What could two dozen middle school students, two teachers, land surveyors, journalists, divers, college professors, lawyers, archaeologists, an author, and an 85-year old retiree possibly have in common? The answer is their insatiable quest to redefine colonial American history. From geodesy to glaciology, from geology to hydrology, from…

Tony Waters, a sociologist at California State University, Chico, has raised an interesting issue about the intellectual conflict some of his students experienced when they arrived on campus and enrolled in American history classes. He reported students were perplexed to find there were two kinds of American history--the version they learned in…

With all of the time constraints and institutional pressures that teachers face, it may seem odd to suggest using an anomalous event such as the Christmas Truce to study the first World War. However, the uniqueness of this event helps grab the attention of students and, as the authors demonstrate, can be used both to illustrate the common…

This paper is based on three beliefs. First, technology can engage and challenge students' thinking. Second, technology can assist students in creating quality work. Finally, computer-generated student-work can be used as educational tools in productive ways that other student-work cannot. This article suggests new ways to use old technologies to…