today, prompt questions of how to properly use digital media.  Each article and website (with abstract) had me noting various layers necessary to “properly” incorporate new technologies in the classroom.

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Music and its Overall Importance in History

Filed under: history and tech, matthew — Matthew Gravely @ 5:16 pm

I like to think of music as one of the oldest forms of communication. I imagine hearing the deadening drumbeat of tribes at war. I hear wood-like instruments that inaugurate the proceedings of a ceremony. I hear the lovely wash of sound of the violin being played at a classical music concert. I hear The Jesus and the Mary Chains’, Psychocandy, rotating on my playlist as I write this.

But what exactly is music? Is it just an arrangement of noises that sound melodic, or amelodic to the ear? Is it the message that most people gravitate towards, or is it the styling? What kind of importance does music play in history, and is music a reaction to the current issues of the time? These are questions that I ask myself while listening close to my favorite bands.

For those of you not familiar with Fort Reno Park, it is a field located right across from Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington D.C. Every summer people flock to to this space to hear local musicians play music for free. I have attended many shows there, which include: Fugazi, Q and Not U, among other notable D.C. acts (mostly rooted in the punk scene.) Aside from the normal thoughts that everybody (including myself) have while attending a concert such as: What kind of instruments are they using? Do I recognize the songs? Are they improvising? Are they hiring a new roadie (in which case I would feel a great obligation to help out)… I begin to wonder: What is music? Why do we have it? And, are the songs being represented in a historical context? Or, to a larger extent, once the music stops, what kind of meanings or interpretations can we derive from the sounds? This is very perplexing to me.

Does music only exist in a time capsule, or is it present and for the moment? Certainly, live music can be thought of as”in the moment”, but can recorded music be treated as history? In a broad sense, the answer to this question is yes. But, how do we treat music in this way without subscribing to the usual way of writing about music (i.e. focusing too mush on the band’s stance, or their legal troubles?) What about writing on the actaul music itself? Yes, reviewers are able to accomplish this, but not convincingly. For instance, one reviewer may claim that the song was “very moving”, while the other reviewer may refer to the song as “utter trash.” Thus, the writing, or reviewing of music seems very objectional and opinionated.

Which leads me to pose this question: Can music be analyzed beyond the usual trappings of writing objectionally?

Week 5 Response on Readings

Filed under: Uncategorized, matthew — Matthew Gravely @ 2:40 pm

(I’m sorry that this blog post is late. I’ve fallen a little behind this week, and now I have the time to get caught up.)
This week’s readings largely examine the strengths and weaknesses for using digital web-based media in the teaching and learning of history. With that in mind, the web is a fascinating tool for students and educacators alike. However, like with any source of information, one needs to know how to use it in the right manner to encourage the right way learning.

A good reminder of how the web can be used as a wonderful tool for learning is exemplified in the article: Who Killed William Robinson? Race, Justice and Settling the Land: A Historical Whodunit. In this article, written by Terry Crowley of the University of Guelph, she (possibly a he?) examines a website created by Ruth Sandwell and John Lutz that seeks to give students the tools for solving the 1868 murder of William Robinson, an African-American man who was in the process of returning to the states to see his wife and children before his untimely death. A Penelekut Indian was then tried and hanged for the murder. The website then asks students to try and solve the case based on the primary and secondary sources that are provided by the website. The students are then able to draw their own conclusions based on what they have gathered from the details of the crime. This type of research project is successful in many ways. First, the students seem very excited to take part in a project that allows them to think for themselves, rather than having somebody else dictate what they should or should not believe. Second, the project seems fun, which keeps the students focused and ready to work. Third, the assignment also raises a larger issue of imperialism and race relations in America during the mid-nineteenth century. The end result places students right at the center of the investigation and after the assignment has been completed, the students are dumbfounded as to why they cannot come up with a clearcut verdict of whodunit. This gives the students an idea of the challenge for historians who study the past, which is: The information presented to historians is often confounded and sometimes does not serve the truth. Even so, students were allowed to present thier side of the story, without the intervention of the professor. This is the beauty of studying history in a web-based environment.

Another aspect of the web, as shown through Dr. Kelly’s article For Better or Worse? The Marriage of the Web and Classroom, is that most students who surf the web try to answer questions that they have in mind, rather than what questions their professor would like them to answer. This can be quite beneficial, or detrimental, depending on how one views it. Should the students need for learning supersede the way the class ought to be taught from the professor’s viewpoint? This is, I believe, the proverbial question that we must ask our educators, and I believe this question is of great importence due to the fact that many students are now finding most of their information from the web. In a sense, students now have the ability to teach themselves. Should this be a concern among educators? My answer is both “yes” and “no.” I completely agree with Dr. Kelly when he draws this conclusion: “A second positive finding is that exploring on the web does seem to encourage original thinking about the past.” This is a very noteworthy finding for the reason that it is my belief that most students do develop what we call “original thinking” about the past, but how do students distinguish between the good, bad and the ugly ways of using the web? This is a drawback for learning from a web-based environment, and one that educators should be particularly aware of.

Are we giving students much more credit than they deserve? Is the web an averse tool that should be locked away in a shed somewhere in rural Kansas? No, but if we don’t teach our students how to use the web, then Kansas may not seem like such a bad idea.

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