Introduction
In a recent conversation
with a class of eighth grade social studies students about life on the
American home front during World War II, we were reminded of students’
inability to visualize and contextualize the past. We asked the students
how they thought Americans on the home front get their information about
the ongoing war in Europe, many of them responded with CNN Headline
News or the Internet! It was beyond many of the students to grasp that
American homes were not equipped with Internet connections during World
War II and that many homes did not have televisions.
As middle school social studies
teachers, we struggle daily to find ways to help our students conceptualize
the past and think historically. Virtual history projects such as the
one described in this article provide a powerful method of helping students
engage in historical inquiry. Virtual history projects as defined for
this instructional application are projects in which a student’s
photograph is digitally placed within a historical photograph. Using
digital images of students and of historical images to transport students
back in time increase not only students’ excitement level but
it also helps students visualize and personalize the past. Allowing
students to “visit” another time and place can bring a new
level of understanding of history for many students.
Virtual history projects
require that students engage in an inquiry process that supports their
understanding of the big ideas in history. When students engage in historical
inquiry, they develop the schemas, or mental scaffolds that help clarify
the major concepts in the field and identify when to apply those concepts.
Developing these schemas helps students move from being a novice in
the field to being an expert (Bransford et al., 1999). The virtual history
project described in this article prompts students to go beyond the
stark memorization of facts, and develop a conceptual understanding
of the past. In this sense, students are better able to understand and
apply historical concepts and begin to move from novice to expert comprehension.
Inquiry is the act of using
prior knowledge, asking questions, identifying new information, and
developing conclusions. “Placing” students back in time
invites them to engage in an inquiry process that allows them to personalize
and recreate an event or era in the past. Using the instructions below,
teachers or students can manipulate digital images and be transported
back into time. It is essential for teachers to ask questions in virtual
history projects that require students to investigate and interpret
the digital image. Teachers should prompt students to analyze the photograph
by asking students questions such as: What is happening in this photograph?
What are you doing in this photograph? What would you like to do next?
From where you are in the photograph, describe what you hear. What are
people talking about around you? What are you saying to the people around
you? How do you feel at this time? What makes you feel this way?
The
technology and learning concepts described in this article
can be transferred to different content areas to further
enhance student learning. For example, English teachers
could transpose student images into different literature
settings for writing activities. Imagine students placing
themselves on a Mississippi raft with Tom Sawyer. Science
teachers can use the virtual projects to place students
in different environmental settings, the human body, or
within different organisms such as an amoeba.
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Inquiry-based activities are
essential in all social studies classrooms, but even more so in middle
school social studies classrooms. Virtual history projects are grounded
in Erikson’s (1968) theory of development. That is, middle school
students are in constant search to develop their ego-identity. By virtually
placing themselves back into time or into other settings, students engage
in the unfolding process that contributes to personal development. Adolescents
develop based on the links between interrelated environments (Garbarino,
1985). That is, they make sense of themselves through a series of concentric
circles. The adolescent is in the center of the circle, while family,
peers, school and community fill the immediate surrounding circles. Events
in history are often found in circles that are a great distance from the
adolescent. By virtually placing students into historical events, through
virtual history projects, teachers are able to help students bridge the
gap from students’ immediate world to distant times and places.
The images below are taken
from a lesson developed to help students learn about Japanese Internment
Camps during World War II. Teaching such a topic can be a daunting task.
In this lesson, students read Ken Mochizuki’s Baseball Saved
Us , digital oral history clips, and poetry to begin unraveling
the stories behind this tragic piece of American history. The lesson
culminates with a virtual history activity. The students “place”
themselves back into time using digital media tools and write a historical
essay to help them contextualize life during this era. The entire lesson
described here is also available online at: http://www.stpt.usf.edu/waring/japanese.
