Authentic Learning in History & Social Sciences: How ‘Real’ Can We Make the

Classroom Experience?

Scot A. French, Ph.D.Associate Professor / Director

Virginia Center for Digital History University of Virginia

EDUCAUSE 2008 Learning Initiative

Spring Focus Session

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Virginia Center for Digital Historywww.vcdh.virginia.edu

Our MissionAn academic unit of the College and Graduate

School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia, housed in Alderman Library (right), VCDH is committed to:

• advancing knowledge through the application of digital technologies to history and related fields of scholarly inquiry

• designing and developing innovative applications of technology in consultation with historians and other project partners, and

• facilitating exchanges among educators with a shared commitment to transforming how history is taught, learned and accessed in the Digital Age.

Bill Ferster, Ph.D.Senior Scientist, Virginia Center for Digital History /

Curry School of Education’s Center for Technology & Teacher Education

The Old Digital History Seminar

• Students research subject, with guidance from instructor, and build a project website

Example: Race & Place: An African American Community in the Jim Crow South

AAS 405(ca. 1998)

Follow link to Student Projects

AAS 405 Class

Projects

Assessment of “First Generation” Digital History Seminars

Upside• Introduction to rich archival holdings and reference tools of

University• Collaboration and peer review• Basic training in HTML, scanning• Results of research “published” on web• Knowledge of subject is advanced

Downside• Access & Preservation: Student websites often “lost in space.”

If class projects, they may remain on university servers, but these websites are rarely upgraded after class is completed; bad links, etc.

• Pedagogy: Little, if any, student interaction with “real world” practitioners beyond the University library and archives.

The New Digital History Seminar• Partner with non-profit cultural institutions outside the

University who value students’ training in history and digital technologies and welcome their contributions

• Train students to think like real world partners “doing history” (K-12 teachers, museum curators, editors of scholarly papers, archivists, etc.)

• Encourage students to use new tools for historical visualization (PrimaryAccess, VCDH’s HistoryBrowser) in producing scholarship for peer review and, ultimately, “publication” on the web.

School-University Collaboration Through Shared Social Media

G. Bull, B. Ferster, S. French, Spring 2007

Spring 2007 “Real World” Partner ISmithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

Spring 2007 “Real World” Partner II Primary Source Learning, Arlington, Va.

The Spring 2007

Seminar

Class Visit: Rhonda Clevenson, Director of Primary Source Learning in Arlington, Va., introduced the students to some of the exercises she uses with classroom teachers to get students “thinking like teachers.”

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Class Visit: Patrick Martin, an Education Specialist, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., introduced students to SAAM's digital collection and presented a tutorial on searching the website.

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Alexandre Hogue, Dust Bowl (1933)

Class Visit: Elizabeth K. Eder, Ph.D., Historian and National Education Program Manager for the Smithsonian American Art Museum, offered students a tutorial on how to “read” a work of art, using the example above from the collection.

Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way (mural study, U.S. Capitol)

1861

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze

HIUS 401-E Class Product: PrimaryAccess Documentaries

Sample Student Videos

TJ Ensele - Immigration and The Dust Bowl

Missy Jenkins - Great Migration: Writing America in Black and White

Ashley Mosier - America in Motion

Kathleen Kiernan - O'Keeffe's Declaration of Independence

Dust Bowl Video

• Addressed two cross-cutting historical themes

Dust Bowl & European Immigration (Volga Germans living in affected region)

The Fall 2007 Digital History Seminar: Jefferson’s Travels

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Fall 2007 “Real World” PartnerMonticello’s International Center for Jefferson Studies

Students, like the general public, could look up info on the Th. Jefferson Wiki *

*Trustworthy information on Thomas Jefferson and his world by Monticello researchers and respected Jefferson scholars. Only Jefferson Wiki community scholars can write and edit articles; however, public users are encouraged to submit comments on the discussion pages.

They were given special access to images on the Monticello Helios Digital Archive

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Helios Digital Archive Search Screenshot

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Class Visits: Monticello webmaster Chad Wollerton give students a tour of Monticello Helios Digital Archive and the Jefferson Travels database that he designed and students would be helping to build.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Class Visits: Lucia "Cinder" Stanton, Shannon Senior Research Historian at Monticello, discussed her role in co-editing Jefferson's Memorandum Books, a critical source of detailed information on Jefferson's travels in Europe.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Students also made a field trip to the Jefferson Library at Monticello's International Center for Jefferson Studies, where Librarian Jack Robertson gave them a select bibliography of scholarly resources.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Class AssignmentsFor the seminar, each student was asked to

produce:

• A traditional 10-page research paper, based on archival research and relevant secondary sources

• A 2 1/2 to 3-minute PrimaryAccess video, summarizing key points of their research

• An historical visualization, to be carried out in consultation with Bill Ferster.

Example of Student Project: Jefferson’s Mail

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

http://primaryaccess.org/hub/browser.php?base=jt

Informal AssessmentUpside• More sustained engagement between students and

real-world partners• Higher expectations of students in terms of what they

could produce for the class• Demos made big impact on all who saw them;

generated interest in further development, expanded partnerships

Downside• Mixed results from students• Partners still reluctant to use student-generated

materials on their “official” sites• No formal mechanism for partner participation in

student evaluations