Technology in World History

The World History Center has identified, as its next project in multimedia teaching materials in global history, the theme of technology.

The CD-ROMs on Technology in World History will provide instructional materials for a year-long course on world history, covering the span of history from the days of human evolution to the present. One CD-ROM will address the world before 1500, and one will address the world since 1500. This multimedia course will follow the model of the Migration CD-ROM by presenting materials in sections on Evidence, Narrative, and Analysis, with a series of analytical exercises encouraging users to explore the past in the same ways historians do.

The Technology CD-ROMs will present material from basic levels of technology in early times to advanced technology today. They will present, at once, episodes in problem solving, a narrative of progress, and an immersion in the challenges, successes and failures in human history.

Among the topics to be addressed will be agriculture, construction, transportation, communications, medicine, industrial and electronic technology, and the interactions of technology with environment, administration, war, and religion. Coverage will be global through addressing many areas of the world and by considering their interactions through technology. More than a study of technology itself, the course materials will address a wide range of issues in world history as seen through their technological dimensions.

The CD-ROMs will include texts, images, audio, video, and databases. Simulation and animation will permit demonstration of the functioning of various technologies from early shipbuilding to modern optics.

Research on the Technology project begins in the summer of 1997. If funding is obtained, it may be possible to complete research during the 1997-98 academic year, and to complete production and testing by the spring of 1999.



Technology in World History The World History Center has identified, as its next project in multimedia teaching materials in global history, the theme of technology. The CD-ROMs on Technology in World History will provide instructional materials for a year-long course on world history, covering the span of history from the days of human evolution to the present. One CD-ROM will address the world before 1500, and one will address the world since 1500. This multimedia course will follow the model of the Migration CD-ROM by presenting materials in sections on Evidence, Narrative, and Analysis, with a series of analytical exercises encouraging users to explore the past in the same ways historians do. The Technology CD-ROMs will present material from basic levels of technology in early times to advanced technology today. They will present, at once, episodes in problem solving, a narrative of progress, and an immersion in the challenges, successes and failures in human history. Among the topics to be addressed will be agriculture, construction, transportation, communications, medicine, industrial and electronic technology, and the interactions of technology with environment, administration, war, and religion. Coverage will be global through addressing many areas of the world and by considering their interactions through technology. More than a study of technology itself, the course materials will address a wide range of issues in world history as seen through their technological dimensions. The CD-ROMs will include texts, images, audio, video, and databases. Simulation and animation will permit demonstration of the functioning of various technologies from early shipbuilding to modern optics. Research on the Technology project begins in the summer of 1997. If funding is obtained, it may be possible to complete research during the 1997-98 academic year, and to complete production and testing by the spring of 1999.