Category Archives: Archives

Using Archives on Cultural Education

March 4, 2023Archives, cultural heritage, educationkarld

The use of archive sources is central to education. Yet it is surprisingly common for primary and secondary students to graduate without any experience of using archives. They do not learn the skills of archival research although, as defined in the Dictionary of Archival Terminology, “the basic archival function is making available and promoting the wider use of archives”.

The primary value of archives is their role as part of cultural heritage, the contribution they can make to a better understanding of the past, of the historical roots of human environment, of national identities and of international interdependence. With this in mind it must be in the best interests of archivists to intervene with education at the moment when human ideas and convictions are formed, which means at the stage of primary or secondary education.

Yet, there are too many different kind of cultural archives in each country with different types of archives and archival documents that there is not a “universal” method of using those archives in education.

One possible solution could be the use of “problem based education” which is a student-centered pedagogy in which students learn about a subject through the experience of solving an open-ended problem found in trigger material.

So, what are the potential tasks in the field for national or local archives that we can use in Cultural Education?

In theory all types of archival documents may be used for teaching purposes. Using problem-based education can give some guidelines for institutions, archivists, and teachers:
a) Every national, regional or local archival institution could offer introductory visits to schools to demonstrate archival work and the different types of archival holdings. After the demonstration teams of students will be called to solve a problem using those same archives used during the demonstration challenge (e.g., to identify original documents versus copies or facsimiles).
b) Archivists in archival institutions can focus on key documents that they come across them in the course of their work. They may want to establish special lists or guides for educational purposes, grouped by subjects or types of documents, possibly with a differentiation for the various age groups of student users.
c) Teachers can use the documents provided by archivists in classroom, probably an individual document or perhaps a short sequence of related documents and give the students a challenge on local history or culture.

The development of modern and relatively cheap copying techniques and internet technology can make it possible to extend “teaching with archives” to the large majority of schools which have no archives repository in their immediate vicinity just by using copies provided by the archivists or online documents provided by the archival institutions.

But this kind of work needs synergy between Archival Institutions, Archivists and Schools that are currently not on the same track.

Questions? Contact the Archive To Alive team, we’ll be happy to help you out!

Further information
http://www.ijonte.org/FileUpload/ks63207/File/10.senturk.pdf
http://shorturl.at/avGSU
https://blog.euscreen.eu/2021/10/education-powered-by-audiovisual-archives/
http://sisifo.ie.ulisboa.pt/index.php/sisifo/article/viewFile/40/41

Using archives in education

January 22, 2023Archives, educationkarld

An archive stores knowledge so that it can be used and benefit of all. It is a place where people can go to gather firsthand facts, data, and evidence from sources such as letters, reports, notes, memos, photographs, and other primary resources.

The varied content and format of archives makes them a perfect learning resource for a wide range of subjects. Archives can be used in schools and colleges to teach a range of subjects including History, English, Drama, Geography and Science.

The main reason for using archives in education is they provide access to primary sources of information. Primary sources are the firsthand facts and information that people go to in order to understand a concept in detail.

Primary sources are a gateway to the past, a peek into the documented evidence of history. They help identify patterns that might otherwise be quite hard to discern on the basis of present events alone.

Primary sources offer a critical perspective to support students in interpreting how past events may have contributed to our current world. Having access to these primary sources is therefore quite essential, and this is where archiving comes in. It is a way of looking into the past to understand the fate of our future.

Archives can therefore provide learners with original materials that can help them get a clearer hands-on experience in the subjects they are studying.

Where the archives offer first-hand accounts, these learning experiences will remain with the students for a long time, which they can use in real-life applications elsewhere. (See Edgar Dale’s Cone of Learning diagram.)

In addition, using primary sources makes sure that students are more accurate in their research, hypotheses, and conclusions. Archives offer them access to the records and relevant information they would need to complete their tasks with ease and convenience.

Doing digital archive projects with students requires them to develop their subject knowledge within a wider context, it helps them establish research skills and consider copyright implications. Archives encourage critical thinking by understanding perspective and bias, while analysing information sources and selecting relevant and appropriate content. Students will also acquire technical skills and increase their ability to effectively communicate their findings.

Find out more about archives and learning
Archives and Learning blog
Adam Matthew digital
TeachArchives
About the Internet Archive

En route pour la vie

December 12, 2022Archives, cultural heritagekarld

The exhibit “En route pour la vie” (“On the road to life”) plunges visitors into the past thanks to sound extracts drawn from INA archives, the French National Audiovisual Institute.

Created in 1982, the Road Safety Delegation acts on road users’ behaviour to make them more responsible and contributes to the reinforcement of the safety of road infrastructures, vehicles and users’ protection equipment.

To mark the 50th anniversary of its creation, the agency “The Oval Office” created the exhibit “En route pour la vie”, a travelling exhibition presenting ten iconic vehicles for ten key road safety measures, all paired with sounds, music, news flashes, information related to road safety, … all drawn from the INA archives.

