Lincoln and the Telegraph

Importance of the Invention of the Telegraph

     

     The telegraph changed the world and the way it communicated.  Tom Wheeler (2006) in his work Mr. Lincoln’s T-mails: The Untold Story of how Abraham Lincoln used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War equates this invention with the invention of our current internet superhighway.  This parallel was certainly correct.  The telegraph allowed leaders, businessmen, family, pretty much anyone who could get to the postal station to communicate with those that were towns, states, regions, and mountains apart.  The possibilities were endless.  Specific to the Civil War, the telegraph allowed Lincoln and his generals to move armies in unison, coordinate attacks, and direct troop movements from afar.  This allowed the leaders to be away from the destruction of the battlefield but to acquire first-hand knowledge of the events that were going on nearly right after they happened.  This was certainly one of the most influential and prototypical inventions that accelerated modern warfare.  Only fifty years later, the United States was fighting a war an ocean away but directing it from our homeland here in the United States.  I really liked how the David Bates (1907) in his work entitled Lincoln in the Telegraph Office: Recollections of the United States Military Telegraph Office During the Civil War compared the general of Japan and his use of the telegraph in the campaign against Russia like a “chess player, who can at once follow move by move.”   

Downsides    

     Two of the potential downsides to the telegraph in my mind are: One, the military telegraphers had the most intimate knowledge of troop movements, general’s orders, strategies, etc.  If one were to betray his loyalty, then he could have easily informed the Confederates of potential actions of the Union Army, or vice versa.  But with the new information age of today, this could surely happen with our armies’ use of email in the Persian Gulf War.  However, we do have firewalls and other governmental task forces that monitor all confidential emails to ensure this would not happen.  As we have seen with the Wiki Leaks, someone with some substantial computer knowledge bypassed these watchdogs and leaked data of very sensitive material.

Lincoln's Ingenuity     

     Lincoln himself was an innovator, an inventor, and one to embrace new technology and wield it to his advantage.  He had a political career that was not defined by a previous heroic military leadership as compared to many past presidents.  While some may have seen this as a crux, the lack of military experience actually helped him.  Many of his generals and the leadership of the Confederates were cemented in their ago-old customs, traditions, and ordering of the world in a military manner that was based on the dogma that distance controlled battles and everything that encompassed a war.  However, Lincoln saw the telegraph as an advantage and used it in such a way that revolutionized warfare.  Before his implementation of this “game-changing” device, past Presidents would not even hear of news of the battle for days or weeks as they depended on couriers by horse.  Lincoln put himself nearly in the thick of the battle as he read communication between his generals and took the reins of leadership into his own hands.  Without Lincoln’s instrumental use of the telegraph during the Civil War, the outcome would have been probably different. 

Lincoln the Innovator     

     Lincoln himself was an innovative thinker using critical thinking skills, problem solving through observation and inquiry, essentially employing 21^st century thinking skills back in the 1860’s.  Not only did he successfully implement the telegraph to win the Civil War, he was a genius in his own right.  He created a buoyancy system for flat bottom river boats that would allow the boats to lift themselves out of a sandbar when they got stuck on the treacherous river highways.  This was a practical yet ingenious solution to an everyday problem.  Lincoln was also quick to implement the ironclad ship the USS Monitor.  Many leaders would have shied away from such a non-traditional ship that had innovative rotating gun turrets.  Another instance that highlighted his problem solving skills was when the Confederate leaders demanded that Lincoln remove his troops from Fort Sumter (McPherson, 2009).  President Lincoln was caught between a rock and a hard place.  If he acquiesced to their demands, it would convey the belief that perhaps he was weak and this might allow foreign countries to recognize the legitimacy of the Confederate states.  If he sent troops, this would signal the beginning of the war and he certainly did not want to be the protagonist and enrage the Northern populace.  So he ingeniously implemented a “food for hungry men” strategy and sent just provisions to his Union men stationed in Confederate territory.  President Lincoln adopted and wielded this new medium of communication through the invention of the telegraph, which shifted the tide of the war, and ultimately reunited this nation as a whole!!!

