Ruth McManus: hello, my name is Ruth McManus and I'm an associate professor of geography at Dublin city university.
Ruth McManus: Mine is the final chapter of the volume and one where we draw on the knowledge of various contributors to consider how we might educate and bring together ideas around places of memory and their legacies for the next generation.
Ruth McManus: I'd like to thank those other contributors, for their ideas which have been used in this chapter.
Ruth McManus: So this chapter is intended to be a starting point, we hope that educators will use these resources, as a pool from which they can draw making any appropriate modifications for their own courses.
Ruth McManus: Today i'd like to start by discussing some of the key educational principles underpinning the chapter before.
Ruth McManus: Providing a selection of sources of activities to give a flavor of how issues of memory can be addressed effectively in a classroom environment, with the main focus here being on third level students.
Ruth McManus: Dealing with topics as complex as places of memory and their legacies means that we need to think carefully about how we should approach them in the classroom.
Ruth McManus: So the approach taken in this chapter is broadly constructivist.
Ruth McManus: This is an umbrella term which includes a number of different learning theories, but what they have in common is certain core assumptions around the idea that students construct their own meaning.
Ruth McManus: By building on previous knowledge and experience, and given the complex nature of the issues around places of memory and their legacies such an approach is particularly suitable.
Ruth McManus: So i'm just going to show you the eight characteristics of constructivist learning, which are appropriate to our field.
Ruth McManus: First, to provide multiple representations of reality; second that we encourage knowledge construction, rather than simply reproducing knowledge; that we provide authentic tasks in a meaningful content.
Ruth McManus: Rather than simply abstract instruction out of context.
Ruth McManus: That we provide learning environments, such as real world settings or case based learning again rather than predetermined sequences of instruction.
Ruth McManus: We encourage our students to think and reflect on their experience but we enable context and content dependent knowledge construction.
Ruth McManus: That we support collaborative construction of knowledge through social negotiation, rather than competition among learners for recognition.
Ruth McManus: And that we avoid oversimplification and represent the complexity of the real world, and I hope you agree that these ideas are central to effectively educating on these key topics.
Ruth McManus: Inquiry based learning is encouraged to deepen understanding, with an emphasis on supporting and exploring the complexity of the topic and appreciating multiple perspectives.
Ruth McManus: Project work and other hands on activities are suggested in this chapter to help provide a meaningful context for learning and readers are encouraged to see for themselves.
Ruth McManus: Either through real world or virtual field trips and all of the activities that are designed to support real engagement with concepts of memory and commemoration, as well as encouraging the development of other transferable skills.
Ruth McManus: So i'd like to mention a number of key online sources for examining World War one places of memory.
Ruth McManus: And, of course, with growing levels of digitization we have a great deal of resources at our disposal.
Ruth McManus: The key challenge now facing educators, is information overload and to ensure that students access, reliable and reputable sources.
Ruth McManus: And now, the first thing i'm suggesting here is the idea of a virtual field trip, because when students read about memorials or events in far flung places.
Ruth McManus: And it really makes a big difference if they go and see for themselves by means of something like Google earth and the ability to engage in a virtual tour of monument or another.
Ruth McManus: location
Ruth McManus: helps to move that sense of distance between the student and the trip I just took this morning to Verdun.
Ruth McManus: And, of course, real world feel work is also very much encouraged another source that's becoming increasingly available our colors and images and of course photography was a vehicle bringing home the horror of war at the time.
Ruth McManus: But sometimes we're a bit desensitized to these images and we may feel distanced from faded sepia views, but with modern technology colorized photographs are now.
Ruth McManus: Introducing a greater sense of immediacy and this is one example of a website, which provides colourized images, along with brief captions and context.
Ruth McManus: And students should be asked to consider whether visual evidence which is easily consumed is essential in order to keep the memory alive.
Ruth McManus: Another source which is now readily available is the British Pathé archive footage.
Ruth McManus: Which is an excellent primary source offering about 85,000 films in total from around the world, usually short clips of people places and events and they claim to have the largest.
Ruth McManus: One of the most comprehensive at least World War one archives in the world and it's organized as you can see here into a collection by different themes and so again students can get a real sense of the real people behind the uniforms. I've just selected two still images from these.
Ruth McManus: films to show you on the right hand side.
Ruth McManus: Finally, and we discussed this at length in the chapter, films and other media, including literature art and music can all capture aspects of place people and events of World War one.
Ruth McManus: Both in direct and immediate response at the time but also reflecting layers of interpretation and memorialization in terms of artistic responses from a later date.
Ruth McManus: And these materials can be used in many different ways to engage with the legacies of World War One in a nuanced and a reflective manner and we've gone into quite a bit of detail, considering how.
Ruth McManus: These stories can be.
Ruth McManus: explored. One example here is looking at the events of Gallipoli, and of course students should be.
