How do you make history dynamic and engaging when the students are 400 kilometres away from you?
Last week we had a video conference with 16 extremely switched on Yr 12 Extension History students from NSW who wanted to link up and explore with us ‘the role of national museums in constructing and representing history’. The NSW Extension history course is an absolute cracker program of study that explores the following questions:
- Who are the historians?
- What are the historical debates?
- What are the purposes of history?
- How has history been constructed and recorded over time?
- Why have the approaches to the construction of history changed over time?
Prior to the conference the students explored the experimental section of our website, the History Wall, and posted comments in an online shared Google doc. During the conference we watched a part of the video used in Circa (a rotating theatre that is many visitors first experience of the Museum) and we discussed and debated the agendas and merits of each in stimulating and contextualising an exploration of Australian history. Students were very interested in discussing the ways histories are told, the role and identity of historians and the capacity of national museums to both construct and represent history.
We’re really excited about the capacity of video conferencing to help us reach regional Australia and those students who can’t make it here to visit us in person. We’re aiming at getting a suite of programs up and running this year – these will include programs that are available to be regularly booked as well as participation in special event days such as Polycom’s International Museum Day program coming up in May this year.
Keep tuned for more details…
I’m so glad to hear that this project is up and running! Now, I just have to get an extension history class happening in my school ;)