International History Detectives Wiki
In an effort to broaden his students’ perspective of world history, Mike Fitzgerald decided to think big and collaborate with schools from around the globe. The result is the “International History Detectives Site,” a wiki designed to “connect schools from around the world in the collaborative pursuit of history.”
Using ePals, he made contact with schools in Japan, Germany, Poland, Denmark, and the Philippines. When the process of communicating with so many schools by e-mail became somewhat unmanageable, he decided to utilize a wiki as a central communication tool. Participating schools are now able to add text, images, audio, and video to the site at their convenience.
Mike’s first endeavor (and current project) is to examine how different nations remember the Second World War. Each participating school will respond to three questions that were posed by 7th grade students from MICDS:
1) How does your community (school, town, country) select to remember World War II? Examples: holidays, memorials, songs, movies, books…
2) Do you know of anyone who was involved in some aspect of the World War II? If so, what is their connection? If possible, can you send a picture?
3) Is there anything else you would like to add?
At present, the participating schools are in the process of making introductions and will begin responding to the three questions in January. Future plans for the International History Detectives include connecting with schools from the Middle East for a unit of study in 6th grade World Cultures. In the meantime, feel free to follow the project’s progress and contact us if you are interested in participating.