Enter the "Valley of the Shadow"....pick your Identifying Figure and Participate!

[KoKo]

Two Communities in the Civil War......FASCINATING! Check it out.....C-Span
Booknotes has featured this and it's a new way of involving students in "Online" scenarious where they pick a character from the Civil War and read his diaries and correspondence from that time and get into a discussion with others.

It's a NEW WAY OF TEACHING HISTORY to Students ONLINE! It's not "Second Life" it's more like "Face Book" according to the author. Checking it out its just an incredible resource for all of us.

Learning Online is the way of the future.




http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/

[KoKo]

1. ....

Edited for more info..

[MadHound]

2. Interesting stuff for sure

And of great value to any Civil War historian. However learning the Civil War solely from this would leave students lacking in a number of critical areas. It's a great research tool, but I wouldn't recommend it for the primary purpose of teaching the Civil War.

Nor am I a fan of learning online. Having experienced both brick and mortar classes and online classes, I find that I get more value out of the brick and mortar classes. I really hope that online learning isn't the wave of the future. Not only will we be shortchanging our students, but we'll also put an entire group of people, teachers, professors out of business.

Plus, what happens in twenty years when the technology changes, we lose a bunch of information. We're already losing critical history now due to the digital transformation. There are books that are no longer available, music that didn't make the jump to CD, records that have vanished, movies that are gone. Digitalization has served to cull out a lot of "unacceptable" information, which is now lost forever unless one's lucky to run across it in some musty library backroom or antique store.

Besides, the Civil War effected this entire country, from coast to coast. Rather than starting at what happened in VA or PA, go out and find out what happened in your own local area.

A great research tool, but it's not going to replace a good history teacher.