Designs for Democracy-Thoughts
"Designs for Democracy" is an online exhibition of 125 design drawings that show 200 years of history through archived government drawings. In case you read my blog here, and aren't in NCSU's ECI 525 class, here is a link to the site.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/designs_for_democracy/
I spent a bit of time browsing through the online exhibitions and found it easy to navigate through as it appears to organized chronologically. As a guy who likes to build stuff (or at least tries to!) I found it enjoyable to look at desing plans for various inventions and buildings. There are drawing of everything from ships, to flatware, to bracket lamps, to weapons, and to our nation's most famous memorials. It is interesting to see original desings for many of these things, and I could spend hours looking through them.
As far as its use in the classroom, I'm not totally sure how I would incorporate this into a lesson. It would however be a nice visual aid for certain topics in history. Since there are several inventions shown in the collection, perhaps it could be useful to apply it to a change over time concept. You could show students the way design changed throughtout US history as it applies to certain mechanical inventions. You could also do this with building designs. A teacher could show the original design plans, and compare them to current images of the buildings. It may also be useful to show the influence of other culture's architechture on US buildings, by comparing buildings like the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials to buildings in ancient Greece and Rome.
It's an archive that I'll browse through occasionally, and I will definitely keep it in my back pocket in case I think of a good way to use it in the classroom.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/designs_for_democracy/
I spent a bit of time browsing through the online exhibitions and found it easy to navigate through as it appears to organized chronologically. As a guy who likes to build stuff (or at least tries to!) I found it enjoyable to look at desing plans for various inventions and buildings. There are drawing of everything from ships, to flatware, to bracket lamps, to weapons, and to our nation's most famous memorials. It is interesting to see original desings for many of these things, and I could spend hours looking through them.
As far as its use in the classroom, I'm not totally sure how I would incorporate this into a lesson. It would however be a nice visual aid for certain topics in history. Since there are several inventions shown in the collection, perhaps it could be useful to apply it to a change over time concept. You could show students the way design changed throughtout US history as it applies to certain mechanical inventions. You could also do this with building designs. A teacher could show the original design plans, and compare them to current images of the buildings. It may also be useful to show the influence of other culture's architechture on US buildings, by comparing buildings like the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials to buildings in ancient Greece and Rome.
It's an archive that I'll browse through occasionally, and I will definitely keep it in my back pocket in case I think of a good way to use it in the classroom.
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New Literacies Teacher Leader Summer Institute
The Internet and other Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have redefined learning and literacy in the 21st century. How should schools and teachers respond? The New Literacies Teacher Leader Institute prepares educators for teaching in powerful ways with these new digital tools. The Institute will include inquiry projects, workshops, panel discussions, design studios, invited speakers, and just-in-time learning.
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July 12-17, 2009
For more information and to register see http://www.fi.ncsu.edu/newliteraciesinstitute.html
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