EASE History: an Experience Acceleration Support Environment is a free, open learning website that explores events in US history. The web site is intended for use at grades 6‐12 levels. The website was developed at Michigan State University. System requirements include the use of Macromedia's FlashPlayer and a PC environment with Windows 2000 or above or Firefox or in the case of the Apple Mac, a Mac Safari OS 5.2 or newer. With the FlashPlayer requirement, the resources on this site will not display on the Apple iPad of iPhone.
EASE History is based on the cognitive flexibility theory developed by Professor Rand Spiro of Michigan State. Michigan State contributors to EASE History include Brian Collins who has supplied much of the content; AparnaRamchandra is responsible for the flash development; and Laurence Bates developed the database based on the principles of Cognitive Flexibility Theory. EASE History recognizes that the understanding of complex history concepts requires a way to weave different historical events and documents in such a manner as to “prepare learners to become more flexibly adaptive thinkers. Flexibly adaptive thinkers are well informed, open‐minded, and creative” (www.easehistory.org/faqs.html).
The opening home page of EASE History displays an ongoing panel of photographs from the collection of hundreds of photographs and short videos. These rotating photographs are very eye‐catching but a first time user would be well advised to use the tools at the top of the page to orient oneself to take advantage of the resources offered at this site. While there is no help tab, the Tour and the FAQ tabs act as the help screens. In the Tour tab, one begins to understand the goals of this resource and how to implement EASE History into lesson plans in an effective manner. To enhance the use of this database, there is a section on learning guides. There are three sections to the learning guides, Historical Events; Campaign Ads; and Core Values. Each lesson plan has a Word worksheet with questions and rating scales for students to fill out. After using the rating scales, the student then writes a brief analysis of the reason for the ranking. The worksheets offered thought‐provoking questions which would not require a simple yes‐no answer.
Before looking at the content, the instructor should review the glossary of terms used in the database. These terms establish for the instructor and student an understanding of the concepts given in the database. Many of the term definitions come from standard reference sources. However, under the Core Values – Constitutional Principles section, the definitions are from CIVITAS: A Framework for Civic Education, a collaborative project of the Center for Civic Education and the Council for the Advancement of Citizenship, National Council for the Social Studies Bulletin No. 86, 1991.
To use the website, one selects one of three sections, Historical Events; Campaign Ads; or Core Values from the home page. Photographs or short movies can be viewed in window panes either singly or post up to four photographs at a time. The dynamic nature of this resource is easily understood. An instructor can have students paste contrasting photographs or movie clips side by side to compare and contrast the events. The photographs and the video clips all have brief descriptions. The dates covered are from the early 1900s to the Bush/Cheney administration. The photographs and clips are fascinating glimpses of life in the US. One example, reviewed in the Historical Events section, was Women in the Early 1900s. A picture of women riveters in 1919 pre‐dates the famous Rosie the Riveter of World War II. Upon close examination of the photograph, the women riveters were an integrated group which should lead to more questions concerning women, race relations, etc. Combining the photos and the lesson plans would constitute an engaged learning experience for the students. Contrasting the photographs with others from that era would be a challenging opportunity in that it is very easy to lose one's focus. Adaptation of the worksheets would be a great help in keeping the student concentrating on the topic. The selection of the photographs and clips is very interesting and varied. This undoubtedly could be a resource that sparks the creative and inquisitive nature of students.
The second segment is devoted to Campaign Ads. The photographs and clips are arranged in a theme of comparing the winner/loser; the negative ads/positive ads; challenger/incumbent, etc. Currently the photographs and clips span from 1952 to 1992. With the capability of viewing the ads by years, a student can understand the sense of the types of campaigns that we have experienced in the past 40 years.
The third segment focuses on the Core Values. These are divided into three parts, Democratic Values; Constitutional Principles and Symbols of Freedom. Many of the photographs and clips are found in the other tabs of Historical Events or Campaign Ads. These areas are good examples of a balanced presentation of the issues. They are all right on target as to the goals for the segment.
The authors of this website have expressed the goal of establishing in EASE History “an online learning environment that supports flexibly adaptive thinking, the learning of difficult material, and open‐mindedness; the learning attributes that a complex world requires”. Given this ambitious goal, the overarching principle of cognitive flexibility, and the engrossing photographs and film clips, EASE History is a complex website, which requires a teacher's time to learn the system before its successful use in the classroom. The authors of the website recommended the target audience were 6th‐12th grades. However, the richness of the collection would also be appropriate for college undergraduates in lower division classes of history and political science.
