Part II: The Transformation
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A common feeling about history class
Most students walk into my classroom with the idea of history class being a waste of time. They believe this because their experience in prior social studies has generated a wealth of inert knowledge that is non-transferrable to their lives. To accompany the useless information students also leave without learning any skills that can be applied to future successes. The reason student’s feel this way about social studies classes is because most of the work they have completed has been disconnected, lacking a consistent thread that ties all of the information into one cohesive idea that can be used.
The goal is to arm students with the analytical tools and inspiration to continue learning history when they leave my classroom. Computers will be the central feature to curing this issue because they can act as a platform to access several exciting features from both programs and the internet. This computer access will allow students to make trans-historical connections that tie the ideas of history together. To tie everything together students can use the computers to maintain a blog that leads an exploration of the values and identity of the U.S. or humanity, depending on the class. Students can analyze stories and artifacts that assignments uncover to compose a personal opinion of what it means to be an American (U.S. History) or discover the nature of man (World History) based off the particular stories, developments, or artifacts. Instead of having to acquire expensive antiques the internet would serve as a repository of limitless artifacts for analytical interpretation. Students can post pictures of the artifacts in their blog then provide a priceless analysis at the cost of virtually nothing. Another great feature on the blog is students can couple key terms or passages with unique photos or paintings to gain historical perspective yielding a greater visual empathetic understanding for our ancestor’s lifestyle. To accompany the photo analysis would be the process of ethically using the internet as a resource. The class can use the comptuers to learn about how to find reputable sites for information as well as how to give appropriate credit to the source. The blog will serve as a connective tissue between history and the student’s developing opinion. This improves upon the model that has traditionally been done with just a binder, paper, and pencil because all of the information is easily cataloged for the student’s future recall. When students have a number of paper assignments they often fail to see the connection the assignments have with one another leading to a fragmented sense of history. An Example of Historical BloggingParalleling the blogs would be a number of assignments that meld both curriculum content with skills such as PowerPoint construction to present arguments, Audactiy recordings for student podcasts, and short MovieMaker assignments that teach students how to effectively incorporate music, audio, video, and pictures together. Instead of simply having a multiple choice exam at the end of the class to assess the student’s content knowledge and understanding, computers can be used by the class to construct a video that illustrates the student’s final opinion about U.S. history or the nature of humankind that was explored during the blog. The primary source of information for the video would originate from the semester of assignments compiled in the blog. The video would have to include a number of key content concepts from the state curriculum guide through imagery, video, quotes, or music that reflect the student’s final opinion about American/human identity. The final piece in the video would be a brief prediction of what will result from the current American/Human values that is based off past developments. As a result students will finish with a culminating project that conveys the student’s technical development and presentation abilities along with a cohesive understanding of the historical content knowledge demonstrated through the unique point of view from the student. With the availability of computers everyday in the class students will leave the classroom with a set of practical technical skills that can be applied in a number of arenas as well as a cohesive idea of identity that can be applied to their own lives. |