August 8, 2007 The Animated Atlas of African History: a Teaching and Reference Tool Nancy Jacobs Brown University Giovanna Roz Brown University Rolando Peñate The Open Planning Project

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 1. Introduction Summer 2004: Nancy Jacobs participates in the Instructional Technology Group’s Summer Institute The ITG’s Summer Institute offers faculty: an overview of digital teaching resources the opportunity to develop specific curricular tools the opportunity to share teaching interests and needs with other faculty

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 1. Introduction

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 1. Introduction Prof. Jacobs was about to teach a new course: Twentieth Century Africa, about Sub-Saharan Africa from the “Scramble for Africa” in the 1880s until 2002 Challenge for the teacher and the students: it is difficult to understand and visualize the rapid historical and social changes with paper-based materials

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 1.Introduction Solutions to the challenge proposed by the ITG: a) use Brown’ s Course Management System to deliver all teaching materials (text, audio, video) online b) develop an animated visual tool to make Sub- Saharan African diversity manageable and visually distinctive

Open Source History: MAKING HISTORY PUBLIC

Open Source History: MAKING HISTORY PUBLIC

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 1. Introduction The Animated Atlas of African History is a Macromedia/Adobe Flash application, hosted within its own website. Project Primary Investigator: Nancy Jacobs, Associate Professor of History & Africana Studies Animation Designer and Developer: Rolando Peñate (Brown ‘06)

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 1. Introduction Instructional Technology Support: Stephanie Birdsall, Siobhan Ross, Michelle Thacher and Giovanna Roz The core project ran from Summer 2004 to the end of Summer 2006 Total amount of Student Technology Assistant’s hours: 320

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 1. Introduction Topics covered in this presentation: Historical Research and Interpretation in the AAAH The Production and Realization of the AAAH Teaching with the AAAH (includes student feedback) AAAH and Future Projects The AAAH as Public History - before MERLOT

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 2. Historical Research and Interpretation in the AAAH Undergraduate Researchers: Meghan Gill (Brown ‘06) Dzigbodi Agbenyadzie (Brown ‘08)

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 2. Historical Research and Interpretation in the AAAH Three aspects illustrate the research challenges: 1. Boundaries 2. Conflicts 3. Political Systems [Please read the online AAAH “About” and “Notes” if not at the live MERLOT presentation :-)]

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 3. The Production and Realization of the AAAH h

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 4. Teaching with the AAAH The course Twentieth Century Africa has used WebCT from its inception Multimedia assignments and digital materials are available from the class website Weekly assignments direct the students to consult the map for the period under discussion Professor Jacobs regularly projects the map in class as a lecture aid

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 4. Teaching with the AAAH Student Survey Results How often do you look at the AAAH outside of class?

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 4. Teaching with the AAAH Student Survey Results Does the AAAH help you learn the subject of 20th Century African History?

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 4. Teaching with the AAAH Student Survey Results: Student Feedback “I usually have difficulty geographically mapping out events, and AAAH allows me to do so.” “Visual representation of major trends is incredibly helpful. It is helpful to break down what is happening regionally. All around a great tool.” “When combined with textbook and lecture, the map helps consolidate information and me see themes much more clearly”

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 4. Teaching with the AAAH Student Survey Results: More Student Feedback “Being about to connect our primary resources and the lectures with a simple visual representation of all these events helps with understanding the content.” “A visual representation for an extremely large and overwhelming subject matter is so effective. I never could have imagined such a powerful visual aid- AAAH has been an integral part of my experience in this course. Also, it helps during lecture as there is something to focus on- thus it helps organize the lecture and also helps me keep my focus.”

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 4. Teaching with the AAAH Student Survey Results Have you recommended the AAAH to someone else?

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 4. Teaching with the AAAH Student Survey Results Are you satisfied with the AAAH interface?

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 4. Teaching with the AAAH Student Survey: Suggestions on Interface Improvements “It takes a long time to fast-forward, whether by clicking a lot or waiting (even with the triple speed). A timeline, with a date that can be dragged, would be helpful.” “It would be extremely helpful if there were some way that you could type in a date or select a point on the timeline without having to scroll using the fast forward or rewind. ” “Being able to hover over countries and have information pop up would be really awesome.”

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 5. AAAH and Future Projects The AAAH will remain an open access resource on the World Wide Web Updating and corrections are ongoing. New version of the map with timeline and enter a year features is ready for launch The AAAH will be submitted as a MERLOT tool There is a possibility for future publication, perhaps on the web, of the primary sources collected for this class

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 6. The AAAH as Public History - before MERLOT The AAAH is cited by: at Brown: Africana Studies Library Resources Watson Institute Choices Program website Universities in US: Northwestern University Rutgers University Stanford University University of Iowa University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Union College NY

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool 6. The AAAH as Public History - before MERLOT The AAAH is cited by: Abroad: School for Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London the University of Hannover in Germany the School of St. Jude in TanzaniaSt. Jude in Tanzania

MERLOT 7th Annual International Conference The Animated Atlas of African History: a teaching and reference tool AAAH Contact Info Nancy Jacobs Rolando Peñate Giovi Roz