Web tools to give history context

Free Technology for Teachers has turned me on to a couple sites that, together, can be very powerful ways for students to contextualize time and place.

The first tool is Historypin - the video below highlights the new features, as of their July upgrade:

You can access Historypin via the internet or through an Android app.  Online, there's an interactive map, where students can zoom in to a region and, as seen in the video, look at historic pictures and videos overlaid on a modern shot of the same location.

This is the sort of thing I could toy with for hours - to see what was, juxtaposed onto what is, is fascinating.  They also have audio clips, collections of photos based on various themes, tours of a region based on an historic theme...

And if you install the Android app, you can use your phone to view historic photos of the location where you are standing -- provided they have those pics on file, or you can upload your own to create a tour of your town, or a field trip location...

How would I use this in the classroom?  I can think of a number of applications:

• In a history classroom, this could be incredibly powerful - especially when studying traumatic events like WW II - students can really grasp the level of devastation when viewing modern scenes, overlaid with pictures of, say Dresden after the bombing.
• Create a local history tour, for kids to grasp how their community has changed over time: visit your local library and get permission to scan / access historic photos, upload them to the site and link them to a current map.  This could then be the basis for reflective writing, research...
• Classic photos are a great writing prompt tool - getting students to step into the minds and shoes of someone from another era, reflecting on the world through their eyes.

And this brings me to the second tool:

This project has received a lot of buzz, as well it should.  On 10-10-10, people across the globe were asked to film their lives, and upload the footage.  Together, these clips are being produced into one video that gives a snapshot of human life, on one day, on every continent.  This video reminds me of another one - Babies - designed, similarly, to show our common humanity among our differences.  Here are the trailers for both movies:

Often, we humans have a tendency to classify those who are different as 'the other' - losing touch with some of our common humanity.  These videos bring us back in touch with one another, allowing us to see some of our commonality amid our differences.

How would I use these in the classroom?  As I've mentioned, my students read a book based in Afghanistan - giving them some videos of daily life from that part of the earth, videos of normalcy beyond the ravages of war, would help them connect to the characters.  This could apply to any cultural study...

So, there you have it.  A couple great web tools for bringing our students closer to the times and places they study - and, more importantly, to the people who inhabit these locations.