The last time I used WordPress for an assignment was in my old job at the University of Southern Mississippi where I taught a course I called “History in the Digital Age.” I decided to try to incorporate the use of WordPress for a simple digital exhibit into a more traditional course this semester, “Gender, Race, and Class in Modern Europe.” This majors-level course covered selected themes in European history through the perspective of marginalized peoples, primarily as it related to changing definitions of citizenship. I needed an assignment that incorporated independent research and writing, but I did not want to assign a standard paper. This was mostly just to vary things for my students, many of whom had already taken a course with me where a standard research paper was the assignment. I also think that basic knowledge of WordPress is a useful skill for everyone to have.
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“Use of History” Assignment
I just revised my teaching page, simplifying it and adding some new resources. One of the assignments I included was a new one, which I called — for lack of a better name — a “Use of History” Essay. The assignment asked students in my introductory, general education Modern Europe survey to choose a news article or opinion piece from a mainstream magazine or newspaper and evaluate the ways it used history. I was impressed by the quality of the work even though I was concerned that I had not done enough to prepare them for the task. It’s relative success means that I might be on to something and with some greater scaffolding and revision have a nice way of introducing some more advanced concepts into this course.
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