Creating Connections:  Discovering “Lincoln the Innovator” through Present Technology

Grade Level:  8th Grade – High School Level. 

Prior Learning:

Students should know how to plot distance on a graph.  Students should have a general knowledge of President Lincoln and his use of the telegraph during the Civil War.  Students should understand the concept of the telegraph and why the invention was so important to changing the way the world communicated during this time period.

Purpose/Objective of this Lesson:

Students will be able to understand why the telegraph was so important to revolutionizing the way our world communicated.  Students will demonstrate understanding of the distance information travels as they create their own Google Maps unique to the study of the Lincoln Telegrams during the Civil War.  Additionally, students will be able to demonstrate comprehension of how technology shapes the world during a peer-led discussion.

Activity:

Using Google Maps, students will track the distance between the sending and receiving points of the Lincoln telegrams.  Students will discuss the distance and speed that the messages traveled.  This would allow for a visual representation of where Lincoln's "voice" was being heard compared to past presidents.  Additionally, students will compare/contrast past methods of information transfer with the correspondence of the Lincoln telegrams.  The students will compare the time lapse between the sent and received telegrams to past and present methods of information transfer to conceptualize how the world has evolved and revolves around technology. 

Strategies for Differentiation:

Students will be able to create their own unique Google Map, with the chance to link pictures, video, primary sources, etc. to enhance their own understanding of the concept and tie the invention of the telegram with past and present technological advances.  Also, students with limited English proficiency will be able to work closely with ESL coordinators to assist in the comprehension of the material.  Complementing the in-class Socratic seminar, a web-based discussion forum will be provided so students who may not wish to verbally express their opinions and thoughts can do so via written anwers.

Teacher Input:

The teacher will provide access to the Media Center Specialists to ensure all students can proficiently navigate and use Google Maps.  Also, the teacher will ensure class time is allocated to reserving a Media Lab in order for all students to have access to a computer and sufficient time to complete the assignment.  The teacher will provide instruction and frontloading on how to use Google Maps and track the student’s progress during the project.

Key Questions:
1.  What made the invention of the telegraph so important to how people communicate?
 

2.  Why was President Lincoln called an innovator? 

 

3.  How did the telegraph change the structure of war?

4.  How does the telegraph compare with other methods of information transfer of the past and present?

Assessment:

Students will be assessed on their ability to create a Google Map via teacher-led instruction and continuous observation.  Students will present their Google Map to the class or post to a public Wiki page developed by the teacher.  Finally, students will engage in a Socratic seminar to discuss the effects of the invention of the telegraph and its importance to the Civil War as a new method of information transfer.  Additionally, students will discuss President Lincoln as an innovator and compare/contrast the telegraph to past and present methods of information dissemination.

What Kind of Citizen Are You?

What Kind of Citizen Are You?

Introduction

As a future social studies teacher, one knows why he or she wants to teach social studies.  What are the ultimate goals one wants to fulfill as a social studies teacher? Surely I will want to retain my job and ensure my students make it to the next level of study of course.  However, the ultimate goal is to prepare our pupils to be ready to take on the world.  I’m blogging in response to the readings covered in ECI 535.  This blog focuses on the overall methods of how to effectively teach social studies by implementing content that enforces a citizenship education. 

Citizenship Education

As professional educators, we want our students to understand the complexities of life, to realize and reach for their fullest potential, and finally, to be able-bodied Americans who are civic-minded, responsible, and participatory citizens.  In essence, we want to teach a Citizenship Education that is outlined by the NCSS Task Force on Revitalizing Citizenship Education.  Teaching facts is not enough.  We as educators must instill in our students exactly what we want for our children; to be skillful, competent, rational, able-bodied, and have a social consciousness that makes them aware of the world around them (Beal, 2009).  Equating the ultimate goal of the social studies experience to fully developing matters of the “head, the hand, and the heart” (Beal, 2009, p. 31) speaks volumes to me.  All three parts of the body are integrative and without one the other would cease to function.   The NCSS provides 10 themes that encompass what teachers should be asking themselves before, during, and after they teach a unit.  Asking these questions about one’s methods, strategies, content, etc. is vital and provides a sound checklist when creating a unit with the mindset of teaching a citizenship education.

