I first examined the World History Matters and History Matters projects sponsored by the Center for History and New Media looking for shortcomings. Although failing in this initial endeavor, as I found no glaring deficiencies, I learned to appreciate these projects as models for incorporating technology not just into learning history, but teaching as well. From these two model databases I have decided that three essential requirements must be met in order to have a useful digital history project. Firstly, as in all good academic history primary sources must form the backbone of your project. They must be available for students and other site visitors to interact with, by listening, reading or watching. Secondly, there must be a mechanism through which site visitors are guided to historical thought. This mechanism could be as complex as an interactive game or as primitive as simply posting a few samples of how historians think about sources. Lastly, a good project will emphasize teaching as well as learning. Well developed sites will supply teachers with exercises, assignments or questions to pose to their students. Recognizing that educators provide the historical context for student learning makes this requirement all the more important in creating a successful digital history project. (more…)
October 16, 2006
October 3, 2006
Technology for Technology’s Sake
This week’s readings have opened new windows into the rapidly intertwining worlds of history and technology. Possibly the most interesting facet of this evolution of history is the speed at which it is taking place. Graeme Davison’s article although almost a decade old and somewhat outdated highlights this speed. He describes that “the academic world often seems to be divided between techno-freaks and Luddites, those who unreservedly welcome the new technology and those who try to hold it at bay.” That was ten years ago, and Davison was referring to simply using a computer in daily life. At the time of his writing there was still great debate over the future of technology in the classroom but “Most of us, however, have quietly absorbed the computer into the pattern of our academic lives, only occasionally pausing to consider how it is also changing the character of what we know and how we know it.” (more…)
September 24, 2006
High Tech Classroom Apocalypse or Progress
Gregory S. Brown’s article “The Coming of the French Revolution in Multi-Media” makes several great points. His application of technologies in teaching the French Revolution were very insightful, particularly as we move forward toward creating concepts for our own teaching history with technology projects. I had never thought to use music as a primary source, and thought that this was a brilliant idea until all the roadblocks of using such resources were considered. The intellectual property rights and other legal obstacles to using music as an interactive historical resource make Brown’s project largely infeasible for other scholars who look to make an impact in the classroom. The time considerations and monetary constraints combined with the fact that the effects of technology on learning are largely unknown make projects like Brown’s too risky a venture. (more…)
September 18, 2006
Familiar Concerns
This week’s readings on historians and the scholarship of teaching and learning must be taken as a collection of documents on the pedagogy of developing the skills required of the history professional. The skills that these articles cite as important to develop are quite different than what fledgling historians learn in graduate school. David Pace places an entirely new burden on his fellow historians. He challenges his peers and the profession to not give up on teaching and consider it to be a collateral duty that allows for scholarship. Historians must view teaching as a new form of scholarship, one that is both personal and collective. Just as they keep current on the crucial arguments in their field, they must also work to keep up with “the creation and dissemination of better tools for responding to the challenges of teaching history today could allow us to apply the intellectual skills that we have honed so carefully to the solution of the very real problems that we face in the classroom and that the nation as a whole faces on a larger scale.” Pace is correct that historian/educators are fighting against societal pressures that reduce student’s abilities to consider historical questions. Rather than succumb to such pressures and assume a defeatist, cynical attitude historians must redouble their efforts or else see the field become “impotent and irrelevant.” (more…)
September 10, 2006
The Devil’s Advocate: Historical Thinking (Post 2)
Samuel S. Wineburg’s interesting study of the way history is poorly taught, badly practiced and largely misunderstood by the greater population was quite insightful to a student of the historian’s craft. However, if I were a middle or high school teacher, with little expertise in the workings of the historian’s mind I would find the book far less useful. The obstacles that Wineburg throws at teachers hoping to enlighten their students to historical thought appear far too formidable, regardless of Wineburg’s suggestions. In spite of the fact that Wineburg hopes to alleviate the problems of teaching history I feel that he does little more than complicate them. How can we expect teachers to imbue students with an appreciation of their national history while professional historians are formally acknowledging that we are limited by “presentism?” Most young people will not become professional historians. Therefore teachers should not seek to burden them with the subtleties of history. Rather, the goal should be to present them with the most accurate portrayal of American history available. It is the professional historian’s role to explore the intricacies and subtleties of history and uncover the mysteries of the past as the evidence is examined. Possibly, the profession would best support the general public and the interests of history by updating the public view of events as necessary through scholarship, while engaging and nurturing the historical interests of America’s youth in order to influence those few who are destined to be the historians of the future.
