Technology in Museums

The military museum at the US Military Academy at West Point is a stark contrast with the Sony Wonder Technology Lab. Just a visit to each's website gives the casual observer an indication of how each approaches the use of technology.

The West Point museum's web site has two pages with a brief description of their major exhibits. The photos are in black and white. The Sony site is much more colorful, includes a flash generated tour and has activities and downloads. It is appropriate that something labelled a 'Technology Wonder Lab' have a compelling web-site, but in truth the functionality is a bit limited.

The greater differences become apparent when you visit each museum in person. The Sony Lab has interactive technology kiosks typically driven by a touch-screen user interface. Each station has a representation of some form of technology as varied as the telephone and magnetic resonance imaging. The object of each station in the parade of technology is to have the student learn how something works through 'hands on' experiences.

The military museum at West Point could benefit tremendously by integrating technology. The current exhibit layout is compelling only to military history buffs. Warfare artifacts are interesting, but the advancement of strategic military advantage through innovation is unstated. Instead, an interactive kiosk linking certain weapons with key battles won in history could compel the viewer to draw cause & effect relationships.

Another simple kiosk could be maps changing with a time line. An example could be the land gains of the Axis powers in WWII and the subsequent retreat after D-Day and the Battle of Stalingrad. One needs to use technology to make history come alive.

I was also surprised at the total absence of any audio files of speeches by great generals, commentary about battles or even letters home from troops. These primary documents can be compelling to the casual observer if presented properly.

Podcasts

I visited the site and found the interface to be uninspiring. While seemingly dedicated to and created for educators in the Social Studies area, there was a lack of categorization that would make this site easy to use if it actually produces a large inventory of useful material.

I listened to two podcasts from the Colonial Williamsburg site and two from an amatuer Podcaster from Beijing. It reminded me of my youth, creating a crystal radio to pick up Ham traffic: the reward fell far short of the effort. While I may be generally dismayed by conventional media broadcasts these days, I am astounded by the 'vacation slideshow' nature of the podcast community.

I did learn from a former New Yorker in Beijing that he had a Bar-B-Q on Easter that involved live music and invited guests representing over a dozen foreign languages I couldn't understand. Passing an MP3 recorder around at a party constitutes something worthy of sharing on this site according to the author who billed it as his 'best podcast ever'.

The Williamsburg casts were much more intersting, but perhaps only because I visited the place. In reality, one would only really listen to this stuff if it were broadcast on the only radio station available while driving overnight. The risk of falling asleep at the wheel may actually be increased by exposure to this content. Nonetheless I did learn more about Pocahantus and the jealosy of the loyalists to the Jamestown settlement over the Plymouth Rock afficianados.

In truth, this technology could be used to stimulate student learning if properly channeled. I could see student assignments being submitted, lectures disseminated and student debates recorded for posterity. The Internet is a big place and I'm sure there are better places than this to look for useful content for my students.

Google rules the internet

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Tapped in

Darfur is Dying

Using a game to spread the word about the genocide in the western Sudan is an effective way to reach an audience one might not normally reach. The digital natives I teach all felt compelled about the plight of the villagers who must forage for water and hide from the Janjaweed. We played the game in my class, taking turns at the keyboard as a projector displayed the action on a screen.

The students were engaged and were often shouting out warnings of when and where to hide while foraging for water. They lamented every capture and encouraged mouse overs in the village to discover what each graphic represented. We went through three students and one game re-start before we were able to successfully forage water.

We spent our second period discussing the game and doing further online research. We visited Darfur via Google Earth and I was surprised how much the more the site has since I used it just two months ago. The partnership with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum is outstanding. The students were even more engaged with the icons than the village. As each description or slideshow came up the students were driven more than ever to understand why this was taking place.

The game was a perfect launch point for the lesson & the Google Earth and USMM alliance made for a very compelling lesson.

Website or Software review

Historyteacher.net is a site created by a Social Studies Teacher right here in Westchester County. It was created by Ms. Pojer at Horace Greeley High School. It must have been a labor of love and taken quite some time to develop. It was recognized by History Magazine as the site of the week in September 2002. I'm sorry I didn't find it sooner than last year. I've used it as a source of lesson ideas and plans in addition to having my students use it for lessons and review.

