Bridging World History
September 8, 2012 7:29 AM   Subscribe

Bridging World History. Moving far beyond a "names and dates" survey of world history, this course from The Annenberg Foundation "is inquiry-based, integrated, and recursive, and uses video, Web, and text materials to provide a comprehensive and interactive learning experience." Explore world history in 26 units that feature videos (courtesy of Oregon Public Broadcasting), text, audio, primary source materials, course guides and activities for students, and a nifty World History Traveler [Flash] pathfinding tool that examines various facets of history in greater depth. Once you're done with world history, you can check out the gazillion other subjects Annenberg offers.
posted by Rykey (9 comments total) 50 users marked this as a favorite
 
Wow, the summaries on the "26 units" page make this sound like a pretty interesting way to cover world history. I will definitely be checking this out. Thanks for posting!
posted by hippybear at 7:44 AM on September 8, 2012


Because this took me a somewhat embarassing amount of time, to play the videos go to the segment you want to view and look in the menu on the left and find the "View the Video Online" button under "DOWNLOAD MATERIALS"
posted by Blasdelb at 8:04 AM on September 8, 2012


For videos, you can also click the "VoD" links on this page.

(Mods, if you feel so inclined, you could also put that link around the word "videos" (right after "26 units) in my OP for quicker access--thanks!)
posted by Rykey at 8:27 AM on September 8, 2012


Thanks so much. It looks good, can’t wait to check it out.
posted by bongo_x at 8:31 AM on September 8, 2012


Wow, disappointing. The web's been around since about 1995 and how does this course material take advantange of it? Here are huge tl;dr blocks of text and 30-minute videos. 1500 images thrown into a database. And that's about it.

Maybe 19th century pedagogy won't go away until the millenials arrive at middle age. But Annenberg: Oregon Trail first appeared in 1971. That's 40 years ago. Why do educators fear the net?
posted by Twang at 9:25 AM on September 8, 2012


The Annenberg site also hosts all of the Western Tradition. It's a little dated, but showing Eugen Weber some love is always important.
posted by khaibit at 9:29 AM on September 8, 2012


I have a masters in history. I was a TA and I graded a ton of papers and exams. The ones who got the names and dates right were the ones who also got the "big picture" right.
posted by Ironmouth at 10:14 AM on September 8, 2012 [4 favorites]


What Ironmouth said. Understanding flows from granular knowledge. History makes no sense at all if you can't fit it to places, dates and names. If I were interviewing kids for college admission I think I could get about 99% predictive accuracy by asking "I invest $100 at 5%, interest accrues once a year without further compunding but is taxed at accrual at 20%; what do I have in three years after the last tax and interest payment" and "When did World War I start and end and who won and lost?"
posted by MattD at 1:42 PM on September 8, 2012


I'll stick with Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast. Keeps me entertained, and amazed.
posted by thisisdrew at 4:43 PM on September 8, 2012


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