Teaching History Online
Number 6: May, 2001
Contents
2. United States National Portrait Gallery
3. Association of Teachers' Websites
4. Bridges and Tunnels Project
8. United States Political Figures and Organizations
Introduction
Spartacus Educational will be publishing Teaching History Online every month. The newsletter will include news, reviews of websites and articles on using ICT in the history classroom. Members of the mailing list are invited to submit information for inclusion in future editions of Teaching History Online. In this way we hope create a community of people involved in using the internet to teach history.
John Simkin
Russel Tarr, owner of the Active History website is currently working on an exciting new project in which students journey around a virtual medieval town and village searching for the missing pieces of their damaged time machine. Richly illustrated and including numerous sound effects, the simulation comes complete with teacher notes and pupil worksheets, and provides an original way of studying the topic. Russel would be very grateful for any constructive feedback about the game which colleagues could offer (russeltarr@activehistory.co.uk). The game can be found (along with many other recent additions to the site) on the "What's New?" page of Active History.
United States National Portrait Gallery
The United States National Portrait Gallery contains over 100,000 pictures. At the moment only a small percentage of these portraits appear on the website. Organised under several different headings, these paintings are accompanied by a brief biography of the featured individual. The 'Hall of Presidents' is not as impressive as Grolier's 'The American Presidency' but other sections, such as 'Native Americans' and 'The Age of Revolution' include very useful information on less well-documented individuals from the past. A new addition is a collection of paintings that relate to the 'Amistad Case'.
Association of Teachers' Websites
The Association of Teachers' Websites (ATW) is a new organisation that attempts to showcase the huge range of quality online teaching materials available free in the UK at websites created by and run by teachers. It will also offer a powerful collective voice for teachers on the internet and will help develop and encourage best practice in the classroom.
Website owners can apply to become a member as long as they fulfil the following criteria and are voted on by a majority of the member sites in the relevant curriculum area: (i) They supply high quality teaching resources and materials; (ii) They are built and maintained by teachers or ex-teachers; (iii) They are free to use; (iv) They are comprehensive and user friendly. So far there are six history websites in the ATW.
During eSchola week the ATW will be producing a cross-curricular project on Bridges and Tunnels Project and a history website on the Russian History Project (see below).
The Bridges & Tunnels Project is a joint venture between the European Virtual School History Department and the Association of Teachers' Websites. It is a cross-curricular project for students aged 13-14 during eSchola week (7th-11th May). As well as several history lessons featuring the Humber Bridge, the Channel Tunnel and the Malmo-Copenhagen Bridge there is also material for students studying Science, Design & Technology, English, Economics and Music.
Members of the history department of the recently formed British Teachers' Virtual School have contributed the Russian History Project to eSchola week (7th-11th May). The project provides online teaching materials that enables students to study the history of Russia between 1860 and 1930. The project includes online lessons, an in-depth simulation, a webcast, online games and the opportunity for students to work together with people in other countries.
The US Air Force Museum based in Dayton, Ohio, has produced an excellent resource for anyone interested in the history of flight. The website has been organised in a similar way to the museum. Eight galleries display samples of aircraft from flight's earliest days to the latest jet fighters. Each exhibit displayed includes a photograph, a history of its development and technical details. There are also other galleries on topics such as 'Engines', 'Weapons' and 'Equipment'. Video clips are available in some of the galleries.
The authors of the Cybrary of the Holocaust website point out in their introduction that they use "art, discussion groups, photos, poems, and a wealth of facts to preserve powerful memories and to educate scholars and newcomers alike about the Holocaust." Sections include: 'The Camps', 'Witnesses', 'Children of Survivors', 'Historical Perspectives', 'Virtual Tour of Auschwitz' and 'Bookstore'. The Holocaust Quilt enables visitors to leave a memory of a victim or survivor of the Holocaust. Part of the site is for educators and includes a 'Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust'.
