This course does not assume that you are a "techie."  You need not be a specialist in Recent U.S. history (or, for that matter, in U.S. History).  While some of the course work will obviously focus on the recent U.S., many of the skills you will learn have wide applicability to the teaching of history generally.  Laboratory sessions (date, time and place TBA) will focus on learning about the world wide web, web development, and Lotus Learning Space.

The course will be based on a series of weekly assignments, some of which will require you to work in teams of two or more.  There will also be laboratory training sessions on such topics as searching the web, developing a web site, on line discussion tools, etc.   Some of  your assignments will be prepared in html (hyper text mark up language).  For more details, click on Electronic Paper.

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Randy Bass, Engines of Inquiry: A Practical Guide for Using Technology to Teach American Culture  (The American Studies Crossroads Project, 1998).  Also see the American Crossroads Project Web site.

Robert Griffith, Major Problems in American History Since 1945 (Houghton Mifflin, 1992).

H-Net, Humanities Social Sciences OnLine: This web site provides information and resources for all those interested in the Humanities and  Social Sciences, and serves as a central information storehouse for H-Net's extensive network of  more than 80 e-mail listservs.  Understanding how these and similar vehicles are transforming professional life is one of the goals of this course. You should subscribe to H-Teach, the network on College History Teaching, as well as one additional network.  The additional listserve may be H-Survey, the listserv for teaching the U.S. Survey, a subject field (e.g., Women and Gender, the Civil War) or one of several listservs dedicated to educational technologies.

Selected Web Resources:  An extensive list of  web sites (many of  which are themselves lists of additional sites) that provide information relevant to the teaching of history.  The continuous development of this site (adding new sites, deleting less useful ones, better annotating and organizing the list) will be an important and on-going part of the course.

Monday, August 31:  Introduction to the Course:

Please come to class with a list of goals that should drive the teaching of history.  Be prepared to share and discuss these goals with others.

Monday, September 14:  Assignment One: A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education? and Assignment Two: New Research on Student Learning.

    Click on Class Outline.
 
Monday, September 21:  Assignment Three: Evaluating Inquiry and Archive Based Assignments.

 Click on Class Outline

Monday, September 28:  Assignment Four:  Evaluating Strategies for Enhancing Dialogue and Exchange.

                        On September 28, Professor Ann Rubin of the AU History Department will give
                        a  presentation on the Valley of the Shadows Project, which she helped
                        develop while at the University of  Virginia.

Monday, October 5:  Assignment Five:  Multimedia and Active Reading.

         On October 5, Chris Ficek from OIT will join us to demonstrate Lotus Notes'
          Learning Space, an network based environment that delivers many of the
          technologies we have been discussing in a single, seamless package.

NOTE:  On October 8-11, the University of  Maryland at College Park will be hosting a conference entitled:  "State of the Arts: Production, Reception, and Teaching in the Digital World.   (If you can attend, I will try to arrange to have some or all of your registration fee paid.  Please let me know at your earliest convenience.)

Monday, October 12:  Assignment Six: Hypertext and Constructive Learning.

        On October 12, Elena Razlagova, a doctoral student in Cultural Studies at George
        Mason University, will join us to discuss the History Matters project on which she has
        worked.  History Matters is a project of GMU's Center for History and New Media.
 

 Monday, October 19:  Assignment Seven: Evaluating Course Syllabi .

            On October 19, David Silver, a doctoral student in American Studies at the University
            of Maryland at College Park and founder of the Resources Center for Cyberculture
            Studies, will join us to discuss his work and that of others in teaching American Studies
            in the new, "cyber" environment.  To learn more about David and his work, click on his
            Homepage, which includes links to the Center as well as to the syllabus for one of his
            courses.David will also be  making a presentation at the UMCP conference,
            State of the Arts.

Monday, October 26  Assignment Eight: Developing a Model Assignment on Recent U.S. History (AI). 