For Benoît Barennes, creative director, it has been an obvious choice to use archive resources to highlight historical events, but also to create in the visitors a form of nostalgia and sympathy. He explains that archival imagery allows us to see what people have seen in past; this sort of communication creates empathy, because we get to share a small portion of the past with the people who have lived it.

The public has highly appreciated this format, and some very moving feedback was given, especially from people who have lost loved ones in accidents.

The project From Archive to Alive seeks to enhance the importance of archives for the present days: these resources can not only help us study historical events, but can be a mean to better understand it, make reasoned choices and convey emotions.

Discover the full article

Digital museum promotes cultural heritage activities

July 21, 2022Archives, cultural heritagekarld

A new digital museum has opened in Marseille. In cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, various local bodies and the association “La Fabulerie”, the first “Micro-Folies” of the French Bouches-du-Rhône region has opened in Marseille.

A “Micro-Folie” is a digital museum, which can host a FabLab, a Virtual Reality (VR) room, a theatre, a library and an area where people can meet, chat, share a meal and co-create.

A Fab Lab, or digital fabrication laboratory, is a place for people to play, to create, to learn, to mentor, to invent. It is a place for learning and innovation. Fab Labs provide access to the environment, the skills, the materials and the advanced technology to allow anyone anywhere to make (almost) anything.

The main aim of Micro-Folie is to create a multi-purpose venue, co-created with its audience. In fact, every Micro-Folie is unique, as they answer the specific needs of local citizens.

Since May 2021, the Micro-Folie in Marseille has been welcoming young people and adults, who can play with several digital works of art and explore paintings and their history in every detail. Like the From Archive to Alive project, the Micro-Folies want to make digital archives accessible and popular among the youngsters.

The association “La Fabulerie” hosts the Micro-Folie in its museum, Le Fabuleux. To find out more about the frequently organised workshops, visit the website https://lafabulerie.com/.

Picture source: Ville de Lille, https://kulturiste.fr/une-etude-de-politique-culturelle/

EUscreen and education

May 29, 2022Archives, education, EUScreenkarld

The EUscreen portal provides access to clips and programmes from 25 broadcasters and audiovisual archives from 19 European countries. The collection consists of thousands of media items including videos, photographs, audio files, and documents, curated by archivists and researchers.

With such a wealth of open access resources to use, EUscreen has been used in some schools and in higher education. You can explore educational perspectives EUscreen archives through a map or via the EUscreen blog or through articles on View journal.

The EUscreen network blog for teachers has been used to promote specific education projects the network is involved in and ways to use EUscreen services. An example of a project is Media Numeric, an Erasmus+ project that aims to educate a new generation of journalists and multimedia makers and gives them the tools to help create a European media ecosystem, that is user-driven, fair and balanced, economically sustainable and technologically advanced.

The Media Numeric project seeks to provide students and young professionals in media and communication studies the theoretical know-how and skills needed to embolden them to take on the opportunities of data-driven journalism and media production.

EUscreen has a call-to-action: for teachers and educators interested in innovative education activities. They welcomes individuals and organisations within the educational sector to search and use the available content on the portal to create and implement high-quality education content and activities. You can find out more about EUscreen and education from the video below.

Audiovisual Archives for Education_EUscreen from EUscreen on Vimeo.

What is EUscreen?

April 6, 2022Archives, EUScreenkarld

EUscreen is a website that provides free access to Europe’s television heritage through videos, articles, images and audio from European audiovisual archives and broadcasters. It offers an archive of resources that is based on the materials from a consortium of European broadcasters and audiovisual archives. They aim to support access to Europe’s audiovisual heritage. The European Convention for the Protection of the Audiovisual Heritage established by the Council of Europe creates the context for work on cultural co-operation, of which promoting European cinema has always been an important concern.

EUscreen runs its own Web portal providing access to archive materials. It is based on a consortium established in 2006 and draws on the expertise of a wide network of audiovisual archives, academic and technical partners. EUscreen an independent, inclusive network, supporting durable and contextualised access to Europe’s television heritage. The network actively promotes awareness of audiovisual heritage in various domains, including education, research, media production and towards the general public. In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of the network, the EUscreen Foundation was founded in 2013.

EUscreen offers access to data files which must be available in XML, CSV, or JSON files, or via OAI-PMH harvesting as well as the following:

– Curation of audiovisual content through video collections, virtual and onsite exhibitions,
– Promotion of collections and partners through a monthly newsletter, the EUscreen blog and social media (Twitter and Facebook), video collections, virtual exhibitions,
– Promotion of using audiovisual collections for education and research, also through the open access academic VIEW Journal of
– European Television History and Culture,
– Information and training on workflows and requirements needed to contribute data to EUscreen and Europeana,
– Training on working with the MINT mapping tool to map and enrich data following the requirements for publication on the EUscreen portal, as well as on Europeana Collections,
– Online aggregation training, courses and workshops at EUscreen network events,
– Data analysis and a feedback loop before sending data to Europeana,
– Uploading, storing and streaming of content for the EUscreen portal.