I guess I'm not the only one: the site counter shows over 4,000,000 hits. The breadth and scope of this site is indicated by her caveat on the homepage: "I am not responsible within this site of over 2000 individual pages for the content found on links whose web addresses might frequently change ownership and intent, nor for pop-up windows appearing on those sites with objectionable subject matter."

I must admit, I haven't explored her claim of links to over 2000 individual pages, but the links she has placed on the home page are relevant and useful to me. The layout of the site is well organized by history subject area and she thoughtful to have MS Frontpage 6.0 create a site map during development. Site maps often make it easier to navigate large sites like this.

I couldn't find many missing items from the Global History syllabus. Each unit link page starts with a map of the subject area surrounded by key topics such as Geography, Ealy History, Modern History, Culture, Nations, Colonialism & Current Issues. Each topic links to a comprehensive set of links for that sub-set of information.

In addition, numerous on-line quizzes, sample Regents questions and activities abound. This is a terrific site I hope to use in the years to come. My main concern would be trying to maintain the site without FrontPage support...that would be a nightmare.

The Missles of October

It is frightening to me to realize that my students were either not born or still suckling when the Berlin wall fell. They never crawled under their desks during a civil defense drill. I'm challenged as a teacher to pull relevance into their lives to the threat of thermo-nuclear destruction.

I chose a lesson plan about the Cuban Missile Crisis and was immediately impressed with the wealth of information and student activities embedded within the website. What I learned in the process of delivering this lesson is that well-conceived, overly ambitious plans can easily fail if not adapted properly to fit the audience.

The critical issue to be delivered within this lesson is the Cold War had boiled to the point that two competing nations began to understand that the fear of Nuclear War was sufficient grounds to use diplomacy to solve a crisis. The bold stand taken by the Kennedy administration ultimately lead to detente, glasnost and perestroika.

I welcomed the overly rich listing of resources available within the plan provided. I found the student exercises to be lacking because they failed to properly place the source documents into the context of the assignment. For example Activity #1 placed the student in the role of a CIA analyst creating a brief for the President. The spy-plane photos were appropriate fodder, but two of the three text documents were ex-post facto analysis that only added confusion to the task.

I modified this lesson with my 5th & 8th period classes to make the main deliverable be the definition of the threat & delineating the five options available to JFK. In my 8th period class a compelling argument proceeded among the students regarding the risks associated with each of the options.

While we all wish we can find 'canned' lesson plans to suit our needs and fill our students', it becomes increasingly apparent to me that absorption, experimentation & modification is the only way to effectively reach all of your students

LESSON PLAN:
The World at the Brink: The Cuban Missile Crisis

by Tom Josephson
Enduring Understandings:

1. The conflict between Communism vs. Capitalism almost ended the world
2. Diplomacy can help resolve conflicts
3. The Superpowers came close enough to annihilation to begin to disarm

Essential Questions:

1. What led to the Soviets building Nuclear silos in Cuba?
2. Why was the USA so upset at the prospect of nuclear missiles in Cuba?
3. How was JFK's reaction to the missiles tempered by the embarrassment of the Bay of Pigs?
4. How did the Cuban Missile Crisis lead to detente, glasnost & perestroika?

NYS Standards:
SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARD 2: World History use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.
Economics

SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARD 4: Economics use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of how the United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the U.S. and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem through market and non-market mechanisms.

ELA STANDARD 3: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.

Resources:
Content:

1. Selected readings from RFK's "Thirteen Days"
2. Source documents from EDSITEMENT LESSON
3. Background Cold War info from EASE HISTORY: 'Cold War All' clip

Technology:

Computer lab time to digest source materials and create responses to essential questions and activities. If time allows conduct a debate and record for class notes podcast: Resolved: JFK's decision to blockade saved Capitalism. and/or Resolved: Khruschev's primary goal was to eliminate the USA's nuclear missiles in Turkey.

Activities:

1. Problem discovered: CIA Analyst briefing
2. Brother to Brother: What would you tell JFK to do if you were RFK?
3. Who blinks first? Describe how the crisis was resolved
4. Make a prediction: Does this crisis make the world safer?

This lesson plan was adapted from "The Missiles of October" from EDSITEMENT