070268 SE Seminar - Digital learning and historical culture in history education (2020W)

In the last years the digital world became an increasingly important factor for the presentation of history in society. Big parts of the historical and political consciousness of young learners is developed by teaching videos, on youtube, with digital games, through films or other forms of presentations of history in the internet.

During the Corona Pandemic this tendency was probably incresed. Also other tools like virtual classrooms, online museums etc. have been growing in importance.
However, the democratic structure of the internet has the effect that a growing number of indivuduals are not only consumers, but also producers of narratives (historical and political) in the internet. This tendency brings about that a quality control of the respective narratives is often not carried out by established instances. Thus, historical myths, fake news and conspiracy theories with historical and political references are widely spread in the digital world. The evaluation of the plausibility of such "closed stories" must be increasingly undertaken by those who consume them. It is therefore of great importance that students in schools and universities develop the ability and the willingness to deal with respresentations of history (not only but also) in the digital world in reflective ways.
In this course we will reflect theoretically, how learners can be empowered to deal with historical representations critically. From this basis students will work on teaching material with a focus on historical culture. Students will also get to know and use tools for digital and online learning processes and they will reflect their use based on the literature about history and civic education.
In a paper they will deepen theoretical, empirical or pragmatic questions relating to questions of historical culture. In this sense, the course combines both engagement in theoretical discourses about history and civic education with the practical applicability in history teaching.