Becoming Citizen Historians

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Becoming Citizen Historians

Cecilia Elizabeth O'Leary

This poster focuses on my course "Multicultural History in the New Media Classroom." For the final history project, students construct a Digital History based on their research of primary and secondary sources. I have taught this course twice. In Fall 2001, students were enthusiastic and highly engaged. Overall, evidence of student learning was impressive. To my great surprise, students in my Fall 2002 class felt just the opposite. Instead of excitment, they experienced frustration over the need to learn so many new computer skills. The reflections below are based on the second time I taught the course --- when I almost decided never to incorporate Digital Histories into the course design again. That is, until I saw what the students had created.

Project Summary

Project Summary

I am interested in how students can become citizen historians. In my course, "Multicultural History in the New Media Classroom," I assume that they will be able to learn how historians think and act through a combination of gaining knowledge and understanding of the past from writings by other historians, and by developing a research project on their own that entails exploring primary materials in local archives, in libraries, from family or community members, and on the WEB. History -- whether it is written, represented in a public exhibit, or digitally communicated -- is meant to be shared.

The weighty responsibility for deciding who and what to include or exclude from their historical research looms ever larger as students realize that fellow students and family members will be learning about the past not just from Historians with a capital "H," but from them. I also encourage students to see how their research can bring a historical perspective to contemporary issues. History matters. Students demonstrate their ability to be citizen historians by creating a Digital History shown at a class festival at the end of the semester. Each student also receives a copy of their Digital History on a CD-ROM that they take with them and show beyond the university.

During Fall 2001 and 2002, I decided to focus on how the creation of a Digital History alters the relationship of the student to history. My assumption was that the medium -- so like the visual culture that young students have grown up with -- would make the telling of history recognizable as something they could do. The use of their own voice in a "movie-like" presentation would make history come even more alive. more...

Multicultural History

Multicultural History

Art by Rini Templeton Design by Yael Maayani

Course Context

Course Context

This is an upper-division history course made up of a diverse group from Northern, Central and Southern California. Students bring different pools of knowledge to the classroom that represent a range of backgrounds, experiences and identities: rural and urban; working and middle class; religious and secular; Asian American, African American, European American, Filipino, Mexican American, and Latina/o. The majority of students are not history majors and take the course to fulfill a Major Learning Outcome in Historical Analysis (Division of New Humanities and Communication) or a concentration requirement in Multicultural History (Liberal Studies). I originally designed the course to be a seminar that would alternate meeting around a table with working in a computer lab. Unfortunately, as California's budget crisis deepens, class size has risen -- from 16 to 30 students -- with no end in sight.

Evidence of Student Learning

Evidence of Student Learning

For evidence of student learning, I analyse two student-constructed Digital Histories from Fall 2002 (See Online Digital Histories Below), and one I created, "Historical Justice," at the Digital StoryTelling Boot Camp Summer 2003.

By comparing the three, I can identify and further refine assessment criteria for determing "expert," "intermediate," or "novice" characteristics of using visual language to tell history. There are links to additional student-constructed Digital Histories (From Fall 2001 and Fall 2002) as well.

Eventually, I hope to find a way for students to annotate their Digital History as it is running. We would then be able to learn much more about the process of historical thinking the student is engaged in as they create their Digital History.

Student Work

Online Digital Histories

TO VIEW DIGITAL HISTORIES make sure you have the latest version of Windows Media Player installed on your Mac or PC. A 56k Modem is not really fast enough and you will need DSL or Cable modem speeds to fully appreciate the Digital Histories.

Windows media player available here

My own digital history

Link to Historical Justice

Student Work

Chocolate Innocence: the Story of 4 Little Girls by Charea Batiste
Fragile Liberty by Sara Blackwell
Mi Familia by Jamille Griss
Mi Papá El Bracero by Alberto Jaramillo
The Life of Antonio Margarito by Marisa Jimenez
Giving Life Back to the Man I Never Knew by Nicole Meschi
Latin America by Damaris Urizar

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