In Katherine Cartwright’s history course, Youth Cultures Since the Progressive Era, students are examining young Americans’ experiences decade by decade. As part of their engagement with the subject, Cartwright wanted students to engage directly with youth cultures. This meant having students use tools that define some of today’s youth cultures, social media and online platforms, as part of their learning process.
This eLearning DIY shows you how Cartwright integrated social media and Microsoft Sway into her course content.
Youth Cultures Since the Progressive Era was offered in Fall 2019 with an enrollment of 35 students. One focus of the course was how young people use technologies and how using technology has been a defining aspect of youth cultures throughout the 20th century, so Professor Cartwright wanted students to use social media and an online platform, Microsoft Sway, to engage with issues that arose throughout the course. In addition to the historical content of the course, Cartwright wanted students to learn how to use online platforms to tell stories and make arguments.
By the end of the course, students should understand that:
By achieving these four course-level goals, students should leave this course better informed to discuss issues surrounding young people in the past and present. The objectives of the course project were as follows:
At the beginning of the semester students visited Special Collections in Swem and explored the Special Collections Database. Students chose two sources or a group of sources they were interested in researching and shared that with Professor Cartwright. After consulting with Professor Cartwright, the students narrowed in on one source and were ready to begin their research.
As the students did their research they were asked to make at least one public facing post about their findings on social media. They were allowed to use their social media of choice and could use a personal account or create a new one for the purposes of the project and could choose to include their name or not. Professor Cartwright showed students examples of historians using Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to communicate scholarly findings.
Students took an aspect of their source and did more research on it. This could be an event, movie, person, place etc. Students wrote up a two-page report on their findings answering some of the following questions: Where did you find information? Why might it/they be mentioned in your source? Was your discovery surprising? How so?
For the final presentation of their findings, students created a Microsoft Sway. Their Sway presentations included the following:
1. Description. This should be about two pages double-spaced in Microsoft Word and must include a full citation. This section should answer the following questions:
2. Analysis. Some questions you might consider include:
3. "Follow a Lead.”
4. “Audience Update.” (screenshot)
5. At least four pictures with captions.
Students reflected on their final Sway presentation by answering the following questions:
This assignment was turned in as a two page double-spaced paper in Microsoft Word.
Students at William & Mary have free access to Sway by logging in with their William & Mary accounts (Note: they need to log in with their @wm.edu account and NOT their @email.wm.edu account). Start creating your Sway now by logging in to Sway at http://sway.com
Want to get started but need some guidance? You can visit the Sway tutorials page here.
There are lots of great examples of different ways people are using Sway in education. It’s strongly suggested that you offer some of these examples to your students to show them what’s possible and what your expectations are. While you can do a Google search for Sway examples, here's one sample of educational uses for Sway.
Below are some finished Sway projects submitted by Professor Cartwright's students.
Ph.D. candidate and instructor, Kat Cartwright, graduated with High Honors in 2013 from the University of Michigan where she earned degrees in History and English. Cartwright's dissertation examines how American young people engaged in and shaped efforts aimed at cross-cultural understanding and internationalism from World War One through World War Two. She seeks to prioritize children and youth in her research by incorporating their voices and using sources they produced. The Society for the History of Childhood and Youth selected Kat Cartwright for their Featured Student Series in 2018.
Youth Cultures Since the Progressive Era was the first course Cartwright taught at William & Mary.
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