The New Digital History Education

We are moving

2010-05-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

Hello friends,

It's been a few years of writing about a digital history education, and now with the launch of our new website www.canadashistory.ca, digital history education is moving.

I'm excited about the change, as the new space should give me more time to write and the ability to write on a wider variety of topics. You can read my first new post about Pierre Berton here.

Thanks for following, and hope to see you on the other side.

Joel

UnConferencing History Education Part 2

2010-04-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

Having some success in the bid to get more time for teachers to talk to teachers at annual conferences. I've put together a description of what my ideal (asterisked with the note that this not a full UnConference, but the ideal middle ground that gets things moving).

Take a look through the list and let me know what you think. We could definitely use some feedback.

The History UnConference

830 - 900 Arrival and Registration (possibly some activity to get people started, it would cool to have a power point rigged up to a projector, and people could add thoughts about the day - sort of like a Twitter feed, for the non Twitter users.)

900-915 Greetings

915-930 First lightning round of presentations - five presenters for 2 minutes each, 8 slides timed to 15 seconds each. A quick way to get people going.

930-1030 Keynote about a topic

1030-1045 Lightning Round #2 - 5 more quick presenters

1045-1100 Display and Find your workshop

1100-1200 First Round, Teachers divided by grade level into smaller groups of 15 or so. One moderator leads discussion around theme of the conference in your classroom. Each person talking for two minutes about the theme and their classroom. 15 minutes groups talk about the challenges they face. Poster Paper each group writes out three key challenges that they face in the classroom related to this.

1200-100 Display and Lunch, Poster Paper is posted in the main area for teachers to see what other groups were discussing. (Digital aspect could interview teachers about their experiences, a sort of speaker's corner booth.)

100-200 Regular presentations/sessions which people have signed up for.

200-215 break and display

215-315 Final round related back to the original morning discussion. Teachers could meet in smaller groups again with different people, each tackling a set of challenges posted in the morning. Similar discussion format facilitated by a moderator and secretary. Notes would again be posted afterwards with online component to share results. Teachers asked to come up with solutions to each set of challenges, with specific actions.

UnConferencing History Education

2010-02-08T10:47:00.001-08:00

As a seasoned veteran of the History Education conferences circuit each fall, I've been thinking a lot about them lately. My experiences and impressions of the annual teacher conferences has really only declined over the past few years.

From my own impression, numbers are increasingly down and increasing participation in provincial teaching bodies continues to be a struggle. And yet, there really has been little talk of changing the format of the annual conferences or the way in which they do business. For displayers, which is often my own role, it affects how we can get our message out to the education community.

After several conversations with other displayers and presenters this past fall, we put the challenge out to each other to convince our own respective provinces to try something new and look to the unconference movement. An unconference is essentially "a facilitated participant-driven face-to-face conference around a theme or purpose."

It seems strange that so much effort is made to bring together teachers, who all teach the same class and subject material, but not actually provide space and time for them to talk to each other.

Which is why I'm really happy that some preliminary discussions with my provincial teachers conference organizers seems to be going well. I'm putting together a pitch to get some more unconference like events built into the standard day. I would really like to have displayers take part in some Lightning Talks, which I've seen used really well before. I'm also hoping to create some sessions based around getting teachers talking to each other and setting their own agenda.

What kinds of things do you think should be included in this conference. I'm hoping this will be a lot of fun. I'm also encouraged when I see stuff like TeachMeet in the UK.

What's a Historian to do

2010-01-28T13:23:00.000-08:00

We're working on a new website for Canada's History and I've spent the afternoon working on our New Research section. Academic research - understanding it, writing it, finding it - needs to be a part of high school history classes. It' s just not acceptable that young students should graduate from high school with no real sense of what historians do at the academic level.

But here in lies my frustration. I've been reading the Canadian Historical Review and a great article about Gender and Class in early Montreal by historian Elise Chenier. It's a really interesting piece that I think would be even more interesting given the emphasis on volunteering for high school students. It examines how young elite women moved from debutant balls and high society to more engagement in "volunteering" as economic times deteriorated.

Of course, I've been reading it through my account as a former student at the University of Western Ontario. I also am on campus at the University of Winnipeg so I could read it here in the library. But for the average high school teacher, where are you supposed to go to download a copy of this article. Worst of all, the University of Toronto Press charges $13 to get a PDF of the article. An annual subscription only costs $60 and it is just not reasonable to expect the general public to pay at that level for individual articles.

It's a frustrating experience for those who believe that academic history had an important place in high schools, in particular challenging students and encouraging them to study history at the university level. What's a historian or teacher to do?

Teaching Canada's History

2009-10-22T20:04:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow Canada's History Society is launching Teaching Canada's History, a special publication of The Beaver: Canada's History Magazine. The magazine explores how Canada's best teachers and educators are sharing the history of our country with young people.

We have terrific features including Peter Seixas discussing historical thinking, Catherine Duquette looking at controversies in the classroom, Eric Langhorst using technology to spark learning, Anne Tenning on the importance of teaching about residential schools, Rose Fine-Meyer on Local History, and Blake Seward on Remembrance in Canada. We also had wonderful contributions from Joe Stafford, Helen Raptis, Charles Hou, and Vicky Lapointe.

What I'm most excited about is the inclusion of links within the print version of the magazine. Many people have put print publications online, but they always lack the interactivity of a website. We jumped ahead by bolding words in the text and tagging images in the print version, letting readers know what else can be accessed through the print version.

Teachers are a really difficult group to crack and we've tried to create an extremely high value product that is uniquely shareable. Selling a lot of teachers magazines is always going to be a challenge, but we hope that by reaching the largest audience possible, this will also support sales on newstands and through our website. It's got the portability of print with the interactivity of a digital magazine.

For the last six months this project has been my main focus. It has been an extreme pleasure and honour to work with these talented educators and the editorial staff at the Beaver magazine to make this project work. A special note of thank you as well to James Gillespie, who has put together an incredible magazine with a terrific look and feel.

Please take a look through the issue and let us know what you think! I'll have lots more to say about the magazine in the coming days and weeks ahead.

Canada's Best History Teachers

2009-10-13T15:18:00.001-07:00

Canada's History Society recently announced the 25 finalists for this year's Governor General's Awards for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History. We present the award each year to six teachers from across Canada. I'm always amazed at the new and inventive ways teachers develop to teach young people about Canada.

Take a look through the list here and let them inspire you in your classroom. The six recipients will be announced on November 20th, 2009.

Canada's Steve McQueen

2009-09-22T06:16:00.000-07:00

Working on a special magazine over the past few months, I've had a chance to delve into the images at Library and Archives Canada more and more. I'm amazed at the depth of the collection that is available online at the moment. Searching is fairly easy, and you can narrow your search by selecting only those images which are available online.

The photos contain much of the history of Canada, but I wanted to share this picture. Anyone who has every had the Steve McQueen great escape poster on their wall will recognize it right away. I think this is the best World War Two photo of a Canadian soldier I have ever seen. Let me know what you think or if about other images from the collection that you think are pretty awesome.

Personnel of No.2 Provost Company, Canadian Provost Corps (C.P.C.), talking with French civilians, Fleury-sur-Orne, France, 20 July 1944.

Will my son skype with me?

2009-09-04T07:47:00.000-07:00

I know it doesn't appear so on the blog, but things have been busy of late. My wife and I celebrated the arrival of our son Jack on August 12th, and we have been very busy since learning all about parenthood.

Last night though we had the chance to video Skype with my son's great-grandparents. It's pretty amazing to think that my wife's grandmother grew up in Cape Breton in a single home without electricity or running water. And here we are now video conferencing with them to introduce them to their newest great-grandson.

I can't imagine what my own son will be doing in 80 years from now, but it sure seems like the future will have to continue to build on this technology.

We have some really fun projects coming in the fall and the new year, so keep an eye out. I promise things are still going here.

Befuddled Twitter Connection

2009-06-05T07:49:00.000-07:00

The posts here have slowed a little of late but I promise we are working on some fun projects. I've also been getting more engaged with Twitter (you can find me @jralph). This happened a few weeks back, but was a great example of little connections on Twitter.

I saw a post from @mrpuffin, another teacher I follow, that he was working on Immigration posters with his students. I quickly sent him a note with links to Immigration posters in the back issues of The Beaver that he was able to use in the class. Other teachers who follow him also saw the post and followed up.

MrPuffin never would have sent me a note to say what he was doing in his classroom, but by communicating what he was doing we found an easy connection that improved the quality of education and the student experience. You can read MrPuffin's account here on his blog Befuddled.

You might also want to check out some of his thoughts on organizing the Red River Heritage Fair and technology, as well as some of his students stop motion videos like this one below. They look great!

History Canada Game

2009-04-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

I have spent the last few days playing around with the History Canada Game. It's a scenario within the Civilization 3 game that explores the early settlement of Canada.

The group behind the project has just received a significant grant from the MacArthur Foundation in the United States to continue with the project development.

If you have Civilization 3 on your computer you can download and play the first scenario now. I purhcased Civ 3 online at Gamersgate.

