Relative Advantage of Technology for History

The study of history is powerful and important for many reasons. It allows us to determine the variables that influence why we are where we are, but the ultimate goal of studying history is actually much more pragmatic; in fact, the study of history, we could argue, is actually the first step in prediction and forging of the the future. It gives a window to past situations, problems, challenges, and solutions -- it allows us to learn from the mistakes and successes of others in similar circumstances.

If one thing has revolutionized the study of history more than anything else, it has been multimedia. History requires understanding a multitude of variables, experiences, and perspectives. Such ideas were expressed, recorded, and shared throughout time in oral history stories, ballads, songs, engravings, and other arts. Eventually, invention of the printing press allowed, for the first time, mass production and distribution of these individual experiences, stories and perspectives.

The benefit of being able to share and consume from a multitude of viewpoints and perspectives cannot be underestimated in its value to truly understanding and using the lessons history provides. When an event occurs in space and time, the impact, consequences, and connotations will always be perceived differently depending on who is involved and how their first-hand experience. Thus, we can say there is not really such a thing as one "true" or "objective" history, but rather that every point in history is a Gestalt experience. In other words, the more perspectives and viewpoints and artifacts and experiences we can piece together, the more "true" our impression of that event or experience will be, as a whole. The sum of the parts is what provides the synergistic power of studying history.

For this reason, multimedia and the Internet are perhaps the most powerful tools ever created to understand history.

1. A variety of media allow for multiple types of "experiences" -- visual, verbal, physical, interpersonal, intellectual, emotional -- to be shared and witnessed. The printing press allowed a variety of stories and perspectives to be shared, but use of only words is not always sufficient to convey a place, time, thought, or feeling. Art, photography, television, radio, and film have provided the tools required to convey and evoke the emotional and visceral impact that words alone may not be capable of evincing. Having our own sensibilities addressed in the variety of ways that a first-person witness of a historical event would means that we can more realistically understand and empathize with the situation. In essence, multiple media creates a "virtual reality" of the past.
   
   
2. Unlike mass media of the past, the Internet and World Wide Web has become a huge game-changer in the social studies -- especially politics, sociology, and history. Our understanding of history is enabled through the examination of stories and artifacts -- items and images and recordings throughout time. Proliferation of affordable media tools and the advent of "Web 2.0"user-created online content has resulted in an explosion of such individual experiences, perspectives, stories and artifacts. Unlike the idea of a single expert or textbook delivering the "true" history, we now have an overflowing source of primary-source materials and experiences that is growing and evolving daily.
   

The great power and benefit of this is that we can observe, consume, analyze, and compare a wide variety of perspectives, viewpoints, and ideas. Unfortunately, the drawback is that this allows allows for wide dissemination of misinformation, or even pure bias.

However, I believe this does not need to be a reason to avoid using the Internet to study history. The more perspectives we have, the closer we can get to understanding the "universal truth" of a historical event. How, then, can we reconcile the fact that many sources on the web are likely to be biased or just plain wrong? I believe instead of avoiding the plethora of resources out there we should embrace this opportunity to learn and to teach our students some of the most basic and useful cores of social studies:

• History is not a one-sided story
• There is no such thing as "objective" -- everything is shown through a lens or told through a framework of personal experience
• Drawing conclusions and making predictions requires analyzing and comparing multiple sources and considering many variables
  

The fact of the matter is that this now the world in which we live -- a world of universally-shared and universally-accessible content and media. We now have an imperative and a wonderful opportunity to teach our students how to be thoughtful, careful, critical, and perceptive interpreters forgers of conclusions, beliefs, predictions, and solutions... and this can all be aided through Internet and multimedia technology.