Lendol Calder continues the discussion of Wineburg, “Teachers may like to think they are “furnishing the mind,” but since the late 1950s, investigations of human mental functioning have shown that this metaphor falls apart when taken too literally. Facts are not like furniture at all; they are more like dry ice, disappearing at room temperature.” While Calder goes on to make different points, I feel that this one is essential. Most students will forget what they learn as time passes, regardless of how it is taught. Only knowledge that is used remains in the forefront of the mind. I firmly believe this through personal experiences in martial arts and wrestling. Although in high school I was an avid wrestler, those skills dwindled after a period of hibernation. I feel that the same is true of academic work. Wrestling and martial arts rely a great deal on executing specific moves and countermoves according to the actions of one’s opponent. I find this to be not unlike Calder’s description of basic historian’s skills, “Can beginning students learn to do history the way professionals do it? Of course not. But my studies have found they can learn to execute a basic set of moves crucial to the development of historical mindedness. I want students to learn six such moves, or cognitive habits: questioning, connecting, sourcing, making inferences, considering alternate perspectives, and recognizing limits to one’s knowledge, all in the service of understanding American history since 1945.” Unfortunately, I find a fault with Calder’s logic, human memory. Those students in a survey course that do not major in history will see those skills dwindle as they are not exercised. It is those that do pursue the historian’s craft that will need those skills, and they should receive the most support. While this is a rather bleak viewpoint of survey history courses, it is not meant to denote that they should not exist, or be brushed aside as trivial. These courses require the best efforts of instructors and should be given adequate attention (the dollar amount of modern college tuitions only highlight this point), but nonetheless the future of history resides in a much smaller pool of students. The survey course is simply a method of creating a basic intellectual foundation upon which all college graduates must build. In short, upper level classes should be the subject of books like Wineburg’s and articles like “Uncoverage: Toward a Signature Pedagogy for the History Survey.”
September 5, 2006
Perseverance…
Kornblith and Lasser’s article was informative but terribly outdated when it comes to technology. They quote historian Elizabeth Perry “The Internet can be a wonderful resource, but I find that students do not use it wisely. They accept a great deal of what they see uncritically (the “As seen on TV” approach). And when they can’t find something on the Web, they often decide that it doesn’t exist and give up. Moreover, if they aren’t wired in from their rooms, they tend not to use Web-based resources. I use e-mail to communicate back and forth with students but, again, since some are not wired in, I can’t rely on such forms of communication without leaving students out.” In the year 2006 college students are “wired in” from almost anywhere, and an email address is a life necessity. Furthermore, as today’s reading assignment shows, with enough patience you can find almost anything on the web. Kornblith and Lasser do draw some very good conclusions about teaching the American History survey, but in terms of using technology to enhance the student experience, their article came up short.
Gilbert Allardyce’s survey article on the legacy of the introductory college history course was by every definition extensive. Collective education was a new term that Allardyce brought to my attention. The existence of a set of historic principles and ideas that have somehow been deemed essential knowledge for the well-educated seems preposterous. Although personally reared by a traditional “Atlantic Community” western civilization course Allardyce’s study has certainly made me skeptical of this base knowledge. One thought that kept recurring while perusing this article was that the western civilization course has served as a roadblock to extending human mastery of history. The elevation of European and North American history over that of other geographic areas may have served to funnel most people away from African, Latin American, or Asian studies. Today with globalization shaping a new world order, and technology bringing the diverse peoples of the world ever closer together; the traditional western civilization course simply will not prepare young scholars well enough to compete in the larger world.
Patricia Seed’s article “Teaching History with the Web: Two Approaches” appears to understand the problems of the Western Civilization course. Her notion that the internet has “democratized information” is essential to realizing the importance of conveying global ideas. The internet is a wonderful source of information, but can also lead students dangerously astray. Proper guidance and placing information in context must become the primary mission of educators. Seed does appear to gloss over the difficulties of filling that role. Learning a new language (HTML) and mastering the media/graphical capabilities of the web are no simple tasks. Keeping up with technology will be a tall obstacle that must be overcome in order to teach history properly.
August 29, 2006
Kevin Sample Post
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.