I would be interested to know what experienced classroom teachers think about the project and the game.

Thinking in Mind

2009-03-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

Any day you find a new blogger focusing on history and digital media is a great day. So yesterday was a lot of fun unpacking Thinking in Mind, a history and digital media blog from Neil Stephenson. Neil is a grade 6 and 7 teacher in Calgary, Alberta.

It's wonderful to have a Canadian example of the great work that can be done with History and new media. Please take a look at the Cigar Box Project his students are working on which sounds like lots of fun. I also really liked this program Glogster. You can find Neil's assignment for using it to create historical timelines.

Really fun work and enjoyed learning about these projects a lot. I've added Thinking in Mind to my blog roll and the famous history teachers who blog section.

Finally discovering Twitter

2009-03-06T08:02:00.000-08:00

I tried to twitter a few months ago. I really did and it just didn't work out and I let it go. But I find I'm running into it more and more often and so this week I went back and tried it again. Just a quick note that we all struggle at times with picking up a new tech.

Twitter is a micro-blog - everything you can say in only 140 words (see the common craft video for the full explanation). For all those things that you want to ask but aren't worth creating an email for. My second go around has been a bit more successful and I'm not following a handful of educators that I also follow through blogs. The main reason for my success if downloading and installing Twhirl so that I can get updates from people I follow right as they come in.

I actually think Twitter could be of real value in the classroom but it will take brave teachers to put it to good use. There are already some great posts about using Twitter in the Classroom. But one thing that I would be really interested to see is giving students the opportunity to run a discussion during a lecture. If you have ever attended an online workshop, there is usually a comments or questions bar at the side with running commentary.

Why not run a Twitter feed that students can watch. If you were really brave you could even project it at the front of the class so students could follow along. If you were less brave you could simply have one student or assistant monitor the feed for key questions and thoughts. It's another way to add participation which is always needed.

I can see why Twitter wouldn't necessarily function well for teachers - it's hard to follow a feed while you are teaching, but a great way to keep in touch with students and larger community of educators. I'm going to keep playing around and working on it here.

Tar Sands meet the Uranium Mine

2009-03-03T11:33:00.000-08:00

A bit of storm this week has developed around National Geographic Magazine's article, photo's and (online) video of the Alberta Oil Sands development. For many people these are the first images of the Tar Sands that have been readily published and made available.

What I thought was interesting is that the entire piece reminded me of one of my favorite Beaver Magazines articles - Uranium for Atomic Power. The article, from the June 1953 issue of The Beaver, looks at what early uranium mining was like. It's a surprisingly revealing piece into the life of the workers who developed Canada's early uranium mines.

In a classroom the two articles would be really interesting to compare, in particular how reporting and media about environmental issues have changed over the past 55 years. The Beaver was far more optimistic back in the day, and I would assume their press access was probably a bit different. Compare, contrast, and learn away!

Forward Capture: A History with Value

2009-02-26T08:43:00.000-08:00

Forward Capture is a project created by the Center for History and New Media and the National Council on Public History in the United States. Together they are soliciting thoughts from public historians on where the future of public history. It's a great example of creating opportunities to participate in a larger sharing of knowledge and the results will form the backbone of a larger presentation at the NCPH annual meeting in April 2009.

If you haven't yet done so please make your own contribution to the site. I've posted my own entry below that tries to tackle the issue of value and history which I think is really important. And fortunately if you read my blog, occasionally, you will know that I don't normally talk like I'm staring into the sky.

The Future of Public History:

Public Historians that embrace history, and history that embraces public historians.

The future of public history is a future where history has value and is valued. For history to be important in society is has to have some value – whether it tells someone about their own personal past, the society they live in, or the events that they face. Public Historians need to serve as gatherers and aggregators, using skill sets developed through sound research and analysis, to share the value of the work done by academic and local historians with an audience of informed and interested citizens.

A field that encourages high school students to study history, encourages graduates to take history programs in college and university, and encourages university and college graduates to continue working in the field – whether through academia, education, museums, archives or publications.

A modern inviting history that is urban and edgy in style and content. Content and presentation should be fresh and bold, that utilizes the style already relevant in other fields.

A participatory history that invites each citizen to provide their own story. Together these stories provide details and life while also illuminating the larger patterns that historians research each and every day. A public history that embraces the ability of new technology, life forward capture has, to include, invite, and reshape the role of the historian.

Change comes to Canada

2009-02-19T07:57:00.000-08:00

Today United States President Barack Obama is making his first official visit to our national capital. I know that Canadians from coast to coast are warmly welcoming the President and it has been the main topic of discussion here for the last week at least.

His first discussion today is with Governor-General Michaëlle Jean (a glimpse of which I just caught on the CBC). At the time of his election the Governor-General I think best transmitted the sentiments of Canadians in her warm message of hope and celebration. You can watch her full statement on her website, www.citizensvoices.gg.ca.

Citizens Voices is a great website for each and every Canadian to learn more about the valuable work the Governor-General does and to engage with other Canadians on important topics. It brings the kind of openess and inclusion that should be of value to every level of government - something I think the New President would greatly aprove.

Welcome to Canada Mr. President.

TED: Ideas woth spreading to your students

2009-02-18T07:53:00.001-08:00

One of the reason's why I started on this digital history adventure just over three years ago was that I was going to graduate from University. I wasn't worried about the work place or what the future held - that actually excited me and I was hopeful of trying new things. But what I was worried about was loosing touch with a larger academic community. I felt that through technology I could still continue to learn - learn about history, about technology, and about just great ideas that still made my brain jump the way it did in University.

Fortunately the number size of the online idea community is continuing to grow, and one that is readily available to your students. We talk often about issues of civics and engagement, making sure that students are informed about what is happening in the world. Surely a great endeavor that is of the utmost importance. But at some point students also need to learn about more that what is on the six o'clock news or in the local paper - we have to have some connection to a wider current of ideas and thoughts.

Which brings me back to TED: Technology, Entertainment, Design. I love hearing interesting and smart people talk about things they find interesting and are passionate about. Anytime you can hear or spend time with a passionate person, you will grow yourself. In life we often have too few opportunities to share in this community.

TED let's you meet interesting and passionate people everyday. They inspire people in a wide variety of fields but share common threads that somehow relate back to each of us. Never in history have we had such opportunities - through TED and other projects - to learn and share in the wisdom of others. They do it because it matters to them and they are passionate about their work.

Every classroom should take a few moments out for a TED talk now and then. And of course they have a school program as well - so start finding the special lights in your community.

Popular Relevance

2009-02-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

As part of an Introduction to Learning Technologies course at the University of Manitoba I've been exploring the program Digg. We drew our projects from We Are Media, a website designed to help non-profit organizations better use new media in their endeavours.

Digg is a social bookmarking tool that you may have noticed before on many news or information websites. The tool allows you to "digg" content that you are in to (if that's what you're into). Content that is most popular, in theory, rises to the top and shares information with a larger audience, focusing in on the best and most interesting stories.

There are some great advantages to Digg that make it very accessible. The program allows to you install a toolbar and follow sites live as you visit them, seeing who and how many people are interested in a website.

But for educational purposes, and arguably for any purposes online, Digg provides more of a popular than relevant story. Content is largely pulled from mainstream media websites with stories "Dugg" by a core group of supporters.

Creating communites of practice and learning communities doesn't require mass participation. I trust the websites and blogs of my colegues to post material that I'm interested in and that is relevant. I don't really expect it to be popular with a wide audience. If I wanted that I would have stayed with traditional media sources - they are surprisingly good at covering all things popular.

The other thing is that Digg let's you build a community of "Friends." But this suggests that I only learn from my friends. I often times learn from complete strangers. It's the thousands of people circling the globe, people I never would have met before, that are often working on and considering simliar thoughts and issues.

For now I'm sticking with Del.ico.us, in fact I think I'm even going to start tagging even more.

Charter of Rights and Freedoms via Wordle

2008-12-09T08:42:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago I posted about a program called Wordle which allows you to create "word clouds" from a body of text or a blog. I had a couple of ideas but hadn't really thought that much more about it.

I was just listening to Eric Langhorst's podcast over at Speaking of History and he instantly got me interested in it again. Teaching about American government, he ran the US constitution through Wordle and created a great starting point for a class discussion. It's fun and engaging and immediately provides a windown into the focus of the document.

So of course I reached for our Canadian equivalent and ran the Charter of Rights and Freedoms through Wordle and got the following result:

Click on the link and try putting your own historical documents into Wordle - let's see what other results we can come up with.

Meet the Teachers

2008-11-25T13:45:00.000-08:00

Each year Canada's National History Society presents the Governor General's Awards for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History. Last year we piloted a new program to record interviews with our recipients and share them with a wider audience.

The results were positive and this year we have improved the quality significantly. Meeting and sharing ideas seems so key to the online experience and it just shows how easy it has become to share the work of these tremendous teachers.

Rather than reading a bio, we now have the opportunity to step into the classroom and meet the teachers, to see their projects and personalities shine through. There are six video's in total, but I posted Mike Ward's below. Reading about his project of creating a table with a settler community is one thing, but seeing it in action is totally different. Each of the videos brings that life forward.

