Abstract:

TfU approach allows the enrichment of curriculum goals. Regarding teaching history, TfU with new technologies enables multiple approaches of the sources. That’s why we thought that through arts we could accomplish it with a more creative way. Up to now, history lessons promoted mere memorization. We tried to make a connection between History, Art and Technologies so as to provide students with multiple stimuli which will further activate their critical thinking, combined with their previous knowledge. Our goal was for our students to see Greek Revolution from a completely different perspective.
We approached the reasons that caused the revolution, the way of living and the way of battling during Greek Revolution against Ottoman Empire through painting, sculpture, poetry, music. We combined the different hobbies of every member of our team to plan and to organize this lesson. Our students found out what was the result of this revolution for the Greek nation and for the people separately. Finally they compared Greek Revolution with other revolutions of that age worldwide, like French Revolution and American Revolution. Furthermore our students understood what the reflection of this revolution was outside Greece, in Europe and USA and how their citizens reacted. Students verged historical facts through the aspect of the people that had participated in this revolution or through artists that were inspired by this revolution. We tried to give vitality and make more interesting the presentation of a historical period for which there isn’t some kind of experience or personal involvement for our students. It was interesting for our audience, 6th graders, because they visualized Greek Revolution through their own senses and their own motivation. The project took 7 classes. We had various entry points and a lot of resources, such as books, internet, Google maps, Centenia, CMS (web share point), Cmap tools, documentaries, traditional songs, pictures of paintings and sculptures, poems, ppt presentations. Students had to inquire and perform by themselves and in groups. They understood that art and history are connected by realizing that a painting, a statue, or even a historical text consist of living parts of history and can be used as sources through which we can draw valuable information for that time. Furthermore students understood how they can estimate and distinguish the data that is related to their inquiry and how they can use this data to implement their knowledge in this discipline. They also had to apply digital tools to gather, evaluate and use information in order to draw conclusions and to identify and critically assess appropriate data and information on the web. Through team discussion on our web share point (CMS), debate in the classroom and presentation of their projects students exchanged their thoughts and opinions and the classroom became interactive in order to support the learning process. They shared work with their classmates both on line (team discussion) and interpersonal (through debate and presentations). At the end of the project all their work was uploaded on the CMS newspaper so as to be shared with all the school members and the local community.
The chosen technology was easily accessible for students and teachers and was pleasant and easy to use. All the programs and media provided rich content, appropriate for classroom use by students of that age.

Keywords:

Teaching for understanding, new technologies, ongoing assessment, e-tests, collaboration, web share point, team discussion, arts.