December 2-6, 2013
Engaging with History:
Keeping the Stories Alive and Lively
December 2, 2013
Fort McHenry, Baltimore, MD
As stewards of our cultural heritage in an era of declining resources, how can we best keep the past preserved and alive for future generations? This FIA event hosted by the National Park Service at Fort McHenry included a discussion about the value of both place-based learning and virtual tools for engaging students and their teachers with history.
The presenters had backgrounds in history, K-12 education, national parks as sites for learning, and Internet-based teaching and research:
Daniel Russell, Google’s “director of user happiness” served as moderator. Dr. Russell has been involved with the Future of Information Alliance since its inception and is an evangelist for search education. His work includes training for educators and librarians, and he has offered popular MOOCs – massive open online courses – that have attracted tens of thousands of students around the world.
Burt Kummerow leads the Maryland Historical Society as president and CEO. The Society houses more than 50,000 square feet of exhibits and a library with seven million books, maps, photographs, periodicals, oral histories, and original documents. Kummerow has experience with history in both scholarly and public venues as a writer, speaker, public television producer, and museum director.
Amy Rosenkrans is Director of Humanities at Baltimore City Public Schools. In that role she works with the librarians and teachers across a range of programs and disciplines: advanced placement, English as a second language, social studies, world & classical languages, and visual & performing arts.
Stephanie Toothman is the Associate Director for Cultural Resources for the National Park Service. Dr. Toothman oversees efforts to develop policy and promote use of the Park Service’s vast and diverse historic and cultural properties. These include 27,000 historic structures and tens of thousands of archaeological sites, artifacts, and archives. Her efforts help facilitate the research that goes into preserving and sharing stories about history surrounding those properties.
