World History for Us All is an interactive curriculum site for teaching world history in middle and high schools. It offers teaching units, lesson plans, and resources to include print, visual, electronic and links. It provides a fully developed model for organizing and teaching a world history course. World History is presented through themes that connect as a single story of civilization from the past to present with global changes to developments that occur within regions, civilizations and nations.
Type of Material:
It is an open textbook. There are hyperlinks for more information throughout. World History for Us All provides historical information for middle and high school students. It provides an organized and systematic model for teachers to teach world history in themes, units or lessons. It contains a collection of materials, presentations, a social networking tool and reference materials.
Recommended Uses:
This site can be used as a stand-alone unit or lesson, as a tutorial, and a site for student research projects.
Technical Requirements:
World History for All requires Adobe Flash Player, windows, PowerPoint, HTML, speakers, windows media player, Flash, adobe acrobat reader, and Explorer. The Complete Teaching Unit materials can also be viewed with Oracle Open Office or Adobe Acrobat.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
The learning goal for World History for Us All is to help students understand and develop a deeper understanding of world history by connecting the subject matter to broader historical contexts rather than single unconnected stories of civilization.
It provides a learning curriculum that is interconnected by geography and time periods.
Target Student Population:
This site is recommended for middle and high school students, and middle and secondary school teachers. This is a very useful sight for home school students and their teachers. Additionally, this is an excellent resource for students and parents outside of the classroom.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
There are no pre-requisites except that it is more suitable for children beginning in the 4th grade and higher.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
The model is clear and relevant. There are hyperlinks for more information or further discussion of concepts.It can be used to support a lecture, in class presentation, or to provide background information for an assignment. It can be used to supplement a world history lesson. Citations are included throughout and the author is listed for each unit.
The learning object presented valid, concepts, and skills for students to master. This is supported by a core curriculum supported by California state standards which can be used by teacher across the nation to meet their state standards for world history. This material will provide a richer understanding for all who visit the site. The approach is not singular but thematic and is threaded through each category of history, geography and time. The material facilitates learning collectively and independently, is engaging, interactive, and engage multiple senses through audio, video, images and text.
Concerns:
none
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
The materials facilitate learning for students in a non-threatening experiential way and can be used to integrate into the world history curriculum of any school. The concepts of world history are threaded throughout each lesson to engage multiple leaning styles and to provide a deeper understanding of geography, time and history. This site can be used a variety of ways for teachers to teach history and improve history skills and knowledge. The lessons can be taught independently or in units. The material can be introduced broadly or in great detail as an option for the teachers and this is a scholarly site for students to use to conduct research. There are objectives, power points, and summaries to guide each lesson/unit to facilitate good teaching and learning.
Concerns:
none
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
The material looks like a hard copy textbook. There are links for use by teachers. Teachers would have to guide students through the material ensuring that they read the relevant links. Otherwise, the information could be printed.
The material is interactive, available at student’s fingertips, with self contained images, and links that provide an avenue for additional research. The site is free of distractions; it is not loaded with distracting designs, and videos considering the topic. Teachers may contribute materials to the site for consideration.
Concerns:
The handout have black and white diagrams and drawings. It is not visually appealing but it is easy to print.
Creative Commons:
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