        Class Projects: The Civil Rights Movement Since 1945
                                  Back in Time (Click on Syllabus)
                                  Postwar Mindsets, East and West
                                  Nixon's the One

Monday, November 2:  Assignment Nine: Developing a Model Assignment on Recent U.S. History (AII).

On Monday, November 2, we will meet at Anderson B-12, for a "hands on" follow up on Lotus Learning Space.  For details, click on the Lotus Notes Project.

Monday,  November 16: Assignment Eleven: Developing a Model Assignment on Recent U.S. History (BI).

        Class Projects: The Atomic Bomb
                                  Back in Time (Click on SyllabusTwo)
                                  McCarthyism
                                  America in Turmoil
 

Monday, November 23:  Assignment Twelve:  Developing a Model Assignment on Recent U.S. History (BII).

Due Monday, November 30.  Assignment Thirteen:  Developing a Model Assignment on Recent U.S. History (BIII).

Monday, December 7: Assignment Fourteen:  Developing a New Program: A Case Study of American Studies at Virginia.

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Assignment One:  A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education?

Required Reading:

• Thomas A. Angelo, "The Campus as Learning Community," AAHE Bulletin (May, 1997), 3-6.
• Robert B. Barr and John Tagg, "From Teaching to Learning -- A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education," Change (November/December, 1995), 13-25.
• Terry O'Banion, "Inventory of Learning-Centered Practices," on the "Creating a Learning College" web site.

• Teaching and Learning -- browse the list of articles on teaching and learning from Educom Review.
• Daniel Seymour, Simple Ways (an excerpt from Once Upon a Campus).

Assignment Two: New Research on Student Learning.  [Also due September 14]

Required Reading:

Randy Bass, "Engines of inquiry: Teaching, Technology and         Learner-Centered Approaches to Culture and History," in Engines of Inquiry: A Practical Guide for Using Technology to Teach American Culture, 9-42.
Ted Marchese, The New Conversations About Learning, currently available on the AAHE Web site.
Joint Task Force on Student Learning, Draft Position Paper, ibid.

The Assignment:

 Based on the three readings, prepare a list of the 10 (more or less) most important principles that should guide the design of new courses.  Be prepared to share and discuss these principles in class.  Our goal in the September 14 meeting will be to  construct collectively a Template to use in evaluating both our efforts and those of others.

Assignment Three: Evaluating Inquiry and Archive Based Assignments.

Required Reading:
Bass, Engines of Inquiry, 77-112, and related web sites.

The Assignment:  Prepare a brief, 2-3 page evaluation of one of the eight "sample" assignments.  Discuss your choices among yourselves, so that each of you evaluates a different assignment.  Note that three additional assignments are listed on page 78; you may use one of these if you wish.  Again, use the Template we have developed.   Note that we will also use this and subsequent assignments as opportunities to evaluate and revise the Template itself.
 

Required Reading:
Bass, Engines of Inquiry, 129-189, and related web sites.  For a brief tutorial on managing listservs, see the tutorial on Sagrelto's Infoworm.

The Assignment:  Prepare a brief evaluation of one of the five case studies presented in this chapter.  Discuss your choices among yourselves, so that insofar as possible each of you evaluates a different project.  Again, use the Template we have developed.

Assignment Five:  Multimedia and Active Reading.

          Required Reading:
           Bass, Engines of Inquiry, 191-250, and related web sites.

The Assignment: Prepare a brief evaluation of one of the four examples of multi-media presentation.  Follow the instructions for previous assignments to avoid duplication of assignments.  Use the template.  In addition to the reading asssignments, I would like for each of you to become expert on at least one substantive, university or archive based multi-media archive or cd (e.g.,  "History Matters," "Valley of the Shadows," "Who Built America," the Library of Congress' American Memory Project, CNN's Cold War History web site, or any of the other major sites listed on the Web Resources Page.)  For CDs, check the Bender Holdings.

Addtional Links:  Norton Textra Connect
           Nancy Fernandez's Couse on Women's History
           American Journey
 

Required Reading:
Bass, Engines of Inquiry, 251-3050, and related web sites.