United States Political Figures and Organizations
United States Political Figures and Organizations is the latest of the Spartacus Educational Encyclopaedias. Each entry contains a narrative, illustrations and primary sources. The text within each entry is hypertexted to other relevant pages in the encyclopedia. In this way it is possible to research individual people and events in great detail. The sources are also hypertexted so the student is able to find out about the writer, artist, newspaper, organization, etc., that produced the material.
Political Figures: 1840-1900: John Quincy Adams, John Altgeld, James Birney, John Breckenridge, Martin Van Buren, Benjamin Butler, Salmon P. Chase, John Calhoun, Lewis Cass, Henry Clay, Grover Cleveland, Richard Croker, Henry Winter Davis, Jefferson Davis, Stephen Douglas, John Downey, Joshua Giddings, William Goebel, William Grace, Ulysses Grant, Horace Greeley, Benjamin Harrison, Rutherford Hayes, Andrew Johnson, Samuel Jones, William Kelley, John M. Langston, William Lathrop, Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, Richard Olney, Robert Dale Owen, Hazen Pingree, James Polk, Theodore Roosevelt, Carl Schurz, William Seward, Horatio Seymour, Gerrit Smith, Edwin Stanton, Frank Steunenberg, Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, Zachary Taylor, William S. Taylor, Samuel Tilden, Benjamin Wade, Daniel Webster (48)
Political Figures: 1900-1945: Newton Baker, Victor Berger, William J. Bryan, Anton Cermak, Braxton Comer, Calvin Coolidge, James Curley, Eugene V. Debs, Martin Dies, Leonidas Dyer, Robert Farley, John Francis Fitzgerald, Warren Harding, Daniel Hoan, Herbert Hoover, Harry Hopkins, Edward House, Charles Hughes, Cordell Hull, Harold Ickes, Hiram Johnson, Hugh Johnson, Patrick Joseph Kennedy, Joseph Kennedy, Alfred Landon, Robert LaFollette, Fiorello LaGuardia, Robert Lansing, Henry Cabot Lodge, Seth Low, Vito Marcantonio, Andrew Mellon, Henry Morgenthau, Frank Murphy, George Norris, A. M. Palmer, Caleb Powers, John Rankin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Elihu Root, Emil Seidel, William Spry, Alfred Smith, George Sutherland, William Taft, Norman Thomas, William Thompson, Rex Tugwell, Robert Wagner, Jimmy Walker, Henry Wallace, Augustus Willson, Woodrow Wilson, Brand Whitlock (54)
Political Figures: 1945-80: Dean Acheson, Spiro Agnew, William Benton, Theodore Bilbo, Robert Byrd, Jimmy Carter, Emanuel Celler, Thomas E. Dewey, John Foster Dulles, James Eastland, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Orval Faubus, Gerald Ford, Barry Goldwater, Edward J. Hart, Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon B. Johnson, George Kennan, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Daniel Hoan, John Lewis, Vito Marcantonio, Joseph McCarthy, Patrick McCarran, Eugene McCarthy, James Meredith, George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Karl Mundt, Richard Nixon, John Rankin, Ronald Reagan, John Stennis, Adlai Stevenson, J. P. Thomas, Storm Thurmond, Harry S. Truman, Harold Velde, George Wallace, Francis E. Walter, Wendell Willkie, John Wood, Frank Zeidler (44)
Political Parties: Free-Soil Party, Republican Party, Whig Party, Liberal Party, Democratic Party, Progressive Party, Socialist Party, Communist Party (8)
Pressure Groups: Anti-Slavery Society, Woman Suffrage Association, Ku Klux Klan, American Women Suffrage Association, American Civil Rights Union, National American Woman Suffrage Association, National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, National Consumers League, Women's Trade Union League, Women's Peace League, Constitutional Union Women Suffrage, American Federation of Labor, Industrial Workers of the World, Anti-Saloon League, Women's Temperance Union (16)
Please email John Simkin at spartacus@pavilion.co.uk if you have information you want included in next month's edition of Teaching History Online.