Ruth McManus: asked to reflect on these different forms of representation, whether they have particular perspective, so they have had meanings indeed.
Ruth McManus: And movies can help us to try and explore complex and multi layered events, so if we look at the different narratives of this particular event in World War one.
Ruth McManus: students can be couraged to view the movie or even more than one movie and take notes on.
Ruth McManus: The message that's coming across but also to research the factual information and consider what sources, the movie has drawn upon.
Ruth McManus: and consider the amount of artistic license that has been taken by the creators of that film and considering whether the fiction outweighs the facts, or vice versa, in the film.
Ruth McManus: And the effects that the film has on viewers and their attitudes to the event.
Ruth McManus: Does it actually romanticize the war and the kinds of impacts that such movies can have on the viewers. But if we look, for example.
Ruth McManus: More than one movie here, we have Peter Weir's film from 1981, we have the 2005 Turkish film, which is a documentary style film, which is narrated by both sides.
Ruth McManus: and students can compare and contrast those different perspectives.
Ruth McManus: And then they can further extend their knowledge and consider the centennial sites of memory and commemorations in Gallipoli. So these kinds of engagements challenge the students to think more deeply about the topic.
Ruth McManus: I just want to move on to a few suggestions for activities which encouraged empathy and engagement.
Ruth McManus: Of course, faces of memory or not just relevant for history and for geographical research, but for the present.
Ruth McManus: And they do have contemporary relevance for students and for society, and therefore we want to encourage our students to to think about these places and think about what is remembered and what is forgotten and various resonances that these places of memory have in the present day.
Ruth McManus: And so, one suggestion is to encourage students to place themselves in the position of the people who are creating a memorial.
Ruth McManus: And so to understand those different perspectives looking at a particular memorial that currently exists and the stories behind how those memorials are created and taking on different roles, considering the different themes of the monument and
Ruth McManus: The individual person's perspective when that monument was being created and that really helps them to to understand the complexity again of the time.
Ruth McManus: Another idea is to get students to actually design a new monument and to consider in a team or individually what that monument might represent, where it might be located.
Ruth McManus: What kind of design might be included part will be on it, what would be excluded, and the potential controversies which might arise so again by putting themselves in the role of the artist designing the monument or the local mayor or whatever, again they're gaining a deeper perspective.
Ruth McManus: Another approach that we try and encourage this to get our students to go out and discover memorials in the everyday landscape and one thing i've discovered myself is how invisible some of these memorials have become to young people today, so this is a very simple task, for students where they are
Ruth McManus: asked to walk around their own town or use Google Street View to explore another location to find monuments statues plaques murals sculptures and so on, and to record them is it in a particular location, who created it when was it built,
Ruth McManus: that's, why was it built and what materials is it made of how does it make you feel, what do you think it represents, and why so these again encourage the students to be more conscious and aware of their own environment and to consider the layers of memory, which exists there.
Ruth McManus: Now to finish off, I just like to talk briefly about trying to encourage students beyond the national context and, of course, learning in whatever fashion.
Ruth McManus: In relation to the national context can enhance reflection and learning, but an important additional dimension is added when we engage in international or cross cultural connections.
Ruth McManus: And, of course, modern technology, as we have discovered in the past year is particularly helpful in facilitating interactions between students in different countries.
Ruth McManus: This is something that's my colleague Gerry O'Reilly has pioneered and I have been involved, to a lesser extent in it.
Ruth McManus: Even without ever meeting face to face because students are so familiar with social media, we found that it was possible for them to create positive working relationships, leading to genuine discovery learning.
Ruth McManus: it's important, of course, that the initial engagements between students should be related to mom contentious issues and that will facilitate the recognition of.
Ruth McManus: commonalities and shared life experience and once that level of respect and trust is established, then we can encourage them to engage in more complex issues around memory and identity and the projects that have been undertaken to date
Ruth McManus: show the very positive outcomes for intercultural dialogue and understanding.
Ruth McManus: And we can break down quite a lot of barriers in this way, so there might be discussions and brainstorming on particular topics, but students might also create something together.
Ruth McManus: like this story map or an online wiki. Of course, ideally face to face interactions and shared field work.
Ruth McManus: would also be possible, and that can result in a very meaningful learning experience and also, indeed, to lifelong friendships So to conclude
Ruth McManus: One of the key questions of this volume is what do spaces such as those associated with World War one actually mean to people nowadays.
Ruth McManus: And the selected activities and projects which are suggested in my chapter have been compiled to encourage contemporary appreciation and understanding of places of memory.
Ruth McManus: These places of Memory and Conscience should respect the dead and remind citizens of the past, but really importantly for today's world if we encourage reflection and dialogue, they should enable us to learn from past experiences in order to create a peaceful future, thank you.