I
just finished a couple of sessions on the Canada's History Forum 2013
and all I can say is: “Wow, what an experience!” I’ve never tuned into a live
conference before so the experience was foreign yet highly enjoyable. Despite
watching through a computer screen, I still felt connected to the speakers and
the audience and I suspect that the ongoing Twitter conversations helped develop
that bond.
Originally
I planned to tune into the 2:30 session only but when I checked if the
Livestream was working I ended up watching most the forum from the opening
remarks. Shortly after 1:00 p.m. the
audience was introduced to the winners of the 2013 Young Citizens Video Project.
Students, ages 11-14, were asked to create videos on the history of northern
Canada and Aboriginal people. One video that was particularly jarring was by an
eleven year old girl who discussed residential schools with a frankness
reserved for adults and included an oral history component. The section in the
program was called “Are Our Kids Better at This Than We Are?” Based on these
videos, I would say they are better than me, maybe not so for some of my colleagues
who build entire penitentiaries in their spare time but impressive none the
less.
Abandoning
chronology to make a point, later in the day at 2:30 pm Daniel Davis and Shawn
Graham discussed how technology has changed the way we present history. More
importantly, they discussed the significance of being engaged with technology.
Shawn Graham stated that he experienced a “glorious failure” by asking students
to play Civilization 4 and create a game diary, only to realize that students
needed to write their own game to understand the “world view” and logic of the
game they were playing. Daniel Davis echoed the necessity of people’s involvement
in the creation of technology and doing things first hand when discussing crowd
sourcing. One particularly interesting examples that he used was “SmithsonianMobile”, an app that allows visitors to post information about the museum
themselves whether it be experiences or events. From Shawn Graham’s and Daniel
Davis’ presentations we should be able to see that individuals, young and old,
are able to learn more about history through technology by being involved in
its production.
The
involvement of individuals in the creation of technologically driven history
isn’t just a benefit to students and visitors of museums who are trying to
learn it but to those individuals who are attempting to reconnect with their
heritage. Earlier in the day, keynote speaker Kate Hennessy discussed the role
of Aboriginals of the Inuvialuit group helping name and rename artifacts part
of the MacFarlane Collection. Traveling up north, Hennessy and the rest of her
team discussed with elders of the community what particular artifacts were
called and what purpose they had. The pieces were then digitized and made part
of an online exhibit where anyone could view the artifacts. Teachers of the North
West Territories could access lesson plans to incorporate the exhibit into
their curriculum. The inclusion of the Inuvialuit was critical for reconnecting
the people with artifacts that had been taken from them and acknowledging the
power of the people when developing exhibits.
However,
what I enjoyed the most about Hennessy’s presentation was a quote she made.
“People, not technology, change history.”
The
focus of the forum today was to discuss how technology is making us change the
way we present history and how we teach it. We made it appear as if technology
had taken on a physical form and was holding a gun to our heads while telling
us to conform to the ever changing twenty first century. We are forgetting that
without you or I embracing its ability to reach wider audiences and engage
people in the process of history, technology has no purpose. We are the
vehicles of change and technology is but a tool to make those changes. Deborah
Morrison said earlier in the day that teachers are often behind the times when
using technology and they should not be afraid to use it. This goes double for
historians. We should not be intimidated by the foreign land of technology but
rather we should jump in feet first, get messy, and learn from ourselves and
from others. After all, if an eleven year old can produce a video on the trauma
of residential schools why can’t we?
Bonus:
Another meme because they went over so well last week.
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