My essay “The Role of Technology in World History Teaching” has finally seen the light of day–or, in this case, the light of pixels. This is an essay I originally wrote as a paper for a conference at the German Historical Institute here in Washington back in February 2005. The essay you can read now is an only slightly modified version of the original that I presented there.
The conference itself was a model for what academic conferences ought to be like. Something like 25 people from Australasia, North America, and Europe came together for several days to present works in progress, to discuss pressing issues, and to try to arrive at some agreements about ways forward on those issues. The meeting included both leading practitioners and new to the profession scholars, giving the discussions a nice mix of perspectives and levels of expertise. And then, when the blather was over, the GHI arranged to have the various papers published in World History Connected so that the results of the discussions could be available to all. In short, a model academic meeting–none of us was interviewing for a job, posturing for a large audience of unknowns, etc. Instead, we just worked and enjoyed one another’s company. Wouldn’t it be nice (and productive) if all our meetings worked out this way?