Elements of the Citizenship Education

Laura Johnson and Paul Morris (2010) break down the ambiguities associated with the terms that are sometimes loosely interchanged, critical thinking and critical pedagogy.  I assumed there was a difference and their article cleared that up for me.  While critical thinking can be construed as more abstract and technical, critical pedagogy separates itself by focusing on enforcing through education, “politics; society and interaction; the self; and reflection, action, engagement and possibility” (Johnson & Morris, 2010, p. 92).  The most important piece of their article was how they broke up critical pedagogy into a comprehensive framework that outlines and defines concepts that embody the responsible, participatory, and justice-minded citizens that government/society wishes to develop in their future generations.  To not want this end would be foolish; to not seek this end would be highly irrational.  It is our birthrights as citizens in a free country to want to climb up the economic ladder, to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps to succeed in life.  Yet, without the base knowledge, the desire, the knowledge through experience, one will never make it out of the darkness of ignorance, thus succumbing to dominant dictums and life full of passivity.

Teaching and Learning Social Studies

                

        One question that I’m sure is poignant to other future teachers that is certainly on my mind is, How can I effectively teach?  That is, how can I create units that are not boring and facilitates motivation in my students?  The authors of Teaching Social Studies in Middle and Secondary Schools (2009) are very helpful with providing resources, avenues, examples, and criterion on how to teach social studies. They not only provide information expounding on resources, but they show how to access these resources and give the students' responsibility while connecting to these resources all at the same time.  From insisting that service-learning projects truly embody a citizenship education to actually showing how to get the public to notice and work with these projects, this go-to-guide has it all! I will definitely use this wealth of knowledge over and over again!

Little Lectures?

     

        One quick read that parallels Professor List’s guide to “Flipping the Classroom” spoke about new methods to shorten down long lectures into 60-second clips.  Libby Morris (2009) writes a ponderous journal-type entry about this new and intriguing way to keep your audience’s attention.  In this age of instant access, anything at the click-of-the-button, and short attention spans, this may be a way to hit your audience with the important points.  However, I do agree with Dr. Morris in that this method of 60-second lectures may be more properly titled “active learning” and not so much a lecture.  Maybe I’m wrong, but I believe a true lecture (a good lecture in the social studies standpoint) is more like a story, bringing the audience in, hooking them, and finishing up with response/questions/conclusion. 

Teachers as Air Traffic Controllers 

     

        McKeown and Beck (1999) define constructivism in their article “Getting the Discussion Started.”  They show how this style of teaching for understanding by guiding, helping, and assisting has greatly enhanced student cognition, retention, and responsibility.  This quote by a 5^th grader emanates why constructivism works.  She said, “If you don’t think about what you’re reading and you just read, that’s not reading.  You’re just looking at scribbles on a piece of paper” (McKeown & Beck, 1998, p.124).  Constructivism takes lots and lots of effort.  I know that I will have to employ this method of teaching that gives the student’s responsibility in an effort to have them use constructivist thinking, while they themselves are making an inquiry into a topic or merely reading a chapter from a book.  Marking, turning back, revoicing, and modeling; these are all methods employed by this way of structuring the classroom environment.

