Livestreams, Virtual Seminars, & Caramel Machiattos

Welcome back!

The caffeine question of the day is this: What are your favorite coffee add-ins? My two favorites are vanilla syrup and caramel sauce. Comment your answer below!

This week, we are going to be talking about all things virtual. Now I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are all somewhat familiar with virtual seminars lectures, and live streams, right? Before the pandemic, these were not so popular to do unless you created a live stream on your social media. However, with everyone being placed under quarantine, this began to change into a more common source of communication and education. Many platforms that relied on in-person seminars and lectures soon had to find other outlets for their followers to continue to learn about history. As a result of this, what was once a weekly in-person seminar that only had maybe thirty people participating, then turned into a digital seminar with a larger following. 

This brings us to one of the pros seen with virtual seminars and live streams: inclusivity. Many of these seminars are created by local communities, which then creates a gap between possible followers from other not-so-close communities. By creating these in-person seminars into virtual ones, this gap is then closed as social media helps these become more accessible to neighboring communities and those farther away. An example of these virtual seminars is the weekly History is Lunch series put on by the Mississippi Department of Archives & History. Starting at noon every Wednesday, this series invites local museum directors, curators, archivists, historians, and authors to come and talk about their own research on their desired topic in history. This is a great outlet for up-and-coming historians and educators to come and learn about small and unknown stories from Mississippi history. Due to the change in format, these seminars are now recorded and posted on the MDAH Facebook page. Now educators in the Delta region of Mississippi or those from states such as Arkansas are then able to have access to these seminars no matter the distance!

Now how can these be incorporated into the classroom? Many of these platforms have Facebook pages and websites that post their upcoming seminars with the links to connect to them with ease. Along with this, many of their past seminars are saved and recorded for future viewings. If upcoming seminars or live streams are not what you are interested in or currently teaching, previous recordings may help fix this issue. All that is needed from you is some quick research on different platforms that promote virtual seminars for history lovers. As a result, you are helping the platforms with their accessibility, as well as giving your students another resource to learn from. These allow students to learn about small aspects of history that may not be found in a textbook. Along with this, virtual seminars give both you and your students a break from the education monotony that can catch up with you after day-in-day-out lectures. These can easily be incorporated as a study tool, class discussion resource, or a quick fact quiz that students can watch and take a quiz on after; answering questions such as why the information in the seminar is important to history. No matter the way you decide to incorporate these into your lesson plans, students will be to open that history door by learning about the small things found in history. As a result, their interest in history will grow and continue to push them into learning more about history.

Don’t know where to start looking for these seminar platforms? Don’t worry! Below are three resources that incorporate virtual history seminars into their goal of educating the public on history. If you have other resources that you’d like to see here, or have any questions about today’s post, be sure to comment below or send a message. 

Mississippi Department of Archives & History- Facebook Page

American Historical Association

edX- History Courses

Until next time!