Teaching History in the Digital Age

It is very encouraging, once again, to read about many professors who possess the initiative and strong desire to strive for profound improvements in the classroom. Every article/website left me with the impression that not only did they demonstrate a passion for designing better syllabi and classroom instruction, but they did so by investing significant amounts of personal time and effort. I was impressed by Adrienne Hood’s willingness to learn new skills so that she could see if student-constructed web sites were worth doing for research projects. Like her students, Hood had to drastically improve her own web and html skills in order to have the knowledge to lead the class through this new approach.

Similar to Hood, several other professors exhibited the courage to think and act beyond the normal lecture and exam format. O’Malley’s logical, organized approach to designing useful, user-friendly website seems like common sense, but then I started thinking about how some of the websites I have seen made many of the mistakes he described. Other readings provided excellent arguments of how hypertext and hypermedia can be used effectively to increase the student and instructor’s enjoyment, experience, and, yes even the knowledge and skills gained from using digital media. Kelly’s “Toward Transparency” approach can be quite effective, but, as he and others mentioned, there is a great fear of exposing oneself to others. This fear may be one of the greatest inhibitors to the growth of the scholarship of learning. I think Cutler’s idea of an instructor’s diary is not only a smart way to deal with “pedagogical amnesia” but also an effective way to reflect on the degree of effectiveness of the lessons conducted but also a way share the data with others to discuss what worked and did not work.

But there was a common lamentation by the professors and some students with regard to the lack of computer facilities and the overload caused by the need to learn web-based research and website design skills. Since many of these articles were published in the late nineties or early part of the 00 decade, I wonder if the daunting challenge and time consuming effort of securing resources such as computers, computer facilities, and funding have been somewhat or mostly reduced by 2006. Also, do more students and professors, in general, have better web-based skills and greater access to email and the internet? Many high schools (at least in the Northern Virginia area) offer web-based and programming courses; perhaps this is one way to effectively address the web skills issue for students.

Digital technology was also discussed from the perspective of the instructor’s use of the material to augment lecture or replace lectures. Several of the authors presented specific uses of multi-media to enhance their classroom instruction and/or better engage the student to get them to think as historians think. Some of the instructors even suggested that the use of multi-media has helped the students offset or negate presentism, possibly one of the greatest impediments to their ability to interpret history. It would seem that a growing body of evidence has been developed that demonstrates the positive impact multi-media has had in the classroom for both students and instructors. I think there is huge value in having the students participate as active learners where the benefits include enhanced web skills, critical thinking skills, assessing the sources to name a few. Overall, the instructors have concluded that the students’ interaction increased, their feedback to the instructors was positive, and that course/instructor evaluations increased or ranked among the highest received for that course. Do the benefits outweigh the costs? I got the impression that the students and instructors in the readings for this week would say yes, the benefits do outweigh the costs. Even if we (students and instructors) answer yes, what do the universities value? Research only? Or research at the expense of a different kind of research, the scholarship of teaching and learning?