2/5 Assignment Part A: Historical Thinking

Among this week's readings was a definition of Historical Thinking. Within the definition were summaries of two sets of standards for Historical Thinking. The US Department of Education, in its rubric for The Nation's Report Card assessment, divides history learning into three dimensions:

1. Major historical themes
2. Chronological periods, and
3. Ways of knowing and thinking about history. This last dimension is further divided into:

• Historical knowledge and perspective, and
• Historical analysis and interpretation.

As standards go, these strike me as reasonable.

I have a love/hate relationship with standards. On the one hand, none of us ever arrive anywhere if we don't have a goal and a roadmap. Clarity is Good. Furthermore, education is a fundamentally shared enterprise, in a way that driving is not, so having a shared goal and a shared roadmap is Very Good.

On the other hand, it is very easy indeed for the movement to define standards to devolve into this. And functionally, there is no difference between having 613 "priorities" versus having none at all. Setting goals entails making choices, selecting what's out as well as what's in. Clarity entails Brevity.

(Yes, I do recognize the irony in me, of all people, pointing this out.)

So while I see merit in the goal behind the setting-of-standards; and while I certainly also recognize that in the current climate of near-continuous hyper-testing, content standards are here to stay whether they have merit or not; I also see several potential downsides. If they're too high level, they're meaningless. If they're too detailed, they force a memorization-intensive, teach-to-the-test rote pedagogy that kills all joy in the subject. If they're a long committee-generated grocery list of many flavors of pablum driving nothing by timeconsuming paperwork.... well. The gulf between the goal and the practice can be troubling.

With all those caveats, the Department of Education standards above strike a balance that to me seems reasonable. Perhaps they err a smidge on the "too high level to be helpful" end of the spectrum, but better to err on that side than the other.

What they don't do, however, and which none of the other several sets of historical content standards that I've looked at thus far in the course do either, is speak to the very baseline question of what history is.

I mention this, because as a student, I always loathed history. Several (ahem) decades later, history is a passion which informs every day of my life. The transition from then to now bears deeply on my views of Historical Thinking.

Back in a prior millenium, when I was a student, "history" pretty much meant "lurching from one war to the next." It wasn't just that the pedagogy with which the subject was taught was heavy on rote memorization (though it was), or heavily textbook-reliant (though it was) or almost exclusively individually assessed (though it was). It was, more fundamentally, about what we studied: dates, alliances, political and economic factors leading up to war; battlefield strategies, key armaments and generals during war; shifts in boundaries, changes in regimes, and reconstruction after war. In the rapid sprints between one war and the next (which often we skipped entirely as we approached the end of the school year), we focused on emergent factors which set the groundwork for... the next war.

Year after year, in course after course, with teacher after teacher, this is what History was. The analytical core of the historical narrative was war.

This was unstated, of course; and I expect also unexamined; and therefore, perhaps, unintended. But that's what I always thought history was.

Naturally I dropped the subject the moment I got to college.

However, a couple of years into my economics degree, I had to take a course in economic history. As a declared history loather, I was cranky; but it was required.

In the opening lecture, my professor, Hugh Aitken, announced breezily something to the effect that "In this course, the center of our historical analysis will be technology. We will consider the ways in which technological innovations have affected economic structures, political movements, international competitiveness, superiority in war; and even such seemingly far-flung fields as religion, architecture, art and music. We could, of course, use any number of other constructs at the center of our study of history: political movements, religion, culture, even artistic ideals; and consider how these constructs affected everything else, including technology. And we wouldn't be wrong, because the study of history is the study of people, and all these things are connected. But something has to form the core, the dots that the rest of the narrative connects, and in this course, that core will be technology."

He went on, I'm sure, to say other things, but I did not hear another blessed word. My ears were ringing. At twenty-something years old, this was the greatest "a-ha!" moment of my life to date; and (ahem) several decades later it still rates among the Top Ten.

We could define the center of historical analysis?

We didn't have to lurch from battlefield to battlefield, memorizing dates and generals and how the topography shaped the outcome? We didn't have to consider, at each and every stage of human history, how what was happening was shaping the terrain for the next bloody conflict? We could look at the evolution of cultures, or languages, or religious concepts, or art, and it would actually be... history??!!

