From June 2008 until April 2011, we plan to label our work for the House Divided website as a Draft Edition. This means that you should use with this site some caution and plenty of patience because what you see is a work in progress. There will be gaps and some mistakes and lots of changes as we prepare for an official launch on the eve of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War in 2011. If you would like to see what we intend to do for every day of the period 1840 to 1880, go to March 17, 1860 as an example of our vision. You can also search out our best documented people by querying individuals in our Collections section whose Importance or Status equals Most Important or Very Important.
Always feel free to send comments or suggestions because everything that goes into this site is designed to make the period more accessible and engaging for users. Please send any feedback to hdivided@dickinson.edu.
As a history teacher and a Instructional Technologist, I believe this site has a ton of potetial in making the classroom into more of an interactive experience, rather than just “copying notes.”
I have noticed that on the Digital Underground Railroad splash page, the teacher is writing on what appears to be a dry-erase board, yet she is holding a piece of chalk. If this, so far, great site is to push in technology into the “digital classroom.” try using an interactive whiteboard as the board the teacher is presenting with, such as a SMART Board.
The interactive reader of the Boxcar Brown story would be a visual stunner on the interactive whiteboard, whereas the students can turn the page, with their fingers rather than the click of a mouse. Students can use interactive whiteboard tools (ie floating tools, transparent backround in Notebook sotware) to write and annotate over the passages for the students to Hi-lite the information.