Teaching through Constructivism

                

     To complement McKeown and Beck’s article, Edward Jadallah’s (2000) essay entitled “Constructivist Learning Experiences for Social Studies Education” discusses the interrelationship between knowledge and experience.  This article was a bit more scholarly than the former, which I deemed more of a cheat sheet on constructivism.  I really like how Jadallah explained how teaching facts are only relevant when they tie into a concept that “is relevant and applicable to the students’ lives” (Jadallah, 2000, p. 224).  Because we live in a society that is constantly changing, our teaching should embrace and nurture this realization.  Past experiences along with the present clothed in personal experience bring learning to the forefront of the student’s cognitive, social, and physical experience.  All-in-all, teaching in a constructivist manner is a sure way, especially in the middle school arena, to ensure students are learning and absorbing the content necessary for them to succeed in life.

Concluding Remarks

        I know this release of traditional, paternalistic control will be very challenging for me within the classroom.  Yet, I realize that in order to teach an effective citizenship education that enforces the critical pedagogy framework, this practice will have to become permanent in my classroom.  Perhaps before my liberal education at UNC, working in extreme conditions and traveling the world experiencing different cultures and different ways of life, I might still be stuck in a one-sided frame of mind.  But now, as a lifelong learner and one who wants his pupils to succeed, I will make a concerted effort to establish myself as a constructivist.



Bibliography

Beal, C., Bolick, C. M., & Martorella, P. H. (2009). Teaching Social Studies in Middle and Secondary Schools (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.

Jadallah, E. (2000, September/October). Constructivist Learning Experiences for Social Studies Education. The Social Studies, 221-225.

Johnson, L., & Morris, P. (2010). Towards a framework for critical citizenship education. The Curriculum Journal, 21 (1), 77-96.

McKeown, M. G., & Beck, I. L. (1999, November). Getting the Discussion Started. Educational Leadership, pp. 25-29.

Morris, L. V. (2009). Little Lectures? Innovative Higher Education, 34, 67-68.

Using the Senses to Engage History

As learning is lifelong and continuous, reading the Roundtable Articles has allowed me to focus on the senses and connect them to thinking about how I can engage my students in the classroom.  Specifically, how can I create activities, lessons, and channels of learning that teach history as well as provide cognitive connections that facilitate motivated learning?  Even though our time as teachers is short, I feel implementing strategies that allow students to use all of their senses will certainly imprint their minds and  nurture skill sets vital to not only succeed in life, but to enjoy it.  Additionally, this will foster an anthropologic sense of thinking about culture, identity, and different ways of learning, living, and being that may be far different from the identity of the student themselves. 

I agree with Mark Smith in his explanation that that the senses are “communicators of knowledge and, especially, as expressions of power and identity” (2008, p. 379).  In my view, the restricting societal consciousness of purveying hegemony to the visual has reduced artistic expression, creativity, and methods of writing, learning, and teaching, especially in the Western Hemisphere.  While learning about Descartes in an Anthropology class as UNC Chapel Hill a few years ago, I became fascinated with the difference in cultures across the world and how they treat and view nature.  While the West maintains a strict left/right spatial notion of thinking, many other cultures labeled as ‘animalistic,’ ‘inferior,’ are scrutinized and labeled in this way because they transfuse nature and the interconnectedness of the “other” senses throughout their daily lives.   Upon reading Rath’s “Hearing American History,” I concluded that the societal shift to print culture drastically changed the way Westerners viewed and processed the world around them.  I want to liken back to World War II, when Franklin D. Roosevelt would give his famous “Fireside Chats” that were a staple in almost every American household at the time.  In today’s time, not many people have a radio in their house, since IPods, computers, and television has laid this once dominant form of communication to the wayside.  Now, political campaigns are being won through new information networks such as Facebook and YouTube. 

I also agree with Rath in his statement that “perhaps the biggest obstacle to implementing such a historically grounded approach to orality is the difficulty of decentering and denaturalizing one’s own sensory world” (2008, p. 426).  As vision has been associated with higher levels of thinking dating back to ancient philosophers, I know this struggle to disengage the mind from the dominant modes of thinking and learning about the world will be an uphill battle.  However, from reading these articles focusing on sensory learning, it only makes sense (pun intended!). 

