Brief Abstract:

Beginning in 2008, the United States Holocaust Museum launched an experimental online learning lab based on a unique record of almost 14,000 children from the Holocaust. As "citizen historians," participants in Children of the Lodz Ghetto investigate children from the Lodz ghetto via an on-line research "lab" that structures the search, provides access to primary and secondary historical sources, and allows direct feedback from experts and peers. 

Preliminary comments from beta testers suggest that participation in the project improves their knowledge of Holocaust history. Participants also appear to highly value the opportunity to share and receive feedback with other learners performing research on the site. This presentation will address major issues surrounding the challenges inherent in managing user generated content, the relationship between gaming techniques and social media and experiential learning, the balance between participant learning and authentic research contributions, and lessons learned about how investments in user-to-user communication/collaboration can affect project outcomes.

http://online.ushmm.org/lodzchildren

Abstract:

What happens when the United States Holocaust Museum provides open access to databases containing digitized records from its extensive archival holdings and asks the public to collaboratively piece together stories of thousands of young Holocaust victims? How does the museum maintain accuracy of data? What effect, if any, does it have on the museum's authoritative voice and reputation for excellence? And how do participants in the project assess the authority of content being produced by their peers?

Beginning in 2008, the museum decided to tackle these questions with the beta launch of an experimental online learning lab. Based on a unique record of almost 14,000 children from the Holocaust, the collaborative history lab (CHL), Children of the Lodz Ghetto, invites learners to take an active role in our understanding of the past. As "citizen historians," participants investigate children from the Lodz ghetto via an on-line research "lab" that structures the search, provides access to primary and secondary historical sources, and allows direct feedback from experts and peers. CHL creates an authentic research and learning environment that asks learners to struggle together with the challenge of uncovering what is still unknown - what happened to these children. Yet, the project also ties individual research to the larger questions of how the Holocaust occurred. Working within the CHL environment, participants improve critical thinking skills and gain a more complex understanding of historical events.

CHL creates a reusable model for collaborative learning and research in which learners do real historical research with real documents and experts. It supports a network of active learners who must consider context, weigh evidence, propose and test ideas, and defend conclusions. The resulting resource will empower learners to contribute to the historical record and our understanding of Holocaust history, as well as demonstrating a model for citizen participation in historical inquiry.

Preliminary comments from beta testers suggest that participation in the project improves their knowledge of Holocaust history. Participants also appear to highly value the opportunity to share and receive feedback with other learners performing research on the site. Further development of the project is expected to enhance structure to easily support new research projects (beyond Lodz children), to better integrate primary and secondary resources, to integrate social tools for enhanced sharing and feedback of research with experts and peers, and to determine potential for scalability to support large numbers of participants.

This presentation will address major issues surrounding the challenges inherent in managing user generated content, the relationship between gaming techniques and social media and experiential learning, the balance between participant learning and authentic research contributions, and lessons learned about how investments in user-to-user communication/collaboration can affect project outcomes.

http://online.ushmm.org/lodzchildren

Session Info

• Type: Individual Paper
• Keywords: social media, user-generated, reputation, games, gaming, trust, authority, crowd-sourcing, learning, research, education,
• Relevance: Museum educators and those responsible for technology outreach Staff responsible for research, collections and archives may also be interested. The session addresses the conference theme of "User-generated and museum content: quality, trust, reputation and relevance." It also illustrates the potential of social media and gaming techniques to engage museum audience as active constituents, drawing them closer to the institution, providing a greater understanding of the museum and its mission.

Speaker:  David Klevan, Education Manager for Technology and Distance Learning, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 

David Klevan is Education Manager for Technology and Distance Learning at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum where he oversees the museum’s social media outreach; he designs and develops Internet-based learning activities, online educational events, and other distance learning applications; and applies instructional design solutions and technology to further programmatic and educational goals across the institution.  Prior to joining the Division of Outreach Technology, David worked in the Museum’s Education Division where he coordinated the museum’s partnership program with Washington, DC public schools, Bringing the Lessons Home: Holocaust Education for the Community and subsequently managed the national pilot of the Law Enforcement and Society: Lessons from the Holocaust partnership program. His efforts to engage museum audiences in experiential learning and authentic content co-creation have recently been featured as case studies in Twitter for Museums: Strategies and Tactics for Success (MuseumsEtc), The Participatory Museum (Nina Simon), and Learning in 3D: Adding a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning and Collaboration (Chapter 6) (Kapp and O'Driscoll).