On April 24, 2018, EuroClio, in conjunction with Europeana, held a workshop entitled The human impact of World War 1: Living with disability – How to use quality source materials for online learning activities, in Marseille as part of the EuroClio Annual Conference 2018. This event featured participants from Denmark, Northern Ireland, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, South Korea, Poland, Hungary, and The Netherlands. The workshop focused on the physical and psychological consequences of the First World War on soldiers, and how they were able to adjust to their new lives post-war and cope with traumas.
During the first half of the workshop, participants were introduced to sources that illustrate this issue, which were handpicked for their educational value from the Europeana Collections. They provide insight into the jobs these people took on, their changed socioeconomic status, and their physical changes as resulting from injuries. The second part of the workshop saw participants working together to create online learning activities that made use of these sources and the interactive tools made available by the online platform. The participants attested that they found having access to curated sets of sources such as these convenient for their needs, both because it saves time, and because it combines sources into one pool to pull from. The Experiencing the War section, also a part of the First World War module, is also helpful in teaching the immediate and long-term aftermath of the war on soldiers, sailors, and airmen.
This workshop, provided by Steven Stegers (Acting Executive Director at EuroClio) and Chris Rowe (Editor of the Historiana historical content team), is the third event in a series of workshops that aim to develop history educators’ competence in utilizing the resources provided by Europeana. EuroClio looks forward to the workshops to come in this initiative.