A special thanks to our videographer Jayson Go for his help with each of the videos.

Also a thank you to Philip Ling, Shephanie Ha, and Geoff Ives, in Ottawa who did a great job on a short timeline helping with the video interview of Jean-Pierre Frigon.

History Flash

2008-11-19T12:40:00.000-08:00

Ok Historians, you know you would have fun with a little flash tool like this.

I watched the election results through the New York Times as well. There website is just so far ahead of everything else.

The Collaborative Project

2008-10-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

David Suzuki has me inspired. Not just to build an organic garden, but to build programs and projects that are worthy of the technology available to us.

The David Suzuki Digs My Garden project used Flickr and online video as a way to make this contest a little bit different. From across Canada people entered their gardens by uploading their images to the official contest Flickr group. To enter the contest I joined the group and added my own garden images that were already posted on my own Flickr group.

On my own image I was able to tag all of the different plants in our pesticide free garden - from the tango lettuce to the organic catnip to our cat Mister T. Online programs are about presenting, storing and registering information in ways that were not previously possible.

Not only that but we also received a really cool video thank you from David Suzuki as well. This is how new projects can use technology in a collaborative and inspiring way. By sharing gardens from across Canada we not only created a historical record of gardening in the year 2008, we also provide a knowledge exchange.

Strangely enough at the same time another photo on Flickr was also being targeted by an online collaborative project. Schmap is a digital map program that provides information about cities from around the world.

The map makers from the city of Minneapolis had taged two of my photos from our trip to the city this past summer. The photos had been chosen for a contest (there is always a hook) and they would like to know if I would be interested in entering the photo. The "winning" images will be used for a photo guide to the city.

Like most folks I'm happy to have the pictures used and happily clicked yes. Together all of these images can form a collaborative project, from hundreds of people. Not only that, suddenly I know Schmap exists, I'm going to tell my friends to all go and look for my picture, and maybe I will use this website in the future.

By giving me a role and involvement, by helping me feel like a collaborator rather than a user, I suddenly am considerably more connected to this website.

David Suzuki Digs My Garden

2008-10-27T19:02:00.001-07:00

David Suzuki ran a great contest this summer to encourage Canadians to grow organic and pesticide free gardens. We live in an appartment here in Winnipeg and kept our organic garden going all summer - with some great tomatoes to show for it!

Our garden won in the Balcony category and we received this special message from David Suzuki (unfortunately we submitted our picture via flickr and my account name there is generalamazo, thus the thank you). But it's pretty cool and the whole contest had a great digital component that I will talk about more in the next day or two.

Political Junkie Part Two

2008-10-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how I watched politics without the internet. The Museum of the Moving Image has a great website, The Living Room Candidate, with campaign ads from every election going back to 1952.

You said it Ike!

Election Fever - Apathy is Boring

2008-10-01T08:30:00.001-07:00

Canada, as you have noticed, is in the middle of an election at the moment. And one of the best places for helping your students get involved and active is Apathy is Boring. They are a great organization that works to get young people not just voting but engaged in the political process.

What also makes this organization so terrific is the way they use technology. They are creating new ways for students to interact with politicians and to get information about platforms and policies. Why should we expect that students want to learn about politics the same way as previous generations?

They have just released a candidates guide to reaching young people. The guide was sent to candidates of all parties to help them use technology to reach and engage young people.

The guide should be mandatory reading for all candidates and their election teams. But if you go through and replace the word candidate with teacher, there is also a lot of lessons to be learned for the classroom.......

If my Mom can blog update

2008-09-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

I was home over the weekend and was working with my mom on her blog and flickr page. In the summer we got her started with a blog, flickr, and delicious account.

Now her class, Geography of Northern Canada, is off to a great start and the online components are coming quickly. My mom has hundreds of great slides from trip sand living in the north. Rather than lug around the old projector this year, she had them all transferred digital copies and we uploaded them on to her flickr site. Then we added a flickr badge to share them on her blog. (That's me in the white in Arviat)

But best of all we used a new program called Issuu to publish her syllabus. Rather than just posting a link to an online document or hiding it away somewhere, Issuu allows us to store an online copy that you can flick through easily. You can also print and download straight from the program.

Best of all these programs and documents are accessible from anywhere - a digital work station. No slide projects, no flash drives, no laptops. Just a linked up classroom that can be moved anywhere.

Making the History of 1989

2008-08-27T14:20:00.001-07:00

Great new website with primary sources, first hand accounts, and teaching strategies from the Centre for History and New Media. Check out Making the History of 1989 if you are teaching about the Cold War this year.

Political Junkie

2008-08-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

I admit in my spare time I'm a pretty heavy political junkie. And I love the New York Times website for interactive and interesting online features. I will let you explore them on your own but the one I wanted to point out for History Teachers is a timeline of Democratic Conventions (I assume/hope the Republican one is on the way).

In one small presentation you could teach an entire class on the politics, economics, and social aspects of the United States since 1948. I found the 1956 convention in Chicago particularly interesting and wanted to point out Adlai Stevenson's speech at the end. How things have changed along the way.

Vocabulary of the Blog

2008-08-12T13:02:00.000-07:00

The other day I came across an interesting program called Wordle. The site grabs your RSS feed and turns it into a word mosaic - making most used words larger. So of course I checked my own blog and created the following:

What I actually found most interesting was the way it emphasized my apparently limited vocabulary on the blog. With words such as great, fun, and really jumping out - I actually got an unfortunately clear view of my writing (I'm blaming it all on emailing).

I thought a really interesting project with your students would be to take their work - even all of their essays - dump them into a blog on blogger, and then run them through Wordle to see what words come up most. The exercise should improve vocabulary and also be a bit of ... (anything fun) unbridled enthusiasm....? I'm trying anyways.

You could also do this as a class project to see what vocabulary words in general your students use most.

10 Photos that Changed Canada

2008-08-07T13:09:00.001-07:00

The Beaver magazine today is launching a special feature today called the 10 photos that changed Canada. It's a great feature about some of the definitive images that have shaped Canada. The article is available in the August/September 2008 issue of the magazine.

I wanted to point it out because not only is it a fun feature, but we also have several podcast interviews that I thought were particularly interesting this month. Ray Argyle talks about meeting Robert Mallandaine, who is looking over Donald Smith's shoulder as he pounds home the last spike - arguably Canada's most famous photo.

For anyone who can follow along, there is also a great interview in French with Robert Nadon, the photographer who captured the image of Pierre Laporte's body in the trunk of a car during the October Crisis.

And finally, you can also hear Ric Ernst discuss how the judges narrowed down their list of iconic images.

History of America Tour: Magical History Tour

2008-08-06T09:33:00.001-07:00

Magical History Tour in front of The Guthrie, originally uploaded by digitalhistory2000.

Just outside of the Mill City Museum we were delighted to see the Magical History Tour passing in front of The Guthrie Theatre.

Now since I've gotten back apparently there are Segway history tours in a lot of cities. But I still thought it was a really fun way to get around. If we had more time I definitely would have gone for a spin - sort of kicking myself now that I didn't.

History of America Tour: The Mill City Museum

2008-08-05T09:29:00.001-07:00

About a week ago I ventured down into the heart of America down to the great state of Kansas. Along the way I we stopped at a number of historic sites and museums. It was a fun chance not only to visit some new place and learn a bit of history, but to see some new and original projects.

One of the first stops along the way was in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minneapolis is actually a terrific city with a surprising amount of things happening (sorry Minneapolis we had low expectations going in). It's got great art galleries, theaters, and of course, museums. We stopped at the Mill City Museum in the downtown.

Now the history of flour milling might not sound all that exciting, but there are definitely some great projects happening here. The Museum itself is built into the preserved ruins of the Washburn A Mill. Aside from being a great piece of architecture and preservation, they offer an excellent and smart little history of the city in 19 minutes that is quite well done.

But most impressive is the Flour Tower. Rather than producing a regular exhibit with displays set in place, they moved the exhibit into the former grain elevator. You step on and ride the elevator between floors, where the doors open into each display area. The story follows all parts of the milling process and is narrated with first hand accounts of what it was like to work in the factory as you travel between floors.

It's a terrific way to take an otherwise quite static exhibit and make it engaging and interesting.

350

2008-07-28T13:41:00.000-07:00

For those of you looking for fun Climate Change content for your classroom, check out 350.org and their new video. It's a really smart and sleek new video about controlling climate change.

The video was created by Free Range Studios (creativity with a conscience) who are doing some great social justice and environment projects at the moment. They also brought us Story of Stuff which I've mentioned before and has taken a place of honor on the sidebar.

You should definitely check out their website. They have lots of really great interactive projects, many of which have classroom connections.

If you do only one project next year....

2008-07-07T11:49:00.001-07:00

I know the summer is kicking in but if you happen to drift into thinking about next year here is the one project you should do in your classroom - Google SketchUp.

I'm not an expert on the program, but essentially Google SketchUp allows you to create 3d buildings which can then be placed on the map in Google Earth. Imagine in your classroom creating 3d models of your historic community.

