A New Generation of Learning: Holocaust Education and the Internet
A Workshop at the Central European University organized by the USC Shoah Foundation Institute
Over the course of the past few years, increasing amounts of research have demonstrated that young people are spending more and more time interacting with online media. As a result, educators from all disciplines are confronted with the opportunities and challenges of creating a classroom environment that remains relevant to students and to teach them to engage in the online space in a pedagogically sound manner. To address this changing educational landscape and ensure the sustainability of existing Holocaust education initiatives, educational organizations must adapt their approach to reach teachers and students online. The USC Shoah Foundation Institute is convening a two-and-a-half day workshop to explore the intersection between new media and Holocaust education, with the goal of identifying the opportunities, responsibilities, and challenges for education in an online environment.
This meeting will be held at the Central European University in Budapest, where the Shoah Foundation Institute’s entire Visual History Archive has been available and searchable since April 2009. The primary objectives of the workshop will be:
- To establish shared expectations and vocabulary regarding the opportunities of developing educationally meaningful projects on the internet;
- To explore the state of the field of new media education, and think through how to engage this in our current work with Holocaust education;
- To face the challenges inherent in the move to the internet, especially with regards to material of sensitive nature.
This working meeting will convene colleagues from throughout Europe engaged in Holocaust education to discuss the educational and social implications of placing video testimony and other materials related to topics of sensitive nature on the internet.
During discussions, participants will share emerging ideas and projects in development to support teachers and students in the online space.
Some questions we will explore might include:
- How does the internet have an impact on our work in creating and distributing materials for teachers and training teachers?
- How does the ubiquity of the Internet affect the pedagogical approaches that we can adopt to address the topic of the Holocaust in a way that resonates with young people of today?
How can we apply the principles that we have developed through work in the offline world to teach today’s students to be responsible digital citizens in the online world?