The Assignment:  Study at least one of the exemplary sites identified by Randy Bass on pp. 258-261, or in the case studies that follow.  Prepare a brief essay evaluating the project.  Follow the instructions for previous assignments.

Assignment Seven:   Evaluating Course Syllabi.

The Assignment: Study the course syllabus for any of the courses listed in Engines of Inquiry or on its Dynamic Syllabus web site.  See also syllabi listed on the Selected Web Resources page.  Feel free to substitute any other syllabus you may have come across while visiting college and university web sites.  Then:  Prepare a brief 3-5 page essay explaining:  1) How effectively the syllabi presents the basic information students need.  (For a template, see Construction of the Syllabus, available on the Florida State University teaching and learning web site.).   2) How effectively the syllabus you have selected uses (or fails to use) the four approaches we have just investigated:  inquiry and archive, dialogue and exchange, multi-media and active reading, and hypertext and constructive learning.  Where instructors have not employed a strategy, suggest how he or she might have done so.
3) Finally, evaluate other strengths and weaknesses of the syllabus, once again using the template we have developed.
 

Required Reading:
Robert Griffith, Major Problems in American History (selected chapters).
Related web pages.

The Assignment:  Working in pairs, prepare a model assignment based on some aspect of the following:  The Atomic Bomb,  The Origins of the Cold War, The Culture of  Consumption, The Cuban Missile Crisis, The War in Vietnam, Watergate,  The Civil Rights movement, Gender and Sexuality in Post WWII America, Multicultural America.  (You may also propose a topic of your own choosing, but check with me before undertaking it.)  Your assignment should integrate both traditional and web-based materials.  It should include an up-to-date bibliography of the most significant published literature, as well as links to relevant web sites.  Prepare your assignment on a disk, using Netscape Composer, so that it can be mounted on the web site or copied on disk by other members of the class.  For details, click on Electronic Paper.

Assignment Nine:  Developing a Model Assignment on Recent U.S. History (AII).

The Assignment: Review each of the other model assignments. Prepare a brief evaluation of each of them, based on your own study of the topic, as well as the Template.  Wherever possible, propose constructive improvements to the assignment.  Your review should be posted on the Lotus Discussion/Database.

The Assignment:  Based on the comments of  others, as well as on further reflection, revise your model assignment.  Again, bring it to class on a disk so that it may be shared.

Assignment Eleven: Developing a Model  Assignment on Recent U.S. History (BI).  Due Monday,  November 16

The Assignment:  Same as in AI.

The Assignment:  Same as in AII.

Assignment Thirteen: Developing a Model Assignment on Recent U.S. History (BIII).  Due Monday, November 30

The Assignment:  Same as in AIII.

Read:  National Standards for United States History, chapters 1-3, with special attention to standards for Era 9: Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s); and Era 10: Contemporary United States (1968 to the present).  To view the online version, click on National Standards.  See also Gary B. Nash, Charlotte Crabtree, and Ross E. Dunn, History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997).

The Assignment: Create a test instrument that will measure "what [college] students know [or should know] about the History of the United States since 1945."

• For the purposes of this assignment, the class will be divided into two groups.  The first group will focus on the years from 1945 to the early 1970s.  The second group will focus on the years 1968 to the present.
• Building on the items identified in the National Standards (which only goes through 12th grade), create a list of what college students should know.
• Then, prepare a test that would measure what in fact students know, a test that could be administered both before and after students took a survey level course on the United States since 1945.
• To facilitate your work, I will create two separate discussion databases, one for each group.
• A first draft of you project should be posted on the web in advance of our last, regularly scheduled class meeting, which is set for December 7.
• Members of the class will be expected to prepare individual comments on the other teamâs project.  These evaluations should be posted to the ãentire classä discussion/database no later than December 11.
• The final draft of the two projects must be posted to the web no later than the last day of finals, December 18.