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| Reviewed: |
Feb 17, 2003 by History Editorial Board |
| Overview: |
East Asia in World History is a website prepared by the Columbia University East
Asian Curricular Project to serve as an introductory resource on East Asian
history and culture. The site provides background information on relevant
aspects of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean history and culture from the early
Bronze Age to the present along with a variety of curriculum materials on that
region, including some brief primary sources. |
| Learning Goals: |
As its title indicates, this website is designed to help those teaching courses
in history, geography, or culture with a world-wide focus enhance the extent and
quality of their coverage of East Asia. |
| Target Student Population: |
The immediate audience is one of high school teachers, but by extension, of
course, the ultimate student audience is one of high school students, such as
those in AP world history courses. |
| Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills: |
The site presumes users will specifically be teachers seeking material to
incorporate into existing world courses, and thus assumes their special skills
and needs. |
| Type of Material: |
Resources on this site are arranged in terms of a list of "key points" about
geography and historical development in different eras of Chinese, Japanese, and
Korean history. These are accompanied by appropriate lists of curriculum
materials for each set of key points such as: textbook references for teachers
to consult, video resources for teacher background, suggested curriculum
assignments, and a template for using the preceding in a lesson plan. |
| Recommended Uses: |
The material provided here is presented as a kit of ready to use materials on
East Asia that can be incorporated in an existing or newly planned world course
with little effort. |
| Technical Requirements: |
There are none. |
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| Strengths: |
The materials and suggestions listed in this site are solid and reflect
well-established views of East Asian history and culture formulated over the
past few decades. The textbooks and other materials listed are long standing
standards. The site is designed to help educate high school faculty in East Asian history, geography, and culture, an area of study less often studied by high school teachers. The site enables them to construct lesson plans and units of study. |
| Concerns: |
Little is offered in this site that reflects some of the more recent trends in
East Asian studies such as the mention of local or popular history or of such
specific topics as gender and family. In part that is because the texts and
videos listed date back a few decades. Some may, in fact, now be hard to obtain
from commercial sources. There is also little effort made to approach the
material from a global or comparative perspective until well into the modern
era; the area is seen largely in terms of its own isolated development without
regard to how it interacted with other areas or civilizations until the advent
of Western imperialism. And the internal focus is overwhelming on elite rule and
culture. The maps on Japan were not available. It is unfortunate that students and faculty who are using the site are not given better instruction in the use of primary sources and documents for China, Japan, and Korea. It would be helpful if information were given on the artistic and cultural legacy of East Asia. |
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Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool |
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| Strengths: |
For high school teachers without background in East Asia, this set of resources
should prove an extremely useful one in planning or redoing a course, as it
basically supplies lesson modules that can be lifted in their entirety and
placed in such a course without much change. Columbia University is offering professional development,
which meets the often debated National Standards for classroom instruction at the secondary level. |
| Concerns: |
The very solidness of the site is both a strength and a weakness. It is very
conventional in its choice of material and approach with little that stimulates
excitement or even much thought. A major failing is the presentation of East Asia's early history in isolation from interaction with their neighbors and the rest of Asia, Africa, and Europe. The theme of Globalization needs to expand beyond the 20th century into East Asia's past. |
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Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty |
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| Strengths: |
The material is arranged in 14 topic sections arranged chronologically and by
country. The topics and the historical periods into which they are divided
follow the National Standards in World History and the Content Outline for the
Advanced Placement Course in World History. Obviously this arrangement
facilitates meeting various requirements that high school teachers must
confront, and it makes it easier for those with no knowledge of East Asia to
find and incorporate material in their own courses with confidence that it is
reliable. |
| Concerns: |
The use of "standardized" topics and materials creates a highly conventional
approach with both the benefits and costs that standardization implies. The
main effort here is not to stimulate discussion and thought but to present
established "facts. This approach has its value, but it may not be the best one
to take preparing high school students for AP world history exams, as these
require much analysis and argument on behalf of interpretations. Not all the links function, particularly those linked to videos. There is no direct way to contact the site authors about these issues. |
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| Other Issues and Comments: |
The rather conventional approach taken by this site probably best serves those
unfamiliar with East Asia who need immediate help in finding material and topics
to incorporate in newly designed world courses. More experienced teachers wi
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at least a basic grasp of the area should think about how to adapt what is
offered here by the addition of livelier and more thought provoking elements. |
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