That was my personal breakthrough in Historical Thinking. That was the moment at which I was able first to engage in the subject. That was when I first experienced intrinsic motivation to study history, as opposed simply to working towards a good grade or a good test score.

Perhaps by now schools have all moved beyond the awkward lurching from war to war that I endured a millenium ago. Perhaps all history teachers now explicitly consider what construct they're placing at the center of the narrative they teach. Perhaps none of this even bears mention.

But if I'm going to think about Historical Thinking, that is where I have got to begin. With a little speech not unlike the one I heard in the opening lecture of Economic History.

Hugh Aitken died in 1994.

And... I never got around to telling him how fundamentally he'd changed my life.

Digital Parking Lot

So, I'm having some difficulties with my Web Site.

Turns out, putting up a Web Site is a whole lot harder than putting up a blog. (Who knew? I have a dear friend who has had a blog for years. I've always been deeply impressed. I'm still impressed at her content, but I'm no longer quite so wowed by her technological prowess.)

Three weeks into Educational Technology, here's what I've learned thus far: Any nutburger can put up a blog. Putting up a blog is a cakewalk. Easier than doing a Powerpoint presentation. Everything that has to be done, Blogspot does for you. You just follow the icons and prompts, click away, and wham! Your mom in another state, and your daughter upstairs, and your husband at the office, all can see what you're doing right away!


Anyway. There are things-- concepts, images, links, stories-- that I would like to collect on my website, for class projects that are ultimately going to live there. Problem is, I'm currently experiencing such basic problems with... well, I don't actually know with what, exactly, or they wouldn't be such problems. I suspect my issues are around file linking and folder management and renaming vs. replacing and... whatnot.


But the Big Picture problem is that the level of my enthusiasm greatly exceeds the level of my current technological skills. The presumption is, I'll get there eventually, but for the moment, I need a parking lot. Once I figure out how to get things over there, the way I want them, I'll delete this whole post. (Because deleting a post on your blog is no problem at all. Whereas, deleting or changing something on your website, once you've managed to get it up there in the first place through sheer black magic, is a deep and as-yet unrevealed mystery.)


As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've selected Social Studies as my content standard. My idea is to integrate concepts from geography, archaeology, art, and history around folktales / myths from several different early civilizations, for each of the upcoming class projects. Mayan civilization will be one, since we're planning to visit Belize and Guatemala this summer and I think GP#3 will enjoy the art styles; Viking will be another, since Guinea Pig #2 and I have been reading a bunch of Viking books together; and I'm thinking maybe Greece, since Guinea Pig #1 and I are casting about for a play to read together on an upcoming trip, and I thought Antigone might fit the bill. (Check it out, GP#1, and let me know what you think. DO NOT PRINT IT OUT!)


Anyway. I'm starting to collect stuff, as is my wont. The real life stuff -- mostly books, also some art supplies, a few CDs, material for possible transformation into possible dress-up clothes, is currently Parked in my House, mostly in untidy piles in the library, as also is my wont. Maybe I'll take a picture of it all, soon, and post it. The virtual stuff, however -- mostly links -- is emerging as a problem. I work on several different computers in several different locations in little snippets of time snatched from my daily tasks, so just keeping my links together is a bit of a challenge. But beyond that, I also want to keep notes on things as I find them, so I can remember why I thought they were cool or what I thought I would use from them.


So here's a whole new use for blogs: an electronic parking lot, for works-in-progress.


(Warning: It may not make for especially interesting reading.)

Mayan links:

Cool Mayan folktales: Several of the Rabbit tales in particular are great, and might be the baseline for a digital story

More Mayan folktales: This site's navigation is loads better than the one above, and its design much better approximates Robin Williams' aesthetic imperatives... but the stories themselves aren't as good. (There's some sort of lesson in there, somewhere.)

Mayan art: This is a very well done National Gallery of Art site covering an exhibition that I regrettably did not see in 2004. You can click on some of the items of art and an audio clip tells you about the pieces.

Maya Adventure! This is a Science Museum of Minnesota site that highlights science activities and information related to ancient and modern Mayans. Geared for kids 7-10.

Mayan history: This is a basic overview with maps, photos, descriptions of daily life, and so on. It is available in Spanish as well as English.

More Mayan history: Another overview -- I think with better content, though I don't have time to really check it out just now...

