Meet the Teachers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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....

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

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

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

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

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

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.