The actual technical work of Google Sketch Up is pretty straightforward and the historical research required to recreate and measure a building would bring in lots of interesting primary sources. Imagine a well documented building with first hand accounts, letters, and documents detailing every part of the building. And best of the program to do that project is already fully functional.

Google has also posted selections from it's recent Google Sketch Up basecamp (sadly I was not drawn to participate). Spend the summer getting used to the program and then clean up at the local Heritage Fair when your students present 3d models instead of outdated power point presentations.

If my Mom can blog, you can too

2008-07-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

Recently returned from some holiday time at home and I had a chance to sit down with my Mom who is teaching a course at Laurentian University this fall in the geography department.

I had set a goal of getting her class up to Web 2.0 compatibility and she was ready to the task. Over about two afternoons we got her set up with a course blog, a flickr site, and a del.icio.us account.

Now she has her own space to post readings, answer questions, and connect with new resources for her students. She also uses extensive slides which used to require an old slide projector. Those slides are currently being moved over to digital copies and can be posted on the flickr site for easier access - without the need to bring her slide projector.

And finally we set her up with a course tag which students can then use to tag resources that they think might be helpful. Not only does this provide a new angle for participation, but creates a great database of information on Northern Development issues.

Great job Mom! And if you are a high school social science teacher this summer who wants to get started, let me know and I would be happy to help you get off the ground.

Regina Public Library goes Web 2.0

2008-06-23T08:34:00.001-07:00

There are not a lot of organizations in Canada really pushing the edge of what you can do with web 2.0. So that's why I was so excited to find that a hot bed of work is being done at the Regina Public Library.

Not only are they on Facebook with a pretty sharp looking page, but they are also on Flickr with great sets of images available for use in the classroom. They even have a nice little RSS feed and Blog on Prairie History with updates on new books and events.

If your in Regina stay close to these guys, they are setting the bar and moving some great fun projects forward. Well done!

National History Education Clearinghouse

2008-06-18T13:38:00.000-07:00

The Centre for History and New Media is a leader in online programs. They have just launched a new National History Education Clearinghouse that is a great website for history teachers.

The website has connections to History Content, Teaching Materials, Best Practices, New Research, Grants and Professional Development.

The program is based out of George Mason University so the programs aren't specific to Canadian history, but the website is still a really valuable resource that should be explored by all educators.

Connecting The Dots Of The Web Revolution - Publishing 2.0

2008-06-18T09:51:00.000-07:00

As you may or may not know when I'm not blogging here I'm working away for The Beaver and Kayak magazine in the publishing world. I've been following a series of posts online by Scott Karp who has been examining newspaper and magazine publishing.

What this all has to do with Digital History Education is that Scott just put up a great post about how searching for sources and reading (i.e. learning) is changing online. If you have a chance I would suggest reading the entire post which I think captures in a nut shell what your students probably already know, but can't vocalize in opposition to old learning techniques.

Connecting The Dots Of The Web Revolution - Publishing 2.0:

"Nobody has really been able to conceptualize yet just how dramatic the change is in our traditional systems of information, media, publishing, reading, writing, relating ideas, and thinking itself. Nick Carr has come close with his recent writing, and he’s brave enough to try, but he gets too distracted by his nostalgia for a simpler age.

Nick argues that we are losing our ability to “read deeply,” e.g. read a whole book and contemplate it, without “distraction.” The problem is he’s using an antiquated yardstick to measure the quality of thought."

You have to keep reading for all of the details, but suffice it to say things have changed. We can't know how they have changed yet, or what all the results will be, but we still know that change is there.

I have to admit since publishing my little digital history package, which really is the sum of about two years worth or work, I've been searching for where to go next in the digital history world. As you can tell the last few posts have been a bit random.

I know there is more out there, but not sure how much more can be done from here. Will have to spend the next few months developing Digital History 2.0.

Copyright rewrite war rages on Prentice Wikipedia page

2008-06-09T12:30:00.000-07:00

globeandmail.com: Copyright rewrite war rages on Prentice Wikipedia page

You should probably keep this article on hand for discussing Wikipedia in your classroom. It describes the battle between warring government staffers and a collection of Wikipedia reviewers over the qualities of the Honorable Member of Parliament and Industry Minister Jim Prentice.

Interesting because it shows you what Wikipedia looks like on the inside. But also interesting because it shows you what government is like on the inside as well.

Gulag: Many Days, Many Lives

2008-06-09T08:38:00.000-07:00

For those of you teaching world issues or twentieth century history the Centre for History and New Media has created an excellent new exhibit entitled Gulag: Many Days, Many Lives.

The online exhibit uses video and primary sources to explore the horrific experience of the Gulag. I know it would be a great resource in the classroom for any teacher.

Ciclovia

2008-06-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

The June/July issue of The Beaver features a story on the origins of Oil development in Petrolia, Ontario. Between this article and the first two hours of There will be Blood that I managed to catch on a flight, I've been thinking a lot lately about how much society has changed in the last 100 years and home much a culture of oil has been a part of that.

That's why I find Ciclovia and the work of StreetFilms so interesting. They have hundreds of videos online about the wonderful transformation that has taken place in Bogota, Columbia. Millions of people of each week cycle, walk, and enjoy thousands of miles of roads. It's a bit like looking into the future at what a world without oil might look like.

Certainly it's the type of community that I would like to live in. It's not really a digital history project but a great online video collection for social science teachers, especially those teaching World Issues.

A Healthy Learning Environment

2008-05-29T11:20:00.000-07:00

A major study in Canada was released this week documenting rates of child obesity and the amount of time Canadian kids are spending in front of televisions and computers. Kids today are bombarded with so many types of online media that I think it raises some really important questions if we are going to go down the digital history road.

Integrating technology into the classroom to better engage with students is a great way to encourage learning. But this should not come at the expense of health, creativity, and imagination.

I think the challenge for educators using technology in the classroom, whether it be for history or any other subject, is to be as precise as possible. Precision requires educators to only pull out technology when it clearly has an impact and makes a difference to students ability to learn. Building a house takes many tools and computers are just one of them.

At times I'm sure on this blog I sound as though I would be using technology all the time in a classroom. But I really believe that any classroom needs a balanced approach. It may come as a shock but I don't think that technology is the be and end all of teaching.

What we want to do if shift students away from technology time that is not helpful to learning - power point I'm looking in your direction. Students spending less time on poor online learning practices, means more face time in the real world and more time doing creative digital history projects. And for everyone that is a healthy learning environment - both real and digital.

D-Day at Louisbourg

2008-05-13T12:01:00.001-07:00

Digital History Webinar

2008-05-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

The first ever History Society webinar discussing Digital History Projects for the history classroom is being held on May 27th at 8 pm Eastern. I'm really excited as I think we have some really fun and interesting projects to talk about.

To attend the webinar all you need is a computer with an internet connection. You don't need a microphone or webcam yourself.

We are using DimDim which you might also want to check out. I have my microphone all set and I'm just waiting for the opportunity now. If you would like to attend you can send me an email at the History Society. We have room for 20 and if more sign up I'm happy to add an additional workshop in the days after.

Thanks for your interest!

Digital History Newsletter

2008-05-09T13:46:00.000-07:00

The 2008 Digital History Newsletter is finally complete and ready for sending. It's been a little quiet on the blog of late because I've been finishing it up. I'm sending it out this weekend but all you regular readers will get first dibs right here because I'm posting the link to the newsletter. You can check out all of the projects and lesson plans right HERE!

This project has been in the works for the better part of a year now compiling and rewriting lesson plans about Google Maps, Podcasting, Wikipedia, and Blogging. I'm hopeful that it helps inspire a handful of teachers to start integrating digital projects into their classroom activities.

Many of the projects I've discussed in the past on the blog, but I'm most excited about the Google Maps project following soldiers at war and explorers, as well as creating soundscapes through podcasts. I think really emphasize the types of new projects that can be done online, as opposed to simply writing an essay and putting it up. I think the soundscape especially would challenge students to think about historical events in a way that is both fun and challenging.

Of course it's all just kind of a rough plan at the moment, but we will see where we go from here. I'm already planning our first webinar (see post to follow) and some fun projects for the fall. Enjoy!

Jane's Walk

2008-05-09T13:15:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I was involved with the 1st Jane's Walk in Winnipeg. It was a great event to be a part of and I really enjoyed leading the historic walk through Wolseley here in Winnipeg, which by our books is one of the nicest neighborhoods in Canada.

I've posted pictures of the event on my Flickr stream, which sadly to say was the only real digital component I included. I think for schools and classes trying to teach about their local schools and communities - programs like Google Maps, Flickr, Podcasts with community locals, and Voice Thread. Lots of fun projects for next year though!

Sad chapter of Canadian history

2008-04-21T12:39:00.000-07:00

TheStar.com | columnists | Sad chapter of Canadian history

When I first heard about the Out from Under exhibit last spring I was really excited. Here is an interesting and engaging exhibit about an emotional and real issue.