Mayan religion: This is a reasonable, though somewhat breezily oversimplified, overview of Mayan religious beliefs and symbols. It also has too many ads! But for the moment, it'll do.

Mayan art, architecture, and science: This is an extensive and very informative site by the Canadian Museum of Civilizations.

Unmasking the Maya: Virtual exhibit at the Natural History Museum in Washigton DC.

Lifestyles of the Maya webquest activities: This is a nicely done webquest investigation by Dennis Oubre, designed for 6th grade social studies students.

The World of the Ancient Maya: This is another webquest, by Carl Shutoff, designed for slightly older students, which has students put together a digital "time capsule" with examples of the civilization's sculpture, architecture, and science.

Sumerian links:

Creative Commons images of Gilgamesh: This is a selection of copyright-free images of Gilgamesh, mostly from relief carvings in stone or clay.  Most of the holdings are actually held in the British Museum, but searching is easier here.

British Museum: The British Museum has the largest collection of ancient Mesopotamian art in the world.  There is a truly astounding wealth of resources here, but finding what they have can take some effort.   Try starting with a virtual tour of one or the other of the two galleries devoted to ancient Mesopotamia; here is a not-terribly-navigation-friendly database of 222 images of their holdings with very good descriptions.  The Museum has also put together several digital stories for school-aged kids, including:

Gilgamesh and the Cedar Forest: This is an (almost) digital story on the British Museum's website, a retelling of part of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Aimed at kids 6-10 ish.

The Royal Tombs of Ur: Another (nearly) digital story by British Museum staff, describing the excavation of the tombs.

Ziggurats: Yet another (nearly) digital story by the British Museum, this one describing the little that is known and much that is speculated about ziggurats.

Metropolitan Museum of Art:  Images of Met's most valuable Sumerian holdings; plus very informative timeline which includes political and economic information along with links to art in each ear.

Egyptian Links:

Metropolitan Museum of Art - Egyptian Holdings:  These are images of 52 of the Met's most valuable pieces of Egyptian art.  Images may be reproduced for non-commercial educational use.  Also see the Met's timelines, which provide significant political and economic information in timeline form, along with links to art in each era. 

British Museum: There is a truly astounding wealth of resources here, but finding what they have can take some effort.   Try starting with one of the online tours of Cleopatra, Mummies, or the Old Kingdom; or take a virtual visit to one of the six gallery rooms devoted to ancient Egypt (each room has a link for an audio tour as well).   Images may be reproduced for non-commercial educational use.

Odyssey to Egypt:  This is a very nicely done site sponsored by the Carlos Museum at Emory University that has good information about ancient Egyptian religion, practices surrounding death and burial, daily life and more.  It's extremely easy to use and would be a great resource for anyone designing a webquest.

Ancient Egypt webquest: This is a nice webquest by Doreen Garvey, a second grade teacher.  She recommends launching into it by reading the Magic Tree House book on Egypt.

Ankhet:  This has a host of myths and legends, mostly from the Book of the Dead.  The Isis series would make a nice little five-part project.

Richard Deurer's site: Deurer is a contemporary artist inspired by Egyptian art; he's illustrated a number of ancient myths and stories and also collected a fabulous assortment of links to museum collections and story retellings.

Viking links:

Vikings evidently didn't create a lot of art for art's sake; what has survived is mostly highly decorated but useful artifacts.  Most of which appear to be housed in museums in Denmark and Norway, with navigation mostly in -- go figure -- Danish and Norwegian.  Here is what I did manage to find:

Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga: Neat site chock-full of history, geography, art and activities chronicling traveling exhibit (now complete) by the National Museum of Natural History.  Includes downloadable "family guides" suitable for younger children and teacher resource page with yet more resources and lesson plans.

Museum of National Antiquities (Stockholm) - English-text descriptions of Viking collection and some historical overview.

Jorvik Viking Center: This is a museum in York, devoted to Viking daily life.  (God bless those Brits.)  Very accessible to kids; good resource for Webquests.

Encyclopedia Mythica:  This has brief descriptions of each of the Norse mythological characters in alphabetical order, plus a family tree.  Not much on the many examples of Norse mythological influence on Western culture.

