Boatner III, Mark M. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, 3rd
Ed. Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books, 1994. xx + 1290 ppg.
As a
historian of the American Revolution and Early Republic I often needed a handy
reference book available to me instead of shelves of books when looking for
quick pieces of information. This volume fits the bill quite nicely. While it
is not an in depth study of the war in any way, it is a good desk reference.
One could have several volumes on the Revolution and I already have far more
than several volumes on that event and still am lacking in several areas. This
encyclopedia does allow a researcher to quickly confirm dates, names, and
places which is one of its greatest uses. In that regard alone it is a valuable
time saver.
Boatner’s
work is older, but still relevant. It is not dedicated to exploring the ‘why’
aspects of the period, but rather the ‘who, what, when, and where’ aspects. In
this regard it excels mightily while also remaining relevant to the study of
the period. Few books manage this feat after a few decades as historians and
their interpretations changed over time. Boatner included hand drawn maps in
this volume, but no pictures. If there is a drawback to this work, the lack of
illustrations and pictures is it. However, including pictures for each entry
would probably come close to doubling the price of the work and it is not a
cheap purchase. I personally have found it worth every penny I paid for it
though.
It is easy
to get lost in reading the many entries and more than one comment has been made
about the time involved in reading the volume. That is a sign of a good book
and this is only an encyclopedia. I myself have found a few hours disappearing
when I opened the book to look up an entry only to explore its connections in
greater detail. That could be a downfall, but then that is also a great way to
use my time in my opinion. All in all, I really recommend this book for
students of the period. I do caution potential readers that this is not a
narrative, but an encyclopedia. In depth analysis of specific entries will
require the use of other sources, but then that is something any student of
history learns quickly.
A Semi-Official Diffusion of Knowledge Blog Schedule
I've decided to introduce a semi-official schedule to the blog postings so that some semblance of normalcy will take root and provide readers with something to look forward to as well as something to talk about. The main focus of the blog will remain on History Education, but those posts take some work to generate and one a week is about the best I will be able to produce. These other topics will be useful to students and educators in this field as well as interested readers who are more than welcome to join in the comments.
Tuesday-The Mad Historian's Athenaeum
This topic is pretty obvious and will consist of a review of a book in the area of History or Education. Some fiction will pop up now and then because you just can't keep good fantasy to yourself!
Wednesday-Blog of the Week
Useful blogs will be highlighted every Wednesday so that readers can expand the scope of knowledge with other blogs and bloggers.
Thursday-
A weekly exploration into some aspect of history.
This will range from serious to funny with plenty of
snark to satisfy some and anger others.
Friday-Tilting at Educational Windmills
As the field of education can be somewhat frustrating at times making one think of Don Quixote and his windmills, Friday's posts will be in the field of education.
Having four posts per week should account for a healthy flow of information through the blog to satisfy readers. I will endeavor to follow the schedule as close as possible, but with classes to teach, a doctoral study to finish, a part time job to pay a couple of the bills, and this thing called life that gets in the way of gainful work, I may experience some wormholes in the system.
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Thank you all for visiting A More General Diffusion of Knowledge, a blog and website created to
explore and share historical education with everyone interested in it. The site has only been up for
nine weeks and has been extremely useful for my students with the links section which is part of
their lesson plans each week. Drop a comment off about something you would like to see on the site.
Suggestions are always welcome! Share the knowledge of history education.
As many of you know, I teach online
American History courses at my community college, but you may not know that the
first ground courses I was hired to teach included World Regional Geography.
With my current desire to flip my classes around I have focused mostly on
American History to 1865, but I also want to flip the Geography course as well.
I’ve been looking for means to do that and have already moved to adding a
Civilization type game into the course, but I also want to add something that
involves technology so we can use the iPads. I think that is going to be Google
Earth.
I have
never used this technology before so I am going to have to work on it. What I
want to do is show students real time or close to it images of the places we
talk about. What are they? Where are they? What are they in relation to? Plus
in looking at this tech, it is desktop, web, and mobile capable which fits in
with my goal of going mobile. I see that to use the web app I will have to put
in a plugin. That means Hannibal’s IT staff is going to have to help me put
that in the iPads and on my class computer. The mobile apps work on Android and
iOS devices so that will be good.
We talk
about places like the Russian steppe and taiga, the Sahara Desert, the Dead
Sea, European cities, man made wonders like bridges across the Baltic Sea, and
even the icecap in the Arctic Ocean. Geographic features that form barriers
like mountain and deserts and discussed. Let’s go see them instead of talking
about them abstractly. Right now all I have are pictures of biomes and
climates. Let’s go to them with Google Earth!
This will
add to the lectures I do have to give, but it also allows me to make an
exercise where students use GE to show others where places are on their iPads.
So right there is a collaborative exercise (I need to write this stuff down!).
I wonder if I could put this into a test as well. “Show me on your iPad an
image of a coniferous forest.” If that is part of an interactive test I could
be moving from student to student or I wonder if I can have them capture the
image and upload it to the test? I need to look into that. I’m starting to get
some ideas on how to use this so that students play with GE to find various
things on the planet in the areas we are talking about.
I can see
that I need to develop a how to use GE lesson as well. I may need to take a
lesson myself which leads me to the good old YouTube. Why yes, there is a video
on how to use Google Earth. Imagine my surprise! Maybe I can use that and skip
making a lesson or use it in a lesson plan. I will have to set aside some play
with it time for students to explore the world. Hmm, another group exercise. Let’s
see what we find on ERIC shall we?
Typing
Google Earth in brings up 29 articles. That should take care of my lesson plans
for this summer. Plate tectonics, deep time, problem solving lessons, portfolios,
etc. Yes, I am good. I just need to sort through this and find something that
is applicable to what I want to do that also meets the four regions we discuss.
I am going to have to cut something out and I think Jared Diamond’s Collapse is unfortunately going to be
the victim. I have given five days to each of the four regions and I think I’m going
to cut that back. I have five module exams and I think they’re going to be
replaced with short quizzes.
This is a
good way to move from instructivist pedagogy to constructivist and active
learning pedagogical practices. There is an excellent article by Demirci,
Karaburun, and Kilar from Fatih University in Turkey that covers a lot of
ground in how to use GE. They say the technology needed is a projector, a
computer, and Internet access. We have that in every classroom. Plus we can go
mobile with iPads. The only thing I need to do is get this coordinated with a
student in Mexico, Missouri as I’m teaching this course with ITV this summer. I
really would love for that campus to have more than one student like last year
so I can form a group there.
I think
that for a strategy I need to do some reading and play with GE some to get
familiar with it. These articles have some ideas for me, so I will be toying
with them in my down time on my tablet. No more dead time for me! I am even
listening to voice information on my drives to and from Hannibal trying to get
more information in. Mobile technology is changing the way I learn too.
References
Demirci, A., Karaburun, A., & Kilar, H. (2013). Using
Google Earth as an educational tool in secondary
school geography lessons. International
Research in Geographical and Environmental
Education, 22(4), 277-290.