In wrapping up the articles, I agreed with Howes’ article “An Anthropological Approach to the History of the Senses.”  Without using all of our senses, especially we as teachers, the world will become static.  Teaching in this way will continue to mold students who do not appreciate the world around us.  Rath speaks to the fact that the senses are a “zero-sum game.”  I agree with this statement wholeheartedly.  Now, I am certainly not an anti-technology guy who wishes our society to revert back to the Stone Age; however, I do feel that too many of the younger generation are not using their senses to see and experience the world around them.  Instead of meeting their friends in the woods for some classic war games building forts and experiencing the fullness of nature, kids are staying inside communicating through third-party avenues that are impersonalistic and disconnected from the Mother Earth.  One cannot visualize the past unless they experience how, where, and why people lived.  Smith (2008) wrote about the shift in societal consciousness and how they perceive the world around them through the use or disuse of various senses.   He wrote in his article “Getting in Touch with Slavery and Freedom,” “Seeing is believing, but feeling’s the truth.”  Let’s get back to that!

Teaching history by employing the senses has all kinds of creative and imaginative ways to get our students to learn through this mode of seeking knowledge.  I am fascinated with America’s recent historiography and the lack of scholarship, course objectives, content, etc. in our middle and high schools.  We seem to stop after the Vietnam War as if 40+ years of history hasn’t occurred.  To employ sensory history in this aspect would be awesome.  As a teacher, I could plan units that brought foods from nations such as Afghanistan or Iraq and have the students break down the food sensorially.  Students could learn about the atrocities of war, new technology in war by using primary source videos and audio to feel the intensity of the moment that a battle brings with it.  A unit could be created that focused on deconstructing stereotypes of Muslim culture and religion through sensory-learning methods.  The list goes on and on.

Finally, one question/concern I want to pose in the context of the “sensorial revolution.”  While this movement to expose students to explore the world, learn, research history, and make history by using all their senses has risen, the movement of standardized testing has also taken to the forefront of national dictum.  Thus, there seems to be a contradiction in the eyes of a teacher.  Standardized tests cannot and probably will never ask a student about the smell of the slave ships or the sounds of the Liberty Bell, so one has to be mindful that these tests are purely visual in content.  Balancing these two will certainly be the challenge.  Yet, we as teachers have to enforce, implement, and ignite the flames of this resurgence of the senses to describe history in order for these skills to themselves become the dominant mode of how the next generation characterizes the past, present, and future.

One way to engage the senses in a social studies class is to create a lesson on food and culture.  Students could relate geography and culture to what type of food cultures eat.  This lesson can also incorporate economics and how some countries specialize and export food to create wealth.  Students could have an open dialogue on the food that they eat at home.  Then, students can research a country and the food they predominantly eat.  If approved, students could bring in foods, especially is the class is from a diverse culture.

Putting Together All the Pieces of the Social Studies Puzzle

Putting Together All the Pieces of the Social Studies Puzzle

This blog focuses my reading and thoughts as to how to effectively lay the foundation for students to be engaged citizens, why it is important to teach social studies, and the different methods and strategies of how to teach, plan, and create a classroom environment that facilitates memorable learning.

Introduction

As a future Social Studies teacher to adolescents, I am very concerned about how well I can perform at my job.  That is, how will I implement 21^st Century teaching methods, effective classroom management procedures, cohesive unit plans, and ultimately provide my students with a ‘Wow’ learning experience?  Dr. Beal’s (2009) Teaching Social Studies in Middle and Secondary Schools provides a contextual framework on how to become a successful and sought after teacher in the Social Studies arena.  Along with the American Historical Association’s (2007) “Value of Historical Study” and “Methods of Instruction,” future teachers catch a glimpse into the discipline’s reasons and methods of why and how to become an successful teacher educator.  From defining the discipline, discussing the importance of teaching Social Studies, implementing teaching strategies that enable students to become investigative learners, to outlining the different methods of how to set up a unit plan, the future Social Studies’ teacher is given a toolkit to implement an enriched learning environment that enforces a citizenship education (Beal, 2009).  Not only will first-year teachers have to develop comprehensive unit plans, manage the classroom is a competent manner, and create a structured learning environment, but they will have to correlate their units to meet the standards and objectives outlined by the NC Standard Course of Study (2006).