D'Aulaires Book of Norse Myths:  Less well-known than the Greek counterpart, this recently came back into print and is equally terrific.  Great to read prior to Lord of the Rings or the Sea of Trolls series.

Greek links:

Greek Myths:  This is a commercial site, with distracting ads; and it's certainly no substitute for D'Aulaires; but it gets the job done.  It has a lot of stories, including the lesser gods and the heroes.

Encyclopedia Mythica:  This has brief descriptions of each of the mythological characters in alphabetical order, plus a lot of nice family trees.

Discovering Pompeii: This is a neat webquest that has kids research life before, and accounts of, the Vesuvius eruption; then write a newspaper account about it.  It says it's aimed at grades 3-5, although I think it would work for older kids too.  Well-guided with good links.

Odyssey Online - Greece:  This site, sponsored by the Carlos Museum at Emory University, is a sort of uber-Webquest.  It has a lot of information in it.  It's filled with the kind of busy graphics and loud distracting soundtracks that drive me crazy, but Guinea Pig #2 happened to be beside me when I was checking it out, and he thought it was great.  (He is 9.)

Art links:

Web Gallery of Art:  This is a database site linking the holdings of museums all over the world.  It's a good place to search for a specific painting if you know the artist.  Once you find the painting, the image is often clearer if you then go back to the site of the museum that holds it.

National Gallery of Art:  Has on-line tours, including audio, of current and prior exhibitions.  Easy to search either by artist or by subject.

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Not as user-friendly to navigate as the above, but the holdings are worth it.  Images are replicable, if properly credited and not altered, for non-commercial use.

Artemesia Gentileschi:  There are of course hundreds of sites devoted to specific artists, but this one is so little known and under-appreciated that I just have to put in a plug.  Nice site that provides a good bit of biographical information as well as a nearly complete inventory of her paintings.

Election links:

New York Times Election Guide 2008:  Great site with delegate maps, candidate positions, calendar of upcoming events, and loads more

Rock the Vote: Simple site glorying in the 2008 "youthquake" (surge in 18-24 year olds comin out to vote in the 2008 primary season) 

Podcast Parking:

Volunteer Voices:  This is a collection of folktales around the world, told by Peace Corps volunteers.  There are also podcasts of the volunteers' daily lives, work in specific areas, etc.

Odeo: This is a vast podcast database, including a large number of folk and fairy tales.  Some are considerably better than others, so previewing (?pre-listening?) is key.

BBC's Thousand and One Nights:  The BBC has loads of other good stuff too, though the navigation works best if you already know exactly what you're looking for.

American Rhetoric: Top 100 Speeches:  This is the true value of the internet.  Free, downloadable versions of Roosevelt, Kennedy, Nixon, MacArthur, and King; also, Emma Goldman, Malcom X and more.  Annoying pop-ups. 

Links Recommended in Social Studies on the Internet:

Smithsonian Institution: This is a vast resource, with all kinds of cool stuff.  I was particularly surprised and pleased with the Silk Road storytelling podcasts in the Sackler, and the National Portrait Gallery's Presidential timeline.  Next election cycle we'll use these to make a timeline. 

New York Times Learning Network: Section for kids grades 3-12, with test prep question of the day, vocabulary word of the day, current events, and science question of the week; another section for teachers, with lesson plans based on current news summaries, links to archives, and much more.

Exploring Ancient World Cultures: Introduction to ancient world cultures, with several good essays exploring the impact different ancient civilizations had upon modern society, art images, and historical overviews.

Landmark Supreme Court Cases: Supports teaching of landmark cases, including substantial resources for teachers, including formats for debate, links to related cases and news analysis by judicial theme, and even links to political cartoons related to key cases.  Really, really good.

Other:

AT for Special Ed Populations:  I came upon this whilst looking for something else.  Almost unbelievably, it is a webquest, written by Susan English at Aquinas College's school of education, aimed at under- and graduate students of education, to disseminate knowledge of assistive technology for special education populations.  No kidding.

Artist Trading Card Project by Veronique Poulin: This is an interesting webquest which has students make something I've never even heard of, "Artist Trading Cards" (thereafter, the quest has students transform their cards into a digital story posted on YouTube).  It's really oriented to art students, but somewhere in the recesses of my brain an idea is percolating (that's "parallel processing" in action) about what a simpler but related activity having to do with the production of timelines might look like.  Hmmm. 

