Experiencing World History in the Classroom: Videos, Music, and Podcasts

This presentation explores how integrating youtube clips, podcasts and music has encouraged my students’ in-class participation and enriched their understanding of historical documents. Using brief clips (3-6 minutes) from the Crash Course World History or documentaries to break down the rhythm of the lecture refocuses students’ attention and offers a starting point for conversation. For example, a 4-minute video on Life in the Trenches of World War One complemented reading selections from Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front and Kreisler’s Four Weeks in the Trenches. Watching the brief video offered students a multisensory experience of the First World War and allowed them to visualize Remarque’s and Kreisler’s powerful prose.

Sometimes I prioritize audio materials without a video component. For instance, I assigned episodes from the podcast “Stuff you missed in History Class” on the topics of the Black Death or the experience of women at court in Heian Japan. In both cases, we had a very animated discussion based on information from the podcasts complemented with short readings. When studying transatlantic Revolutions, we listened together to songs of the French Revolution and compared their tunes and lyrics with current national anthems. Students examined music as a historical source and its power to mobilize action.

Prioritizing the students’ involvement in the learning process shaped my understanding of teaching as a dynamic process, which cannot be fully scripted. Audio-visual materials play a crucial part in creating an all-inclusive learning community in which my voice is just one of many.