Part 4 of my series of posts highlighting some of the projects I have been able to get off the ground in my role as Technology Coordinator… Our Honors Europe and the World classes used ChronoZoom to expand on their knowledge and analysis of the French Revolution.
Student Examples (click the 2nd icon on the top right to “take a guided tour”; each project has 3 tours):
Getting Started with ChronoZoom:
Introduction:
Student will create a timeline to expand on their knowledge and analysis of the French Revolution.
Objectives:
· Application of timeline methodology to aid in mastering the complex history of the French Revolution
· Build experience with collaborative group work
· Build expertise with “Chronozoom”
· Have a student centered and inquiry approach to the study of an historical period
Framework:
· 2-3 individuals per project
· Participation log for each individual to be turned in at the end of the project.
Instructions
1. Read the tutorial and rubric for homework and be ready to work with your assigned group next class.
2. Share tasks between members of your group. For example, have one student obtain primary source document and have another work on artifact descriptions.
3. Work in class and out of class if necessary to complete your timeline.
4. (Future goal) Add voice over to narrate your timeline.
5. Create your own tour of the timeline, focusing on a specific theme, e.g. Women and the French Revolution.
6. (Future goal) Videotape yourself and reflect on the assignment. What worked well? What didn’t work well? Which core values did you use?
7. Submit links for your group project and personal tour.
What worked well with this project
· Timelines are a powerful tool for historians. The analytical choices that need to be made in creating any timeline place students in the role of historian. Great way for students to make decisions about what to include in the content.
· Provides an interesting way to manage large amounts of content on any complex topic, creates the opportunity for students to not only “own” but “manage” the content.
· Supports the process of solid online research and collection of both textual and visual sources. Students found artifacts we did not cover in class. Good inquiry process. With 3 easy ways to cite their sources, responsible acknowledgement of sources is encouraged.
· Students are encouraged to demonstrate understanding at several levels through the writing of descriptions for both artifacts and exhibits.
· Creative thinking is encouraged as students redefine their content through the lens of the tour capability while still giving them a scaffold from which to build their understandings.
Reflection
Because the timeline created a structural format from which to build, students were able to work together to collect the topics for the exhibitions then divide up the work for creating the exhibitions. The tours provided the experience of a required overview and reassessment of content in new ways. Thus, students shared in the initial direction, built on their own research to collect artifacts and crafted the timeline exhibits, then reflected in new ways for the creation of their individual tours.
What would be done differently in the future?
· Ask students to add music and a voiceover to their tour.
· The last tour stop might be a self-reflection video that they have made of themselves.
· For a non-honors: we wouldn’t require students to make their own personal tour (that focuses on a specific theme). This would make the project more descriptive, less analytical, and more collaborative.
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