Blog # 6 Museum visit

Originally, I had planned to go to the Holocaust museum in St. Petersburg. However, I changed that initially selection and decided to take my boyfriend, who is new to the area, to Ft. Christmas. This place has held a special place in my heart since childhood. When I was in the 5th grade my entire class went to Ft. Christmas for a weekend and camped within the fort's walls. During the day we listened to old indian stories, made butter, and participated in various crafts. I remember it being one of the best field trips I had ever been on and a contributing factor as to why I chose to pursue a career in history. This fond memory guided me back to Ft. Christmas for the first time since my childhood and I was surprised to see it through an adults eyes. The re-created fort is impressive with its massive walls and aged wood. As I entered the fort I stopped at each sign, reading the description of the fort, its history and it's significance. The thing I always liked about Ft. Christmas is not only the fact that they re-created the fort, but they placed the museum within the fort, giving it an authentic feeling. Each corner of the fort housed a museum that focused on a different component of the fort's history and in many cases local history as well. I was amazed at how many artifacts were donated by local citizens and how entertwined the fort's history was to the local community. In one wing of the museum, there was a room dedicated to photos of the original settlers and their families. I was impressed with the well kept chronology and was interested in who the people in the photos were.

Though impressive, the fort is not the only museum component on the property. Once my boyfriend and I left the fort, we walked farther back and discovered a re-created township with homes, stores and government buildings created to represent what Ft. Christmas looked like. I was really amazed at how well the, "town" was mantained and its authenticity. Not only did the outside look like that of a frontier pioneer settlement, the interior of each building was decorated with items from the era, again, donated by the local community. Though I have no interest whatsoever in colonial history, I am an American cultural focus and I loved the magnitude of artifacts that reflect the daily lives of the average person in the area. Another facet that I found interesting was the Native American representation at the fort. The museum had an extensive photo collection and artifacts representing what use to be a native population. As someone ignorant to the history of Native Americans, it was an informative section which presented me with a better understanding of the region.

Though I loved my experience at Ft. Christmas, I was saddened by the lack of traffic and resources that the fort has. I think that with a total, "face lift" Ft. Christmas could become a staple for the local community and a popular tourist attraction. I think the first thing that would add to the overall experience is interactive. The most technology the fort has right now is a 1980's movie on the Native Americans that runs on a loop. For the fort itself I think that the museum should install a touch screen so that visitors can touch a map of the area and see images of what it looked like then and how it looks now with a synopsis on the changes that have occured, showing the growth of the local community. I think that in the war memorbile section, there should be a simulation in which visitors can experience what it's like to shoot a musket from the era. The ability to smell the gunpowder and feel how much backlash there was on a musket would be a lot more interesting then just seeing a musket in a case. With technology like the wii, simulations are no longer unattainable.

Another really interesting change the museum should utilize is digitizing their photo archive. One of my favorite parts of the museum was seeing the people and the family tree of each family in the community. However, their was no information besides the name of the family member and for some, when they died. I think that if the museum had a touch screen with all the photos uploaded, guests could select a families last name and pull up photos of each member with a more detailed background on who they were, what they did and what their significance was to the community. This sort of interaction allows people to feel more connected with the Ft. Christmas community and gives a better understanding of life in the area.

At the end of our adventure, I asked my boyfriend what he thought of the museum and his response was, " it's cool." Though he enjoyed the fort, it did not resenate with him, nor did it leave him with a feeling that he may come back. I believe the fort does not just symbolize the second seminole war but the history of a town that has long been forgotten. Christmas does have a history and I believe that the fort represents that but with lackluster displays and uninterest from the community, it is doomed to perish. The fort staff should look into getting grants and aid from the state to revive this local piece of history. At 20 I still love Ft. Christmas and I worry that it may not be around for my children to experience the same things I did there without an overhaul in its displays and appeal to the public. If I have learned anything this semester it is that museums, especially small, locally based ones like Ft. Christmas, depend on the people in the community to care. Without the community invested in its own history, no one else will care about it.

Blog #5 educational video games

In our last class meeting the discussion of educational video games came up. This is a topic I never gave to much thought to prior to taking this class because I viewed video games as an outside form of entertainment or the ancient, boring games I was forced to play in high school. However, while Dr. Walters was playing Grand Theft Auto on the xbox360 I realized that video games could be so much more. Sadly, the problem with educational video games is that they are often 10 to 20 years behind the technological times or they are so one dimensional and boring that they rarely peak a students interests. I believe that with the easy accessibility of quality graphics and a new movement towards a more technologically driven classroom, cheesy educational games could be a thing of the past. For instance, if I was teaching a course on pioneer expansion to the western United States, instead of using an archaic game like the Oregon Trail that often bores students due to its lackluster graphics and elementary components, I could create or use a interactive game that utilizes the graphics of a game like Grand Theft Auto with elements that allow students to build their own pioneer experience complete with various characters that would have gone out west and the different realistic problems they would have faced. That sort of game gets students invested in the history of American expansion while still being entertained and interested in the storyline. I believe educators must realize that they are dealing with a digital generation that has grown up with computers, television, video games, graphics and all sorts of other technological gadgets that have become available in this day and age.

In regards to the two games we were asked to view, Wolf Quest and the Canadian history game, I was severly disappointed in both of them for differing reasons. Wolf Quest was painfully boring and left me with little gained knowledge about a wolf. Not only did the game take forever to upload onto my computer, once I uploaded it I was shocked by the poor quality of the graphics. For a game that was released in 2007 the graphics looked like my mortal combat game from the original play station in 1995. Educational video games often fall prey to the lack of stimulating graphics or a sub par visual vision. In order to sell a game like Wolf Quest to a student who has an xbox at home, the graphics must be extremely good. Another problem I had with the game was how boring it was. There was no story line, all the wolf could do was hunt, urinate, howl, and run. Now as a 20 year old student with a pretty extensive attention span I lost interest within five minutes, I can only imagine how long my 14 year old brother would last. It would have been much better if the creators would have installed missions that the wolves need to accomplish or a storyline that interested the user.

The second game, Canada, a history, was equally atrocious but for different reasons. As I went to go download the game I realized that I actually had to download another type of game/server called Civilization III that I had to pay for. Now I know that educational games cost money to make but as Dr. Walters pointed out, an educational game that received money from a grant should not charge its users. Plus, if I was a teacher wanting to do a segment on Canadian history in an interactive format I would have loved to use something like this game but would have had to resort to another method due to the fact that it costs money to use. Also, when I went to you tube to search the game all I could really find was promotional videos that didn't really allow me to see all the different aspects of the game. If an education game costs money, there should at least be a free trial run in which people can experience the game first hand before buying it. I think if they had done something like that there would have been a much higher response to the game.

Overall, I think that educational video games are wonderful tools for future educators. With new technology coming out all the time and a higher demand for interactive education, I believe interactive video games can become a great teaching tool to transmit knowledge to students. However, I also think that in order to make the digital transition into the classroom successful, educators need to become more modern with the graphics they use and more interesting and complex with the storyline development. They need to remember that most of the time their target audience will be the young, digital generation that has high standards in regards to technology.