Thoughts on The AHA Guide to Teaching and Learning with New Media

In chapters four through six of "The AHA Guide to Teaching and Learning with New Media," McClymer discusses Cognitive Flexibility, Making Mental Links Across Time and Among Diverse Materials, and the Conclusion. I chose to focus on chapter four which brought up many thoughts about teaching History and how it can be done successfully.

In Cognitive Flexibility, he is absolutely correct with the statement about how History is not something that students can build upon with routine practice. His example about students learning Calculus is excellent in that they learn how to solve easier problems and move onto more difficult ones. History is nothing like Calculus and it made me realize how difficult the subject of History really is. Also, on a side note, this got my brain thinking about how this is possibly a good reason why Social Studies it is one of the most hated subjects in school, which is what James W. Loewen began with in his critically acclaimed fascinating read Lies My Teacher Told Me. McClymer then made the transition into how teachers cannot simplify history without distorting it but it can be explored. Exploring history leads to more questions asked by students and more answers are discovered which I think makes teaching so rewarding and makes me understand the title of the chapter a little bit more.

McClymer then discussed his take on History and how to solve the problem of its flexibility or lack thereof and what can be done about it. He brought up the example of what he is personally doing about it in one of his survey courses. He continued to discuss the strengths students need to improve upon in such survey courses like McClymer's to help students think more like historians and challenge them in the realm of History. I also liked the way McClymer said that students need structure, or as he put it in better terms scaffolding, provided by their teachers which makes History more feasible as well as flexible to study.

I found it very interesting and useful how McClymer is able to challenge entry-level students with material that is presented in a unique way that they enjoy learning. Just one question posed to students that seems simple at the surface allows them to explore the many different facets of an answer it has by providing students with the materials and means of discovering History. It also is able to pull in different contents of History into one lesson or activity. The example McClymer used was about The Age of Reasoning was great because it tied together History with Economics and Geography and also made a very good transition into other topics of History such as Ben Franklin, Adam Smith, even minor public historical figures that were very important in History that are not discussed very much or at all, including Mandeville. The lesson extended even further into the next topic which was The First Great Awakening.

Even though the topics are probably considered boring for students, the ways in which we teach them make it intriguing for everyone to explore together in a less complex way at any level of secondary or higher learning. In this way, students are challenged beyond what they believe they are capable of learning and doing which makes the teaching of History successful for everyone.