Global Perceptions on World War II

A Telecollaboration Lesson for
10th Grade World History

Introduction

This lesson was developed as part of the requirements for EDTEC 570, Advanced Teaching with Technology.

When trying to relate history to students, one of the best methods is to have them learn from those who actually lived through the time periods being studied. In most cases, we rely upon letters, diaries, and photographs to provide this individualized approach. However, we still have access to people who witnessed events of the last 50-60 years. This project has students learning about the World War II, interviewing a local veteran, posting a transcript and/or video excerpts of the interview, and then participating in an international dialogue to compare their findings.

Learners

This lesson is designed for students in a sophomore modern world history class in the United States. However, the grade and age group might vary depending upon history standards that guide the curriculum in the participating schools outside the United States. Students should be divided into groups of two or three.

Prior to the final dialogue, students should have a strong working knowledge of World War II, especially the roles of the United States and the other participating school's countries.

Additionally, students will publish their transcripts online so knowledge of a html editor (i.e. Dreamweaver, Mozilla, and Frontpage) would be helpful. If the teachers wants to add video clips, access to and knowledge of digital video editing software is essential.

Curriculum Standards

California Social Studies Standards Addressed

10.8 Students analyze the causes and consequences of World War II.

2. Understand the role of appeasement, nonintervention (isolationism), and the domestic distractions in Europe and the United States prior to the outbreak of World War II.

3. Identify and locate the Allied and Axis powers on a map and discuss the major turning points of the war, the principal theaters of conflict, key strategic decisions, and the resulting war conferences and political resolutions, with emphasis on the importance of geographic factors.

6. Discuss the human costs of the war, with particular attention to the civilian and military losses in Russia, Germany, Britain, the United States, China, and Japan.

Additional Learning Benchmarks

This project has students accomplishing a number of "life skills" in addition to the social studies standards listed above. These include

Group cooperation - Students will work in groups of two to three. They must share the workload and each participate in the interview process.
Interview skills - Students need to arrange the interview, review and prepare questions, and conduct the interview.

Partners

Partner schools will need to be from countries that participated in World War II. The major powers include: Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States. Minor powers from around the world can also participate. Partner schools should also have World War II as part of their curriculum.

Partner schools will be solicited through the Global Schoolhouse and iEarn.

Process

This lesson is based on the Global Classrooms Activity Structure and the Collect, Share, and Compare Action Sequence as described by Judi Harris.

This lesson is a culminating project for a three week unit on World War II. The interviews will be assigned at the beginning of the unit to give the students time to arrange and complete the interview. Students will be required to record their progress in a forum or group blog throughout the unit and the collaborative portion of the project will take place in the last week.

Pre-Lesson Preparation	Prior to implementing this project the participating teachers must complete the following: Set a predetermined timeline so all classes can share their interviews and participate in the final discussion. Create a common list of questions that all veterans in all countries will be asked (in addition to student developed questions). Determine how the final interview summaries, transcripts, and video excepts (if possible) will be shared. Will each school post data on their own web server? Is one teacher willing to coordinate the project and provide access to a server? If so how will this access be granted? To teachers or individual student groups? Do the cooperating teachers want to create a project that will stay on the web as a resource and part of the historical record? What technology will be used to publish the data? (i.e. Mozilla for web pages, iMo vie for video excerpts) Create and provide access to a group blog or forum to allow students to answer culminating questions. Independently, teachers at each school should find veteran resources in their community, town, or city. Often times, at least in the United States, there are veteran groups that can help coordinate student-veteran interactions.
Day 1	Assign and go over project requirements, discuss provided interview questions, review proper interview techniques, and local resources to find WWII veterans.
Days 2-12	World War II Unit. Teachers will use their curriculum standards to guide their unit on WWII. Contributions to the war from the participating countries should be included. Project During unit, student groups will locate and interview a WWII veteran. After the interview, students will transcribe the interview and post it to the web and link to it from the forum/blog. If the technology is available, post video excerpts to complement the transcript.
Day 13	Students from all classrooms publish transcript (and optional video clips) to the predetermined web site.
Days 14-15	Read interviews from the different countries. Using the Global Veteran Comparison handout, have students fill out the the handout and then answer the Interview Reflection Questions.
Day 16-17	Share comparisons on the group blog/forum with the students from the other countries. Students must comment on at least four different students' reflections.
Post Lesson Wrapup	Hopefully students will understand the tremendous impact of this war, the importance of learning history from those who lived it, and that different perspectives can lead to different conclusions. Ideally, the project will be wrapped together into a web site that will remain in place to act as a resource for other students and WWII researchers. With the number of WWII veterans decreasing each year, creating these resources are more important and valuable then ever before.

Groups

This project requires students to meet outside of class. The selection of groups should be sensitive to this require. If possible, allow students to select their own groups. However, if that is not appropriate, create mixed-ability groups.

Challenges

One of the greatest challenges of this project will probably be the language barrier. Unless your students know Japanese, French, Italian, Russian, and German (or the participating schools know English), there might be a problem sharing the final products. The simple solution would be to utilize Altavista's Babelfish translation tool.

If faced with logistical problems with the technological collaboration, have students discuss their own findings within the traditional classroom setting.

Variations

If the teachers have trouble finding veterans willing to speak about their experiences in WWII, have students interview people who can share their experiences on the "home front." Whether in the United States or a country that saw action, this perspective is also well worth exploring.

If collaborating with other countries is unrealistic or logistically impossible, have students try and find WWII veterans from around the world in your town or city. Thousands of WWII veterans from around the world moved to the United States following the war.

Resources Needed

Lessons that cover the causes, course, and end of World War II
Copies of the following documents: Project Overview, Interview Questions, Interview Techniques, Global Veteran Comparison, and Interview Reflection Questions
Student access to project forum/blog
Resources to contact World War II veteran
Computers (at least one per group) to post interviews and review the other interviews

A single teacher per classroom could implement this lesson. One teacher or technician will need to maintain the forum/blog.

Evaluation

Students will be graded upon

completion and quality (all the questions asked, etc.) of the interview,
answers to comparison chart and final reflection questions, and
participation in discussion with other schools.

Credits & References

Image from Library of Congress photo archives.

"We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this lesson, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author's name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this lesson. On the line after the original author's name, you may add Modified by (your name) on (date). If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL."

Last updated on February 23, 2004. Based on a template from EDTEC 570 at SDSU