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