Northwestern Professor Releases a New Digital Product on World History
A new volume of the award-winning digital learning book series, History Adventures, World of Characters, produced by Northwestern Qatar Professor Spencer Striker, has been published and the series shortlisted for the 2020 Wharton-QS Reimagine Education Award for Best Educational App.
The new interactive book, History Adventures: Empires & Interconnections, explores the world between 1450 – 1750 through a combination of narration and animated characters who lived through pivotal moments in history and were designed “to inspire an emotional resonance, which will imprint in the mind of our readers, forming long-term memories and an emotional and visual impression of history that they will not soon forget,” Striker said.
The characters depicted in this edition include a young woman of Turkish and Byzantine ancestry living through the 1453 Siege of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire, a vainglorious conquistador trekking through the treacherous mountains of 16th Century Peru, and an advisor in the Medieval court of Tokugawa Japan, trading in secrets and intrigue when the politics could not have been more high-stakes or ruthless.
The project started as a single interactive, audiovisual book, History Adventures: Revolutions & Industrialization, to teach students about the history between 1750-1900 and has now expanded to include volumes that cover additional historical subjects and time periods.
According to Striker, the project, which combines history education and digital media design, makes knowledge more accessible to students and can also change people’s perceptions of history as a boring subject by finding creative ways to “spark enthusiasm for learning about the past… by bringing the pages of history to life.”
By illustrating historic periods through narrative design, interactive infographics, 3D animations, 360-degree panoramas, data visualization, original music, and sound effects, “the product evokes for readers a visceral experience of a time in history when the world experienced colossal change, empires rose and expanded, and international trade took hold like never before,” Striker said.
Readers can also browse authentic documents and images from the past and participate in interactive assessments at the end of each character narrative to test their comprehension.
Jack Moran, Reimagine Education Spokesperson and Program Manager, said: “At Reimagine Education, we’re seeking the most innovative new approaches to teaching and learning across the worlds – the most exciting, engaging methods by which technology and learning theory can revitalise traditional subjects. History Adventures – World of Characters has been unanimously regarded as one such method. Combining outstanding animation with expert narrative design, it provides students with the high-quality digital content that is conducive to both better delivery, and, of course, an enduring enthusiasm for the subject matter. In particular, we commend the project creators on their keen consciousness of the history of digital learning design, which has informed their ability to go further with their own invention. We eagerly anticipate their future progress, and congratulate them on their efforts to reimagine education.”
The Educational App Award for the Reimagine Education Awards 2020 is organized by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. The book can be downloaded free on Apple Books, and is coming soon to Chromebooks, Android, iOS, and Google Play.
Media Contact
Company Name: History Adventures
Contact Person: Spencer Striker
Email: Send Email
City: Doha
State: Ad-Dawhah
Country: Qatar
Website: http://www.historyadventures.co/
