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About the Investigating U.S. History ProjectFaculty members from across City University of New York campuses have worked together to create and test interactive multimedia "lab" modules for use in the introductory college U.S. history survey. Our Investigating US History project was funded by a materials development grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as support from the Vice Chancellor's Office of the City University of New York. The idea is to let students "do history" with the growing amount of wonderful online archival materials and directing the use of primary sources through sophisticated inquiry based activities developed by faculty. The modules utilize a rich array of resources including Presidential audio tape excerpts from JFK and LBJ, photographs and folk music of the 1930s and religious tracts from the nineteenth century. Our Investigating US History Project has developed twelve multimedia modules and field tested them in over thirty history classrooms throughout the City University of New York over the three year duration of the project. We have been able to take advantage of preceding projects that gave selected faculty members the opportunity to gather and discuss teaching U.S. history by incorporating digital resources (Sloan Foundation). The project's faculty module developers have built scaffolding for student learning that helps students to see beyond the simple, to formulate provisional questions for inquiry, to encounter new sources, then to revise their earlier assertions. In this way, we sought to help students learn the process of historical reasoning. Developers have tackled the intellectual problems in designing web-based learning environments by taking a module approach to the teaching and learning of U.S. history. Investigating US History has approached the development of on-line modules from the collaborative perspectives of historians, teachers and designers, with the goal of keeping critical historical themes and questions foremost in the experience of students. We have benefits from the historical and new media expertise of our partners, the American Social History Project (Graduate Center, CUNY). Also, our project has brought together U.S. historians from throughout the seventeen campuses of the City University and in a variety of roles--graduate students and doctoral faculty, junior and senior faculty, two and four year schools--in a partnership. Investigating US History has been a collaborative experience from the beginning. We invite those who will use the modules to join us in a process of continued development, as you refine and adapt them to your history classroom. Please send us your thoughts about the module and let us know ways that you have used them in your classroom on the Comments Page.
Participants(Colleges below are all part of the City University of New York, CUNY) Project DirectorDavid Jaffee, City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center Project Leaders:Pennee Bender, American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, CUNY Graduate CenterBill Friedheim, Borough of Manhattan Community College Module DevelopersAngelo Angelis, Hunter CollegeMartin J. Burke, Lehman College and CUNY Graduate Center Kyle Cuordileone, New York City College of Technology Vince DiGirolamo, Baruch College Megan Elias, Queensborough Community College Bill Friedheim, Borough of Manhattan Community College Rebecca Hill, Borough of Manhattan Community College K.C. Johnson, Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center Premilla Nadasen, Queens College Joanne Reitano, LaGuardia Community College Jonathan Sassi, College of Staten Island and CUNY Graduate Center Field TestersAngelo Angelis, Hunter College Scholarly Reviewers: Carol Berkin, Baruch College and CUNY Graduate Center,
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