Welcome to the
opening inaugural session of a pilot course, Place in Massachusetts History,
being offered through a grant from the University of Massachusetts Presidents'
Office and the combined efforts of the education programs and outreach centers
of three campuses of the UMass system, UMass Boston, Dartmouth and Lowell.
The principal investigator on the grant is Mr. Barbara Robinson of the
Massachusetts Studies Project, which operates under the auspices of the
Institute for Teaching and Learning at the Graduate College of Education of the
University of Massachusetts at Boston. Later in this session we'll meet
the collaborators at each campus who have worked with Barbara Robinson
(or Bobby, as we know her).
The course is, as you know, and is taking place, simultaneously on the Lowell,
Dartmouth, and Boston campuses of the university through interactive distance
learning media.
I am Reed Stewart and have the challenge and fun of being the lead teacher in
this twelve session series. In a minute or two, I'll hand the podium over
to the other faculty, both here in Boston and on the other two campuses.
A little of my own background may, or may not, be appropriate. In 1998, I
retired after 28 years as professor of geography and anthropology at Bridgewater
State College. During that tenure, I served for some 15 years as mentor
to pre-service teachers of secondary school geography. My particular
fields are cultural geography and open space preservation and Africa, where I
have taught for thirteen years. That included three years at a training
college in Kenya for secondary school teachers. I hope that much of what
I have learned from my students will be of value to you and me as we look at
Place in Massachusetts History.
The idea behind the course is to assist K-12 teachers to put history, and other
social sciences, in the context of the places in which events took place (and
are still taking occurring). That will call upon geography as the
discipline which asks where things are and why things are where they are, and
which looks at the consequences of phenomena being in specific locations.
The course is intended to be aligned with the Massachusetts Curriculum
Framework.
Each week we will have a guest presenters presenting on topics about which they
have special interest and knowledge, thus the course will be taught by
committee. Some weeks presenters will present from this location at UMass
Boston. Other weeks, presenters will present from your site, either from
UMass Dartmouth or UMass Lowell. Those main presentations for each
session will emanate from the three campuses and from organizations working in
partnership with the campuses, with the first few sessions originating from
UMB. Then the offerings will rotate among the three campuses. I will have
the opportunity to be on-site at each campus at its presentation time and so
will be able to meet with you all, and perceive and receive direct comments on
the way in which the course is going, as to both content and technology.
My share in the project is to provide continuity along the way, among the
various specialists who will, week in and week out, present their individual
"take" on changes in the Commonwealth over the centuries, from before
Contact to 2003. I will be introducing each presenter (connecting her or
his topic to the preceding one) will pose questions for the speaker and for you
scholars on the three campuses.
After this first, introductory session, we will adopt the following format
for each session. Sessions will open with about fifty minutes of formal
presentation. We will then set aside time for you to pose questions to
the scholars who have presented, rotating in a orderly fashion to take
questions from each site at the three campuses. (We're told that's the
best way to adapt to the limitations of this interactive video technology, so
we'll go with the experts on this one. And we'll be hearing more about
that later, by the way.)
As we take questions from each site, we'll hear responses from the
presenters. We'll then allot time for comments from teacher-practitioners
brought in each week to discuss the ways in which they would use the material
in a classroom setting. So each week we will actual have two presenters,
since teacher-practitioners with special interest and knowledge about the day's
topic will join the scholar/presenters each week.
Each week we'll be using this format for about hour and a half of interactive
television time. Then the activity will switch to the separate campuses
where local discussion will enlarge upon what has been spoken of.
Your site-based activities will being at or around 5:45 each week, after a
short break following the interactive video sessions.
In your site-based activities, you will begin to put material that has been
presented during the interactive video session into content, into specific
localities that are germane to your teaching. For instance, you might
address the question: "What effect did the development of industrial
water power have on Arlington and what effect did Arlington have on the
development of water power?" At the moment, my answers would be
"Duh?" and "Duh?", but that is because I haven't looked
carefully at Arlington.
In fact, this first session will follow the general format with the difference
that the "presentation" will include some training on the delivery
technology employed in this course, to provide you with some assistance in
learning to learn in new media. In other weeks, of course, the opening
hour and a half of presentational material conducted over this interactive
video network will involve the Social Science content which is the basis of our
semester long study.
To return, though, to the content: underlying or accompanying each session, and
the whole course, are several essential questions: (These will be on the
threaded discussion pages or otherwise available, by the way.)
What happened (mentally or physically)?
Where did it happen?
What peoples were there, then?
What was the place like, then?
Why was the place important for that event, at that time?
Why else was that place important, then?
How was that place physically connected to other places?
What was the relevant context in the state, nation, and world of that event?
How is that place connected to other places, now?
What remains of that important event in that place?
What is the importance of that place, now?
As you may see, these questions range throughout the social sciences, but
from a geographic point of view.
Finally, any class depends as much on the students' contribution as on that
from the "talking head". That will be especially true for this
course as we contribute to each other's ideas across space. Please
jump in to the conversation and make it a true interactive experience.