History.edu: Essays on Teaching with Technology

Library Journal

Teaching history using the Internet might sound like an oxymoron, but, as Trinkle and Merriman show in this work, the two go hand in hand. The team that coauthored The History Highway 2000 earlier this year provides a series of short essays, authored by those in the field, on how technology can be used to teach history. Covering all levels of education, the editors provide examples of how this has been done successfully in the past few years. Everyone agrees that, in the near future, all courses taught will somehow incorporate technology. As with any new method, if technology is not used properly, it can hinder rather than help educators in reaching their educational objectives. But the advantages to using technology clearly appear to outweigh the disadvantages. The Internet is a part of the world's culture and, as net-newspapers appear daily with no paper counterpart, it's becoming a primary historical source itself. The timely issues discussed here will certainly appeal to educators, so academic and large public libraries should add this to their education collections. The book would actually be a good addition to all collections, but its high cost may deter some libraries from purchasing it.--Terry Christner, Hutchinson P.L., KS Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

Intended for high school and college instructors, this volume contains studies in history pedagogy, including three essays discussing studies which qualitatively and quantitatively measure the successes and failures of "e-teaching" and distance learning in the field of history. The 17 essays, written by North American distance learning educators, academic computing specialists, and history professors, urge educators to create more meaningfully interactive instruction and to develop students' independent and critical thinking, as well as evaluating costs and planning. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)