The team at the Ryerson School of Disability Studies has done a fantastic job putting the exhibit together. It displayed last year at an abilities art festival and was so well received they were offered the opportunity to display this spring (April-July) at the Royal Ontario Museum.

It's a huge success and I think a really significant moment for historians in Canada. I think it demonstrates a real need for further research and study into the unique field of early abilities activists.

They have also done a great job putting together some podcasts which are available on the ROM's website and through iTunes. I've always considered podcasts as a great way to reach the visually impaired - in particular many aging Beaver magazine readers.

What they have done for this exhibit is provide a full podcast describing the exhibit (which is really worth the full listen) and a full video podcast that provides sign language for with hearing impediments. They have also provided large print pdf editions and written transcripts.

Not just in research, but in action, this exhibit is coming out from under.

They read my blog.

2008-04-07T14:17:00.001-07:00

I will admit this is a bit of sorry excuse for a blog post, but I'm going to indulge. I mentioned Speaking of History on Friday and was back on the site on Monday. The site has a tracker of who is visiting the site and how they go there.

Sure enough when I visited again today, a few notches below Winnipeg from google.ca (that was me), was Halifax, Nova Scotia arrived from digitalhistoryeducation.blogspot.com! It's easy to write a blog and pretend like no one reads it. But it's a small point in the development of a blog when you gain some readership, whether it was just passing through or a diligent reader.

Cheers Halifax, Nova Scotia arrived from Digitalhistoryeducation.blogspot.com, that made my day! I hope you enjoyed Speaking of History as much as I did.

Speaking of History Teacher's Who Blog.....

2008-04-04T12:16:00.001-07:00

Speaking of History is a blog/podcast out of Liberty, Missouri, run by 8th grade American History Teacher Eric Langhorst. Not only does Eric have the sharpest looking header of any blog that I've seen, it's a great set up and looks like a terrific blog. I just listened to his post on a video called Please Vote for Me, a video about democracy in China that looks amazing.

I realized with this post and on Dan McDowell's that I need to start keeping track of these great history blogs so I'm adding a new sidebar with specifically history teachers who blog. In this case they happen to also blog about using technology in the classroom, but that doesn't necessarily have to be the case.

After speaking with Vincent Massey Collegiate I'm realizing more and more how these tools are so important to professional development and keeping in touch with amazing teachers like Eric and Dan. Welcome to Canada guys!

A History Teacher - Dan McDowell

2008-04-02T12:48:00.000-07:00

One of the best things I have had the opportunity to do since I arrived at the History Society was to sit down and interview the six recipients of the 2008 Governor General's Awards for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History. The interview is on YouTube.

I'm just working with some of the winners again right now to get their great work out to a larger audience and I read this post from Dan McDowell who blogs at www.ahistoryteacher.com out of San Diego. Dan has been nominated for teacher of the year and with good reason. I've just started reading his blog on a more regular basis and he has a faithful following. Great teachers cut to core values that I think Dan has also tapped into here.

The post just reminded me of sitting down with our GG winners last October. Great teachers and incredible people all around, can't wait to see this year's list of nominees.

Google Street View

2008-03-28T13:54:00.000-07:00

Not I don't want to trump Sprout since I rarely put two posts on the same day, but I wanted to point out Google Street View.

If you haven't already played around with the program it allows you to walk through the streets of major US cities on Google Maps. They are up to about 30 or US cities now and Yosemite National Park.

Now admittedly, I have no idea how this helps a Canadian History teacher - but I'm sure Canadian cities can't be far off. There are also lots of historic sites to stop and gaze at as you roll around the streets, especially if you are teaching any American history courses.

Check out Sprout!

2008-03-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

So you may have noticed a plethora of podcasts all over the blog of late. I noticed a new program called Sprout Builder care of the Sam Roberts album (Sam Roberts Rocks!). Sprout Builder is a flash device builder built using flash. It is essentially a flash what you see is what you get and it is amazingly easy to use and creates really nice finished products.

For those of you that have missed some of my past posts, I really dislike power point for being a linear thought line with little room for creativity for students. Not to mention Power Point is already on the way out - so teaching students to use it is not providing a valuable skill.

I'm still playing around with Sprout - but it would be really easy to combine video, audio, and images into a really engaging presentation. Students could also use the program to share their projects afterwards on Facebook, blogs, etc. Thus why I have been posting all my recent podcasts to my own blog.

Check out Sprout! This is easily one of the most useful and powerful programs that I've encountered.

Historic Interview with Austin Phillips

2008-03-27T09:53:00.001-07:00

Beaver Magazine Interview with Ken McGoogan

2008-03-26T12:33:00.001-07:00

Northwest Passage 2.0

2008-03-24T09:01:00.000-07:00

I'm currently working on our upcoming edition of BITE: Beaver Information for Teachers and Educators, just give me a shout if you would like to subscribe. The feature article is a great piece by Ken McGoogan on the opening of the Northwest Passage, so I've been searching around for some additional information to provide background for the story.

I found a great video on YouTube from a European voyage through the passage in 2004. What is so terrific about YouTube, Flickr, and other resources is that they allow students to get a first hand perspective of far away places and histories. While these videos don't have the trumpets and drums of National Geographic, but they are a great way to add life to the classroom.

This particular YouTube video gives a good account of the conditions early explorers must have also faced: chipping ice away from the deck, snow covered ships, and mammoth icebergs. I found a lot of these videos for Expo 67 as well.

Flickr provides the same documents when exploring the beaches of Normandy, providing countless images and stories from European battlefields. These programs provide a great way to add life and cool interfaces to your classroom.

I understand why school boards often ban access to programs like YouTube, but at the end of the day they are doing a disservice to their students. Educators need new and original ideas to create engaging classroom content. These free programs will never replace teachers and chalk, but they provide unique opportunities not only for teaching, but for learning about the past.

Interview with Canadian Filmmaker Brian McKenna

2008-03-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

Interview with the 2007 Pierre Berton Award Recipient Brian McKenna.

Many Eyes

2008-03-18T12:25:00.000-07:00

While attending a workshop at the UofM I was introduced to Many Eyes. I haven't had a chance to play around with it much yet, but for statistics online it presents some really interesting ways of making it pop out.

Lots of fun for educators looking to make their own statistics jump out at students and also a way to let students have a bit more fun while learning stats.

The founder of Many Eyes is a guy named Hans Rosling and he can be found De-bunking third world myths online here. It's actually a really interesting exercise - one in that it challenges students to think, but also because I disagree with some of the way his stats are presented. Challenge your students to asses the stats and see what they think - whatever you think it is an engaging talk.

RubiStar

2008-03-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

One more neat program from the friendly Social Science staff at Vicent Massey Collegiate. For teachers who are only too painfully aware of the time required to make rubrics, a new free website can provide you with a quicker and more effective answer

RubiStar allows you to quickly create and edit Rubric templates for use in your class. The rubric templates are broken down into various subjects and you can adjust all of the categories.

I was going to include this in the last post but felt it needed it's own reference. Great program for the behind the scenes of teaching.

Vincent Massey Collegiate

2008-03-12T08:23:00.000-07:00

On Monday I had the chance to visit with the Social Studies department at Vincent Massey Collegiate here in Winnipeg. They generously shared a morning discussing some of the digital history projects they were using in their classroom.

They are doing some great projects with their students that are really fun. Currently they have their own Wiki that provides students with work and project space. By using Wikispaces they are able to upload their students emails with easy passwords to get them started and track changes made to the Wiki.

Some of the other programs they are using that might be helpful in your classroom are:

Quizlet

Create your own interactive quiz sheets and flashcards for test prep

Xtimeline

Create scrollable time lines with information and dates

Bubble.us

Awesome program to create essay and project outlines - no more doodling

They are also doing some great podcasts with visitors to the school. You can find their podcast feed at Podomatic. The most recent entry includes a speech by Stephane Dion, leader of the liberal party of Canada.

I also suggested they start blogging about these great projects so hopefully we will see them online very soon!

Reason #273 for Digital History

2008-02-25T19:54:00.001-08:00

Reason #273 for Digital History, originally uploaded by digitalhistory2000.

Reason #273 for Digital History, less baggage.

Part of a continuing series of humerous takes on why digital history can make things a little easier.

Selkie Rescue

2008-02-24T08:57:00.001-08:00

This isn't really an education piece, but a helpful bit of information that might come in handy.

My old computer crashed about a year and a half ago and took with it my entire university career. Those years of work meant a lot and I wanted to keep my essays and research, so I had kept my computer with a hope that I might be able to one day recover the documents. A few computer stores suggested nothing could probably be done and the few experiments I had tried failed miserably.

Then just a few weeks ago I read about a program called Selkie Rescue in the Globe and Mail. Using the program and my internet cable I was able to hook my new computer up to the old, set up a local network, and transfer over all of my files. The whole process took about 3 hours, but that included a test run with the demo, buying and downloading the real program (about $100), and transferring the files.

I found it really effective and would definitely suggest trying the same if your computer has crashed and will not boot. If your computer died because of a virus you may want to be more careful, but in my case the problem was software.

Now to backup my files.....

