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Citation: 

Dunae, Patrick, and John Sutton Lutz. “Victorian SimCities: Playful Technology on Goggle Earth.” In Pastplay: Teaching and Learning History with Technology, edited by Kevin Kee, 292-308. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2014.

Abstract/Summary: 

The authors use the panoramic views in Google Earth to get students to draw history. The project focuses on Victoria, British Columbia c. 1890 and students are invited to become historical sleuths, using historical resources, documentation and inferences to recreate parts of the lost landscape of Victorian Victoria. The authors wish to show history to be a mystery and to get the students to help them solve it. They believe that students learn best when they use historical geography and urban history to physically see the places they are leaning about. It is the mission for the students to experience the sights, smells and sounds of Victorian Victoria using the abovementioned technologies. The authors developed the project using the new literature, which states that students like digital technologies and are adept at utilizing the technologies to learn. In their own work, they have noted how students find the past to be interesting and they are excited and willing to solve the puzzles and prefer projects that have real-world applications. They also are interested in creating projects that can be viewed by a wide audience where their participation in the creation of the project can receive credit. The authors continue the chapter with a discussion of the Victorian SimCity project using the digital technologies. They conclude by explaining how their project can be expanded to work for other areas and how the use of digital technology aids the building of historical thinking skills in the students.

Source/Credit: 
Erika Smith