Bringing History To Life!

Maureen Brown Yoder's "Adventures in Electronic Constructivism" was written to give teachers a collection of great ideas for turning traditional curricula into fun and constructive projects! Yoder believes that the typical acquisition of knowledge in which students complete research projects by collecting a series of well-known facts about important people and then rephrasing those facts in their own words is boring, mundane, and has little impact on kids. Instead, students should be challenged to get a better over-all picture of who exactly these important people were and what they were like. For instance, in researching Socrates, some students discovered that he had a reputation for being a "smart aleck with a prickly personality" (Yoder, 2006, p. 27). This made studying Socrates much more interesting, and consequently resulted in a humorous and insightful student project! Yoder explains that "[discovering] the persona of accomplished figures in history can bring the individuals to life and remind us that they were human beings, like us, not just static characters described in black and white text" (Yoder, 2006, p. 25). Using WebQuest, teachers and students can participate in fun and exciting projects that demonstrate this concept. For instance, The aforementioned tidbit regarding Socrates' personality was discovered by a couple of students who had the assignment of conducting an "interview" with Socrates himself. They were to research Socrates, his personality, and some key facts about him, and then produce an interview in which Socrates was brought to life! "Socrates" answered questions in a sarcastic, humorous, and insightful way that allowed students to learn not only key facts, but also about the man himself. Furthermore, the students who produced the interview obtained valuable research skills, as well as video, audio, and picture editing skills that enabled them to create a nice presentation.

(Yoder, 2006, p. 26-27)

I found most of the ideas in this article to be very useful! In addition to the interview idea, Yoder also suggested doing projects such as creating a student panel of ten famous historical women, having "travelers to mars"give a recap of their "vacation" to the red planet, and having "George Washington" and "George Bush" correspond through email and other media to compare their leadership styles and give each other advice (Yoder, 2006, p. 25-27). I could definitely see myself introducing projects such as these to my students one day. Though for younger elementary students, I would adapt these ideas a bit. Fifth graders would probably do just fine with video interviews and with conducting deeper research on the internet; but for all other elementary students, I would replace video projects with in-class skits, and would provide them with the exact resources and websites that they should use to further explore their historical figures.

The constructive approach to teaching can be very beneficial to the learning experience because it allows students to have some fun while they expand their research skills and knowledge to greater depths than what would be acquired through some more traditional methods. Learning about Socrates, for instance, can be a lot more interesting and entertaining with the discovery and portrayal of Socrates' whole personality, rather than just some classic textbook facts about him. Teacher Maureen Brown Yoder recommends WebQuest as a good resource for completing constructive projects like the ones that she has done with her students. For more information, check out http://webquest.org/!

In conducting deeper research through these constructive projects, students fulfill NETS Standard #3: Research and Information Fluency. In completing interesting and informative projects by taking on the role of historical figures and bringing them to life, students meet NETS Standard #1: Creativity and Innovation, Standard #2: Communication and Collaboration, and Standard #6: Technology Operations and Concepts.

Yoder, M.B. (2006, September). Adventures in Electronic Constructivism. United States & Canada.