Voice Thread

2008-02-17T13:05:00.000-08:00

While attending the podcasting workshop with the Learning Technologies Centre George Siemens mentioned Voice Thread as an interesting new program.

Voice Thread allows you to post individual images, movies, or presentations. You can then add your own note or audio to go with the picture. The best part is that others can then come along and post their own audio comments as well - essentially creating an audio forum.

One example I noticed had an art teacher asking a question about a piece, and then letting students post their own comments. I think this would be a really great program to help walk students through complex sections. Also a chance for an inspired teacher to explain difficult topics to students across Canada.

I put together my own quick example describing my history trip to Hecla Provincial Park in Manitoba. Feel free to post your own comment as a test just to try it out! If you set up your own Voice Thread for you class be sure to let us know.

[James Mullen, 2B, 1909-11 (baseball)] (LOC)

2008-02-13T11:51:00.001-08:00

[James Mullen, 2B, 1909-11 (baseball)] (LOC), originally uploaded by The Library of Congress.

At the Social Bookmarking workshop offered by the Learning Technology Centre, Peter Tittenberger mentioned afterwards that the Library of Congress has posted 3000 images on Flickr.

It really is a great example of what historical organizations can be doing to reach new audiences. For teachers it also presents a really unique and interesting resource that is available to them. It also might be neat to think about archives and museums in your community that need help with the monumental task of scanning and categorizing images.

It also shows the advantage of social bookmarking over conventional descriptions. I found the images in this file immidiately by clicking on the appropriate tag. A similar search of Canada in the LOC Bain collection didn't reveal any of them because Canada was not in the title.

On a personal note, this project also touched home in a way that I hadn't expected. Being a baseball fanatic, I was of course drawn to the images of the baseball players.

About the second images I clicked on I noticed that the player sported a Toronto jersey. Reading further they have three images of players from the Toronto Maple Leafs AAA team in the early 1900s. It touches home because, if I'm not mistaken, my grandfather played for the team in the late 40s.

He has since passed away and I wish I had of spent more time learning about his playing time. These pictures brought back many memories and have encouraged me to keep searching out more information on the team.

History matters everywhere, even more so when it comes up against new and unexpected intendants.

Learning Technologies Centre - University of Manitoba

2008-02-13T11:12:00.000-08:00

In Manitoba we enter a winter hibernation that allows for thoughtful blogging and time to share the wealth of information. I've been attending some lunch time workshops of late generously provided by the Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba.

The workshops are intended to help faculty and students get started with online basics, but I've found them to be a helpful refresher. It's nice to have the opportunity to hear about how programs can be integrated into the classroom. Fortunately for those of you not in Winnipeg, or available at lunch as the case may be, you find all of the helpful information on their Learning Wiki.

I've had the chance to sit in on the blogging, social bookmarking, and podcasting sessions so far. I found them all really helpful. I would definitely suggest you check it out.

More than anything thus far it's emphasized the me the importance of building an online community - which means even if no one is reading this - we're going to keep on trucking. As more teachers become involved, we have the opportunity not only to create our own shared personal spaces to discuss our profession, but shared spaces to support each other and our students.

Quebec 400 goes digital

2008-01-30T07:44:00.000-08:00

The Beaver magazine is launching it's special double issue celebrating the 400th anniversary of Quebec. As a special feature it also marks the first podcasts that we have noted in the magazine and suggested visiting our Website.

If you visit thebeaver.ca you can listen to two interviews. Marianna O'Gallagher is the author of Children of the Famine and Denys Delâge is the author of Allies Malgre Eux, both articles in the special edition. The magazine is also being published in both French and English.

Check out the previous post for all the info on creating podcasts.

Meebo

2008-01-03T08:12:00.000-08:00

I've been working on putting together a digital history newsletter and I'm also looking for ways to facilitate working with teachers online. I have an eluminate v-room, I'm working on using Skype more, and I've also just come across Meebo that the University of Winnipeg library is using.

If you have a question about Digital History or an idea for a project give me a shout. It's a nice easy chatting feature that doesn't require a new user to sign in. It was also very easy to embed on the side of the page.

The Story of Stuff

2007-12-19T11:00:00.000-08:00

I was hoping to add at least one more blog entry before we break for the Holidays and fortunately I was introduced to The Story of Stuff just a day or two ago.

The Story of Stuff is an online 20 minute flash movie describing how stuff is created, produced, consumed and discarded. On the one hand I thought it would be helpful for Social Science and Geography teachers, or anyone teaching World Issues. It's an excellent video that is engaging and challenging, and would open up a host of projects inside the classroom.

Every kid in school should show this to their parents (I don't think we should have mandatory anything for students, since invariably, mandatory for kids means that it's something the parents should watch, feel guilty about not watching, and force the future to see.)

The other reason I bring this up is because I think this is a great online presentation and is a great indication of where things online are going. We recently received invites to an open house at our web developers using similar technology where they recorded each greeting and put them into a card with the information about the event - essentially it looked just like the Story of Stuff but was asking us to attend.

Very cool and would make a great project. Either way happy viewing!

Podcasting for the Beaver

2007-12-03T08:53:00.000-08:00

This week the Beaver launches it's first podcast interview. The interview was conducted with Joyce Glasner about her story on the Halifax Explosion.

We started with our trusty USB microphone that we had purchased previously (about $40). To conduct the interview we downloaded Skype, an online phone that works through your Internet connection. Phoning from one computer to the another with Skype is actually free, and you can order minutes to phone out to regular land lines. We ordered $15 worth of minutes which works out to several hours of phoning time.

Once we downloaded Skype, we downloaded Hot Recorder (for those of us on PCs) and Call Recorder (for the Mac users in our editorial department). Both programs run about $15 to download and will record the calls as they come in. Now that you have a record, you just need to edit it using Audacity, your free audio editing software mentioned here before.

Instant podcasting that within one morning had us downloaded, set up, and ready to go. Special thanks to several websites that help us find the programs we needed as well like Hot Recorder and Call Recorder.

To post our podcast online we used Podbean, and online podcast host that will help you get started for free and if you really get going you can upgrade to professional accounts afterwards.

Powered by Podbean.com

And you can now hear the first ever Beaver podcast interview conducted by Kristen Fry with Joyce Glasner. Keep an eye out for more podcasts as these interviews become a regular feature with The Beaver magazine.

*** Special thanks to Joyce Glasner who is an incredibly passionate historian and whose moving stories made our first Podcast extremely easy.

Kiva: Loans that Change Lives

2007-11-28T14:55:00.001-08:00

Kiva is a really interesting site and if you are looking for something different to do in your classroom this Holiday season, you might want to check it out. Kiva puts you in touch with small businesses and entrepreneurs in developing countries. It explains their business and the amount of money required for their loan.

Individuals then put up 25, 50, 100 or more dollars towards the cost of the project. Loan payments are then payed back over a particular schedule.

I won't say this very often on this blog - but I heard about Kiva from Oprah so it's received a certain amount of press recently. But spread the word and take a look through some of the projects. Also if you are not convinced about the power of Microcredit, read Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunis.

So before you hold a secret Santa in your classroom this year, think about how that $10 gift could go a lot further for someone in a developing country.

Bilaal Rajan, World Saver and Blogger Extraodinaire

2007-11-21T14:37:00.000-08:00

Bilaal Rajan is one amazing Canadian. At age 4 he started raising funds to help earthquake survivors in India. What started with $350 dollars has grown into a host of charitable events over the years that you can read all about. In 2005 he was named Canada's UNICEF National Child Representative.

This past month he was the featured speaker at the Nova Scotia Social Science Teachers Association conference in Brookfield, NS. His work is an inspiration to thousands of Canadians, both young and old.

Why does this quality as a Digital History Education story though. Bilaal blogs on his own site, http://www.bilaalrajan.com/. If Bilaal can blog about all the work that he is doing, than surely your classroom can start a blog as well. Started this past summer, his blog follows his exploits and seeks to inspire others.

This holiday season take a few moments to read about Bilaal in your class, you never know what might be inspired.

PB Presentation WIKI

2007-11-16T09:32:00.000-08:00

The History Society has been on the road for the last few weeks presenting at the Nova Scotia SSTA, OHASSTA and the Teachers Institute on Canadian Parliamentary Democracy in Ottawa. It has been great to have an opportunity to meet teachers face to face and talk about Canada's National History Society and the fun digital projects that we are trying to get started.

To try and make things more exciting, we are experimenting with using a Wiki this year for our presentation. You can find our presentation Wiki at digitalhistory.pbwiki.com. If we are going to encourage teachers to use digital programs in their classroom, then the least we should do it use them ourselves in our presentations and projects.

I want to also stress the non-linear nature of the Wiki and what that means for historians. Critical thinking is about moving away from a linear view of the past towards something far greater and engaging. A Wiki gives students the opportunity to see how things are interconnected by linking material through different pages. You can also easily integrate other online programs to make your presentation more engaging.

I admit using a Wiki for a presentation is a bit unorthodox, but everyone has to start somewhere. As more teachers hopefully start their own classroom Wiki's we will have more examples to share with educators.