Digital parking spot for zunal.com's webquest creation tool, whose format I like better than the one linked through the syllabus; and Tom March's marching orders on what webquests shouldn't look like.  Gets back to Bloom's taxonomy and I'm not at all sure I'm fully on the same page, particularly for younger kids, but there ya go.

Digital parking spot for serendipitous article on "mindless" memorization

1/29 Assignment: My NETS-S Standard

The content area that I have selected for the purpose of this course is middle grade (grades 5-8) social studies.

Those who know me, may be a bit surprised. I am a student in the Special Education department within the Graduate School of Education and Allied Professions, enrolled in a program to earn a master's degree and state certification for K-12 special education. I am particularly passionate about teaching reading. Why, then, middle grade social studies?

There are reasons, of course. Some of them have to do with my career aspirations once I've completed my coursework: to fulfill the"highly qualified" requirements in social studies and literature; and to work with middle grade level students once I'm certified. The more important reasons relate to my educational philosophy, which I haven't yet put to paper (or bytes), that particular assignment not coming up for some weeks yet. But it's percolating, and I want the standard I select now to be consistent with where I want to go, then.

Philosophically, I draw a distinction between three great tasks of education:
- Motivation
- Acquisition of skills; and

- Integration of content.

At this point, I believe that of these three tasks, "educational technology" can provide the greatest support to instructional objectives in content.  So I chose the content area that I thought I'd have the most fun with.

(Speaking of holding so many "priorities" simultaneously that we effectively have none at all...)  Here are the State of Connecticut content standards, which in turn are supported by the standards defined by the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S):

Content Standard 1 (Historical Thinking): Students will develop historical thinking skills, including chronological thinking and recognizing change over time; contextualizing, comprehending and analyzing historical literature; researching historical sources; understanding the concept of historical causation; understanding competing narratives and interpretation; and constructing narratives and interpretation.

Content Standard 2 (Local, US, and World History): Students will use historical thinking skills to develop an understanding of the major historical periods, issues and trends in United States history, world history, and Connecticut and local history.

Content Standard 3 (Historical Themes): Students will apply their understanding of historical periods, issues and trends to examine such historical themes as ideals, beliefs and institutions; conflict and conflict resolution; human movement and interaction; and science and technology in order to understand how the world came to be the way it is.

Content Standard 4 (Applying History): Students will recognize the continuing importance of historical thinking and historical knowledge in their own lives and in the world in which they live.

Content Standard 5 (United States Constitution and Government): Students will apply knowledge of the U S Constitution, how the U S system of government works and how the rule of law and the values of liberty and equality have an impact on individual, local, state and national decisions.

Content Standard 6 (Rights and Responsibilities of Citizens): Students will demonstrate knowledge of the rights and responsibilities of citizens to participate in and shape public policy, and contribute to the maintenance of our democratic way of life.

Content Standard 7 (Political Systems): Students will explain that political systems emanate from the need of humans for order, leading to compromise and the establishment of authority.

Content Standard 8 (International Relations): Students will demonstrate an understanding of how the major elements of international relations and world affairs affect their lives and the security and well-being of their community, state and nation.

Content Standard 9 (Places and Regions): Students will use spatial perspective to identify and analyze the significance of physical and cultural characteristics of places and world regions.

Content Standard 10 (Physical Systems): Students will use spatial perspective to explain the physical processes that shape the Earth’s surface and its ecosystems.

Content Standard 11 (Human Systems): Students will interpret spatial patterns of human migration, economic activities and political units in Connecticut, the nation and the world.

Content Standard 12 (Human and Environmental Interaction): Students will use geographic tools and technology to explain the interactions of humans and the larger environment, and the evolving consequences of those interactions.

Content Standard 13 (Limited Resources): Students will demonstrate that because human, natural and capital resources are limited, individuals, households, businesses and governments must make choices.

Content Standard 14 (Economic Systems): Students will demonstrate that various economic systems coexist, and that economic decisions are made by individuals and/or governments, influenced by markets, cultural traditions, individuals and governments in the allocation of goods and services.

Content Standard 15 (Economic Interdependence): Students will demonstrate how the exchange of goods and services by individuals, groups and nations creates economic interdependence and how trade results in change.