This past weekend, I attended the various House Divided events and enjoyed the opportunity to participate in this historic experience that included the augmented reality tours, focus groups on the Washington Post Twitter Page and the lecture by David Blight.
Saturday morning began with resources for teachers of the Civil War. Many of the lecture and focus groups provided valuable teaching resources for these educators. It also gave them new outlets to use in their lessons such as the Washington Post’s American Civil War Page on Twitter. Some of the teachers did not know how to use Twitter, but they seemed very engaged in the activity. They were willing to learn and wanted to explore how Twitter could be used with maps, primary sources, and photos.
The augmented reality tours were a success and I found them enjoyable as well as informative. This type of tour was interactive and spurred interest, giving more depth than a normal tour. The video showed at the beginning added a nice touch to the presentation. It allowed people to obtain a basis for what they would see on the augmented reality tour, since it was raining outside. The teachers seemed pleased with all the activities and use of the new technology. This technology will be very valuable since students love to learn new activities instead of just reading textbooks and viewing PowerPoint presentations.
The Blight lecture was a perfect ending to the weekend. Blight was a very compelling speaker and I was interested in his point of view on memory of the Civil War, since we had read his article.
I believe the weekend was beneficial and that many teachers gained insight into creative ways of teaching the Civil War. Even though it rained, the augmented reality tour was successful and introduced people to the program as well as House Divided. Everyone involved in the preparation and presentation for this weekend should be proud of all the accomplishments.