Paul Keery's Podcast Presentation

2007-11-15T08:16:00.000-08:00

At OHASSTA this year I had the opportunity to attend Paul Keery's presentation on Podcasting in the classroom. Paul has been at it a while now and has put together an impressive package of results. He has also generously provided a copy of his powerpoint presentation and examples of student work on his website.

I would strongly suggest taking a moment to check out his website and his material. He also has a fun classroom website going as well. One of the real benefits to these conferences is the opportunity to meet fellow educators working on digital history projects. It's great to have a real example of classroom success. I'm also adding a link to all of Paul's material on the sidebar.

Keep up the great work Paul!

National Forum on Canadian History

2007-11-06T07:47:00.000-08:00

Over the past few weeks we have been working really hard at the History Society getting ready for the first National Forum on Canadian History that was held this past Friday (November 2, 2007).

As part of the conference, we wanted to create an easy place for teachers to retrieve documents and keep up to date on the proceedings. In stepped Pageflakes, a program that is really handy for online conferences and that would be great in a classroom.

It's a little more flashy then a regular blog as it allows you to have all of your content up and live. The real trick to getting this going is creating lists with appropriate tags so you can have multiple users sending content (blog entries or homework) to the same sections. I was introduced to pageflakes through another online conference, The Future of Education, back in July.

Check out the pageflakes page we put together for the National Forum on Canadian History that was hosted by the Governor General of Canada. You can also find copies of the presentations and I'm just uploading photos of the event now.

I've also put together a digital history education pagecast that I'm going to continue building on.

Google Map tutorial

2007-10-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

I have been working on Google Maps and Google Earth lately. I hadn't explored Google Earth in a little while but it has some new features that are pretty neat. National Geographic has it's own database of pictures and articles that was similar to the one that I attempted for the Beaver. I would like to claim credit as inspiration, but apparently they came first.

The other thing that is really neat is a historic maps feature that lets you cruse some maps superimposed onto the earth. It's a pretty fun way to go through history - and it would be great with more options.

I also found myself trying to explain how to set up a Google Map and needless to say they have beaten me to it:

Wikis in Canada

2007-09-25T09:58:00.001-07:00

When you are watching the following video ignore the camping theme and think about it in terms of classrooms sharing their history projects. Canada is a huge country and students don't have a lot of opportunities to meet other young people from other parts of the country. Why not partner with another school and see what you can put together?

Canada's National History Society recently announced it's finalists for the 2007 Governor General's Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History. Check out the project of Gale Walker and Toby Daigle. Teaching from Manitoba and New Brunswick, these two teachers who have never met created a great project.

The software is out there to do these projects and it can be a rewarding process. Most importantly, the technology shouldn't over power the history that you are teaching - which in the end is clearly the most important thing.

Google Maps: Canada at War

2007-09-11T13:19:00.000-07:00

With Remembrance Day coming up soon there are some really interesting opportunities to learn about military history through Google Maps. Often students are given photocopies of maps and asked to use pencil colors to map out battles or an entire war.

With Google Maps students can create their own maps of the war. They can use battalion, unit, and individual diaries to provide information about locations. In this case I've created a demonstration using a really general map of D-Day, but you can really be as specific as you want depending on the source.

You can also use these to track aircraft flights and convoy routs, or follow an individual soldier through the entire war - Where were they stationed stationed? What Battles did they participate in?

Not only is this more fun that pencil crayons, but your students will also be creating a map that can actually be of help to people visiting those sites. And, while I've started in Europe, there is no shortage of military history sites in Canada that can also be used.

View Larger Map

Denominators killed the Digital Historian

2007-09-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

Science and math should have no claims on new technology, see below.

If you ever consider anything like this for your classroom, you're in the 1980s (wait for the music and you'll know what I mean). But you may want to check out teachertube.com

Flickr through History

2007-08-02T13:22:00.001-07:00

I've been meaning for a while now to grab a digital camera and take some snap shots of the local history in the area in downtown Winnipeg. The Exchange District is one of the oldest sections of Winnipeg and a unique spot in Canada.

Today it is undergoing a bit of a rebirth with new and trendy shops, but the history is still clearly present.

Flikr and other image sharing programs really allow your students to document local history in a way that hasn't really been possible before. Creating unique photo sets can allow you students to create their own digital exhibits, maps, and historical information online.

If you have a digital camera try taking a few pictures and uploading them, creating different photo albums. I've created my first album and included it with a neat little Flikr badge that I've added to the blog quite easily. I'm only now discovering the magic of embedding images and (like the last post) videos.

Also if you don't have your own site Flikr provides an easy space to post photos which can then be accessed for other projects. Start snapping some shots!

How to Videos

2007-07-26T11:18:00.000-07:00

As the experiments in the digital world continue this week I've been working on creating some how to videos for history teachers. YouTube already has lots for different subjects you can view and it's also a chance for me to try my hand at creating and uploading a video.

So with out further ado: How to Scan a War Letter!

Ok so it wasn't all that impressive and the video quality is a bit week, but everyone starts somewhere and I was happy with the audio quality. I also was able to do most of the work with a few programs that I downloaded like Audacity and my trusty mic, Snagit (a screen capture program), and my basic windows media editing file. There is definitely still lots to do, but fortunately Chris in our office here also put me on to videojug.com

Great site, lots of fun stuff, and some really well made How to videos like these below. The bar has been set!

VideoJug: How To Share Your Digital Photos Online

VideoJug: How To Set Up Your Own Blog

History Podcasting - part 1

2007-07-24T09:54:00.000-07:00

Last year at the Ontario History and Social Sciences Conference, I spoke with Pat Baker, a teacher at Leaside High School in Toronto. She was working on a couple of great projects, one of which was podcasting war stories.

It's a great project and really gives a sense of how students can create their own podcasts that force them to really engage with history and be creative.

I've been working on some guidelines on how to get started creating podcasts and it goes roughly as follows.

Get a microphone. I bought my own mic from a local computer store. You can get a good quality mic for 25-40$, and probably for less than that. I got a Logitech USB microphone that I find has really good sound quality, and because it is a USB mic it is easy to plug in and get started.
The next step is to get a recording program. I've been using Audacity which is a free open source program. It is pretty straightforward to use (play, record, etc) and you can point and click to move files around, copy and paste, etc. I found it easy to correct mistakes by deleting sections as well.
Once you have a mic and audacity and created a short clip, you will want to save it as an MP3 file which requires one additional download. You need to download the LAME Mp3 Encoder library. Once you have this click on File, Export as MP3, and the once you add a name the program will ask you to find lame_enc.dll. Just make sure you remember where you saved the file. You only have to do this the first time and then you're good! Check out this tip sheet for more info on this step.
The next step is getting your podcast online, and before I can explain that, I have to do it myself. If you have your own website than it is easy enough to just post your podcast and link to it. But since we're doing this on the assumption that you might not have your own site, we're using a few examples from podbean and ownmedia. Check out our sample podcast up at podbean.

So we are up and online, but that's only just the beginning. Check back soon for Podcast part 2.

Google Maps and the Exploration of Canada

2007-07-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

Hopefully this will be the first of many entries over the summer as we explore different resources on the Internet that can help history and social sciences teachers.

Let's start with Google Maps (as a historian I should probably provide some background here). Google Maps has been around since early 2005 and is a great program for upgrading those old pull down maps, even if it will never equal the vintage 1957 bumpy relief map of Canada I have behind me in my office.

I started using Google Maps last summer with the help of Prof. Bill Turkel at Western. Using entries in the Beaver magazine, The Canadian Geographic Names Database, and Geocoder.ca, I attached a geocode to each of the articles giving them a location. The idea behind this was that people would like an easy to use and search map to find history articles about their area. You can still see the demo here.

How did I create this map - as follows:

Step 1: Read the article and determine what is the most relevant location associated with it.

Step 2. Search for the location using one of our handy online tools. For lakes, rivers, and geographic locations you can use the Geographic Names Database, and for streets, cities, towns, and specific addresses you can use geocoder.ca.

Step 3: When you search for these locations you will be given a geocode which matches to some place on planet earth - consisting of a latitude and longitude.

Step 4: I would punch these into my map source code and voila! That sounds easy but it requires some knowledge of programming which I had cobbled together along the way. I'm going to go into this further in the future.

Fortunately, Google has been hard at work refining the program over the last year and it is now a lot easier to create functional maps that can be used in lectures, etc (We still want to create our own maps though too, let's not get to lazy about this.)

The trick is finding something worth showing. Last year as part of my search through the annals of the Beaver magazine I found a great three set article by P.D. Baird. Essentially Baird had created a one stop guide to Canadian arctic expeditions. I really liked it and have been waiting to try it out for some time.

Now with Google Maps you can easily point and click to create markers, lines, and shaded areas - and you can save all of your maps so they can be easily pulled up for specific curriculum material. In this case I simply used the articles (available online through the Beaver index here.) and then eyeballed the lines to roughly diagram out the voyages.

Aside from being amazed at the early explorers, it creates a fun way to learn about Arctic exploration. The best part of all - students themselves can create these maps!!!! All of the digital history projects we are exploring this summer will be ones the students can do themselves, which is really the key to all successful online projects.

