August 8, 2007 The Animated Atlas of African History: a Teaching and Reference Tool Nancy Jacobs...

August 8, 2007

The Animated Atlas of African History: a Teaching and Reference Tool

Nancy JacobsBrown UniversityGiovanna Roz

Brown University

Rolando PeñateThe Open Planning Project

MERLOT 7th Annual MERLOT 7th Annual International International ConferenceConference

The Animated Atlas of African History:

a teaching and reference tool

1. Introduction

• Summer 2004: Nancy Jacobs participates in the Instructional Technology Group’s Summer Institute

• The ITG’s Summer Institute offers faculty:

• an overview of digital teaching resources

• the opportunity to develop specific curricular tools

• the opportunity to share teaching interests and needs with other faculty

http://www.brown.edu/aaah/




1. Introduction





1. Introduction

• Prof. Jacobs was about to teach a new course: Twentieth Century Africa, about Sub-Saharan Africa from the “Scramble for Africa” in the 1880s until 2002

• Challenge for the teacher and the students:

it is difficult to understand and visualize the rapid historical and social changes with paper-based materials





1.Introduction

• Solutions to the challenge proposed by the ITG:

a) use Brown’ s Course Management System to deliver all teaching materials (text, audio, video) online

b) develop an animated visual tool to make Sub-Saharan African diversity manageable and visually distinctive


Open Source History:Open Source History:MAKING HISTORY MAKING HISTORY

PUBLICPUBLIC





1. Introduction

• The Animated Atlas of African History is a Macromedia/Adobe Flash application, hosted within its own website.

• Project Primary Investigator:

Nancy Jacobs, Associate Professor of History & Africana Studies

• Animation Designer and Developer:

Rolando Peñate (Brown ‘06)





1. Introduction

• Instructional Technology Support:

Stephanie Birdsall, Siobhan Ross, Michelle Thacher and Giovanna Roz

• The core project ran from Summer 2004 to the end of Summer 2006

• Total amount of Student Technology Assistant’s hours: 320




1. Introduction

• Topics covered in this presentation:

• Historical Research and Interpretation in the AAAH

• The Production and Realization of the AAAH

• Teaching with the AAAH(includes student feedback)

• AAAH and Future Projects

• The AAAH as Public History - before MERLOT




2. Historical Research and Interpretation in the AAAH

Undergraduate Researchers:

Meghan Gill (Brown ‘06) Dzigbodi Agbenyadzie (Brown ‘08)




2. Historical Research and Interpretation in the AAAH

• Three aspects illustrate the research challenges:

1. Boundaries

2. Conflicts

3. Political Systems

[Please read the online AAAH “About” and “Notes” if not at the live MERLOT presentation :-)]




3. The Production and Realization of the AAAH

www.brown.edu/aaah




4. Teaching with the AAAH

• The course Twentieth Century Africa has used WebCT from its inception

• Multimedia assignments and digital materials are available from the class website

• Weekly assignments direct the students to consult the map for the period under discussion

• Professor Jacobs regularly projects the map in class as a lecture aid





Student Survey Results

How often do you look at the AAAH outside of class?






Does the AAAH help you learn the subject

of 20th Century African History?





Student Survey Results: Student Feedback

“I usually have difficulty geographically mapping out events, and AAAH allows me to do so.”

“Visual representation of major trends is incredibly helpful. It is helpful to break down what is happening regionally. All around a great tool.”

“When combined with textbook and lecture, the map helps consolidate information and me see themes much more clearly”





Student Survey Results: More Student Feedback

“Being about to connect our primary resources and the lectures with a simple visual representation of all these events helps with understanding the content.”

“A visual representation for an extremely large and overwhelming subject matter is so effective. I never could have imagined such a powerful visual aid- AAAH has been an integral part of my experience in this course. Also, it helps during lecture as there is something to focus on- thus it helps organize the lecture and also helps me keep my focus.”






Have you recommended the AAAH to someone

else?






Are you satisfied with the AAAH interface?





Student Survey: Suggestions on Interface Improvements

“It takes a long time to fast-forward, whether by clicking a lot or waiting (even with the triple speed). A timeline, with a date that can be dragged, would be helpful.”

“It would be extremely helpful if there were some way that you could type in a date or select a point on the timeline without having to scroll using the fast forward or rewind. ”

“Being able to hover over countries and have information pop up would be really awesome.”




5. AAAH and Future Projects

• The AAAH will remain an open access resource on the World Wide Web

• Updating and corrections are ongoing. New version of the map with timeline and enter a year features is ready for launch

• The AAAH will be submitted as a MERLOT tool

• There is a possibility for future publication, perhaps on the web, of the primary sources collected for this class




6. The AAAH as Public History - before MERLOT

The AAAH is cited by:

• at Brown: • Africana Studies Library Resources

• Watson Institute Choices Program website

• Universities in US: • Northwestern University

• Rutgers University

• Stanford University

• University of Iowa

• University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

• Union College NY




6. The AAAH as Public History - before MERLOT

The AAAH is cited by:

• Abroad: • School for Oriental and African Studies

(SOAS) at the University of London

• the University of Hannover in Germany

• the School of St. Jude in Tanzania




AAAH Contact Info

http://www.brown.edu/aaah

Nancy Jacobs [email protected]

Rolando Peñ[email protected]

Giovi [email protected]

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