Keys to Effectively Teaching a Robust Citizenship Education

Dr. Beal (2009) outlines the ever-changing definition of Social Studies and how this characterization now includes teaching that not only creates students who are knowledgeable about their own cultures and identity, but are tolerant and engaged as citizens in a worldwide economy.  Students must be able to live, compete, and work in our global and interconnected world.  Effectively teaching social studies to our young minds will shape and mold them into becoming investigative, engaged, and full participatory citizens.  Dr. Beal’s framework for teaching citizenship education made me aware of the arduous, time-consuming, and passion-filled task that lies ahead of me, especially in my first year of teaching.  She delved inside the methodologies of how to teach and creating a classroom environment that is positive and enriched with students who do not believe they can fail.  From planning to classroom management strategies to resources for teachers to use to prepare units and follow, these chapters provided a comprehensive and inclusive outline on how to get started. 

Following the NC Course of Study

Additionally, I just cannot pull lesson plans from a hat and teach them to the class.  Units, objectives, and lesson plans must have value not only to myself and the students, but also have to correlate with the NC Standard Course of Study (2006).  Following these guidelines is essential and mandatory if I am to retain my job!  So, if I am teaching Eighth Grade, then I must adhere to the conceptual map outlined by the NC Department of Education.  How I teach the materials, along with the style/presentation of materials is up to me; however, I have to realize the complexity and depth of the objectives and the limited time I will have to teach these topics!  Planning will be my best friend and certainly the most critical stage of the whole process.  The implementation of these strategies and taking all this advice and actually performing in the classroom is the scary part. 

Why Teach Social Studies?

Dr. Beal also defines and discusses why we should teach social studies and the scholarship that abounds about what comprises this field of teaching that is so instrumental is creating engaged and civic-minded citizens.  Complementing this discussion, the American Historical Association (2007) writes an extremely persuasive and passionate article on “The Value of Historical Study.”  I thoroughly enjoyed this article and certainly feel the same way.  Pulling a quote from the article that spoke volumes to me, the Association (2007) wrote,

“Believing, then, that one of the chief objects of study is to bring boys and girls to some knowledge of their environment and to fit them to become intelligent citizens, we need hardly say that, if the study of history helps to accomplish this object, the public schools of the country are under the heaviest obligations to foster the study, and not to treat it as an intruder entitled only to a berth in a cold corner, after language, mathematics, science, music, drawing, and gymnastics have been comfortably provided for.”

I loved the way the article compares and cites strong evidence as to how important teaching our youth the past, present, and other cultures through an investigative lens is just as or more important than the other disciplines.

Difference in Opinion in Methods

Also, the American Historical Association (2007) delineated the foundational methodologies of how to teach.  They insisted on textbooks, written works, tests, and the library.  While I am a proponent of all these methods to instill learning, I believe we must implement technology.  The library is essential, yet no longer does one have to physically travel to a library to perform research.  New technology has brought primary source documents to web-based catalogs.  I have found oral history reports, old newspapers, and plenty of primary source documents on my computer with greater ease than plowing through the dusty halls of Davis Library at UNC Chapel Hill!  So, in my opinion, the AHA should have another heading entitled “History through Technology!”

Conclusion

As a Political Science and History major, I have done plenty of postulating, theorizing, writing papers, giving presentations, etc.; however, my teaching experience has been limited and this new wealth of knowledge is outstanding plus overwhelming!  I look forward to implementing these methods, advice, strategies, and continuing to be a lifelong learner!