Keep an eye on my Explorations of the Arctic Map, as I will keep adding to it over the next few days, and start playing around with your own historic maps - things like battle sites, settler locations, archaeological sites, immigration patterns - whatever you can think of, and be sure to post a comment so you can share them with a wider audience.

BITE: Beaver Information for Teachers and Educators and KIT: Kayak Information for Teachers

2007-06-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

If you are visiting the blog from our newsletter please take a look around. Feel free to email any questions you have or leave a comment. You can do so by clicking the comment button under each post.

Over the course of the summer we will be working through some new programs with Kayak and The Beaver magazine, so check back often and follow along. Check out the links below as well to some great conference information.

Every two months we send out an online newsletter for Teachers based on The Beaver and Kayak magazines. The newsletter contains lesson plans, articles from the magazine, and links to other great sites. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter just send me a quick note with your name, school, province, and grade level and I would be happy to sign you up.

The Future of Education

2007-06-04T21:19:00.000-07:00

Today I attended the first day of a five day online conference "The Future of Education." It was a terrific series of thought provoking seminars on how technology is being used in Education around the world.

Ironically enough this world wide conference is being organized from right here in Winnipeg by George Simens, the associate director of the Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba.

Presentations are run through Elluminate and are being recorded so if you missed anything you can check out the saved editions. I found the program surprisingly well suited for online discussions and quite flexible, despite some sound issues. It was really fascinating to see other websites, youtube videos, and blogs being brought into the discussion as we were listening.

I was particularly interested in the presentation by Professor Sugata Mitra who studies education technology in the UK. His discussion of information technology in remote and rural Indian communities was an important reminder about how technology should provide opportunities as opposed to barriers based on geographic and social exclusion. His study of self-organizing structures is particularly suited to the online community, and would be of great benefit to help groups across Canada connect.

Dave Cormier's presentation was also excellent and I was particularly interested in his discussion of Disposable Learning objects as it pertains to history books and websites. I still have to go back an listen to the presentation again to get the full scoop, but after sitting in I felt like my technology grasp went up tenfold in a short period of time.

Still so much to learn, so little time.

The Conference goes on until Friday and all the topics are being posted online. Looking forward to more great discussions!

K12 Online Conference

2007-06-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

The K12 Online Conference has just released it's 2007 info. It is an online conference held in October 2007 that explores using technology in the classroom.

I'll have to do some exploring of my own through the site and you can view all of the 2006 presentations as well. A great site and one definitely worth taking a look at.

Expo 67

2007-05-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

The June/July issue of The Beaver features a story about Expo 67. I've been searching around on the internet for resources for teachers.

It's interesting on the 40th anniversary of expo to see how new technology and old technology are combining to commemorate the event. Suddenly home movies, photo albums, and primary documents are available to the public. That album or shoe box full of home movies and pictures is now a great source.

Check out this great family album of classic Expo 67 pictures on Flickr, apprently found from a stray photo album. Another great album from Jason Yoder. Suddenly you can also relive the Expo 67 Construction as well with a new and very cool photo image feature.

YouTube has also gotten into the act with home movies galore - from the Welshman, the Family video, and by Boat. It's interesting because Expo is one of the first events where people had wide access to personal camcorders and camera's. It's this amazing historical resource that is just beginning to get started.

Check out the Expo Lounge Blog as well, a great online site/exhibit to the wonders of Expo. All of these cool sources have me very excited about working on some projects of my own over the summer and putting together my digital teachers guide for the new year in September. All these sources are available to create online digital exhibits, and the primary sources are often sitting in our own homes.

All of these sources and a few more will be included in the June/July issue of BITE: Beaver Information for Teachers and Educators.

Banned from Blogging

2007-05-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

I've been working with Linda Marynuk, an Aboriginal Education Support Teacher with the Winnipeg School division, on starting a blog for with several teachers. Linda has been terrific and has really taken up the project. It is the first chance I've had to help integrate blogs into the everyday use for classrooms. Unfortunately teachers face added hurdles when starting a blog.

Linda, like most teachers, has been banned from blogger.com and other blogging sites. School boards no doubt want their teachers to focus on teaching, but in the process have taken a valuable tool out of the hands of teachers.

We are working on some solutions to the problem as it stands and I will keep you up to date on the process. For now we are working from home to get around the safeguards put in place, and hopefully the blog will be up to full steam very soon!

Re-Launch of the Digital History Blog

2007-05-18T13:14:00.000-07:00

Well it has taken a while but we are officially re-launching the digital history blog. Somewhere in the hustle and bustle of every day life the Blog got lost a bit and it is about time it returned so keep an eye out for more recent updates in the world of digital history and educational practice.

UNESCO World Heritage Site

2006-12-13T10:55:00.000-08:00

I'm doing some research about Vikings which were featured in the December/January Issue of The Beaver. The UNESCO World Heritage Site actually has a really cool education section. The website itself is still being worked on a bit, but it does have links to an educational kit all about World Heritage Sites and activities you can do in the classroom. The kit is also available in French and English.

If you're doing units on heritage, community, multiculturalism, etc. this is definitely something worth checking out. And if you sign up on the UNESCO site you can get a free map!

History Podcasts

2006-12-09T20:16:00.000-08:00

Well we checked for a pulse and it turns out I am still here.

I've been burrowed away for a little while working through the busy Christmas rush, but I'm also working on a few new projects here. One thing that has been in the back of my mind for a little while now is creating history podcats.

Admitedly there is a lot online at this moment already in this area. A quick search on Google brought me to a few examples such as the Baseball History Podcast. There you can learn about Arky Vaughan - Yes the Arky Vaughan. It is actually a fun website for baseball junkies, and I would definetly include myself in that category.

I'm really interested in trying to get more academic history out to the general public. Professor Bob Hackett has his own website with History podcasts. Good stuff and actually a neat interview with Bob can also be found at Small World Podcast.

But by far the best History podcasts available online, and the thing that got all of this running through my head to begin with, is The Ongoing History of New Music. Even if Alan Cross got this started for Radio, it is an amazing program that every public historian could learn from. It's edgy, smart, educational, and entertaining. Check it out if you're thinking of getting into the podcast realm.

I would really like to get more professors, in particular with Canadian History, to provide their lectures for online podcasts. I was also thinking that for students busy running around or going to the gym could listen to lectures as they go about their day. You could also create specific topic podcasts, as Bob Hackett has, so students can study specific topics.

Taking this back into the public history world this also might help individuals who are visually impaired to still have access to publications about historical topics.

We're going to do some fun stuff here...

OHASSTA

2006-11-06T11:46:00.000-08:00

I just got back from the Ontario History and Social Science Teacher's Association annual conference that took place this weekend in Toronto. I was a great chance to see what kinds of projects people are working on, and lots of online material. There was also a great presentation about the work being done by the Critical Thinking Consortium, more on that later.

I was really interested to see how interested teachers were in primary sources online. I attended a workshop from John Myers, OISE, and Lisa Singer from the Ontario Archives. They have a new website that they have just launched that puts together lesson plans and primary sources. It's fun stuff and I think it really ties well with the idea of teaching about what historians do. You can check it out here.

One of the teachers asked how they would find information to cut through the multitude of primary source websites that are now being produced. Thus I've created a new list of the best primary source websites on the net. The list will keep growing so check it out often.

It's funny though, after all of these cool projects I realized that there is less out there for teachers interested in teaching students how to create their own digital projects. This is a big focus of my own work with the History Society newsletters. It's a creative place on the web, and as I have said before, there is no reason why science should have first dibs on technology.

Enewsletters

2006-10-29T20:14:00.000-08:00

A little bit about some projects that I'm working on right now. I am the Education Program Coordinator for Canada's National History Society. It's a new position and my main project right now is developing a series of online newsletters that contain articles from The Beaver:Canada's History Magazine and Kayak:Canada's History Magazine for Kids.

The newsletters are pretty cool and allow the History Society to share content with a wide range of teachers and educators. It's neat to think that even just a few years ago a similar newsletter would not have been possible. But more than that it's a fun opportunity to also help teachers get more familiar with web based projects with educational goals.

I've started working on creating a series of blogs related to the material in The Beaver. This hopefully will just be the start of many more such projects. In one of the upcoming issues I hope to expand a project that I worked on this past summer with Professor Bill Turkel. In that instance we used Google Maps to map back issue of The Beaver magazine, locating individual articles by place. You can check out the example of the work here. Hopefully in the future we can use this program to create easy and fun projects that teachers can use in the classroom.

For more info on receiving either free newsletter please give me a shout at jralph@historysociety.ca

Digital History Education

2006-10-05T14:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome To the Digital History Education Blog.

Did you ever notice when you were going through school that everyone always talked about "Science and Technology." What did science do that earned it access to all new forms of technology. Increasingly new and exciting ways of using techology to teach about History and the past are making their way into the classroom.

Websites, Blogs, and online activties all lend themselves to learning about history in an engaging and interesting way. This blog wil explore the possibilities and uses of technology in the classroom.