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You've arrived at that legendary locale, the Virtual Institute, and we hope you will both use and contribute materials. To the left are the links to resources we're offering. Rather than explaining each one here, we'd like to urge that you bounce around and become familiar with its geography, as you did with the real Chicago during your first days here—but with guidance, of course! But don't forget that you are contributors as well as recipients of the continuing conversations here. In the Curricular Tools section, for example, you'll find lesson plans and syllabi for courses, and we hope that you'll provide examples of your ideas and solutions so that others can benefit from your ideas. If you want to start a real discussion, the place to do so is the Discussion Forum, which may take a little time to master, but will offer opportunities to query your fellows, send greetings, and discuss with alumni of other years. Remember, too, that if you need resources, or have ideas that you think we can offer help with, send us your requests and we'll do our best to supply what you need. In the Teaching Materials section, for example, you'll find visual materials like Currier and Ives's infamous lithographs, political paintings by the 19th century artist George Caleb Bingham, photographs by Walker Evans and other government photographers during the Depression, and a page Peter Hales has put together of American history in photographs. You'll also find excerpts or even entire texts for literary materials you might want to use for teaching, and political documents, either as texts or linked to sites on the web where you and your students can find the documents. But if there's something in particular you want to see, something we might have talked about in class or you might have read about, contact us and we'll add whatever we can—with credit to you, of course! When it comes to Pictures and Memorabilia, of course, we hope you'll be especially active, sending us digital pictures from your own cameras to round out the ones we've taken, at the Institute's Chicago home, or on the tours. But there's more, and we hope we'll continue to expand and update—so return regularly.
Peter Hales, |
