The Student News Website of Susquehannock High School,   Glen Rock, Pennsylvania.

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The Student News Website of Susquehannock High School,   Glen Rock, Pennsylvania.

SHS Courier

The Student News Website of Susquehannock High School,   Glen Rock, Pennsylvania.

SHS Courier

Skype allows students to learn from bestselling author

The World: Students can check out this Kenneth Davis book at the library and learn some facts about geography. Photo By: Molly Stanley

Historian Kenneth Davis, the bestselling author of the Don’t Know Much About series, held a Skype lesson with a United States History II class.  On November 5, teacher Kimberly Johnson’s class was able to interact with Davis using Skype.  Senior Dalton Munsell found talking with an author on Skype was an enjoyable experience that was different than regular class lectures.  “It was a lot different than what we do in most classes,” said Munsell.  Johnson won the opportunity for Davis to Skype with her class on twitter.  “I found out [Davis] was offering free Skype’s to history teachers through twitter, and I thought…I might as well just put my name in and see if he picks me, and he did,” said Johnson.  “It was just…a snap decision.”

According to dontknowmuch.com, Davis’ first book was Don’t Know Much About History, which spent 35 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.  This book started the entire series.  Davis sets up his books in a question and answer format.  “History is about real people, real places, doing real things,” said Davis during the Skype session.  “I try to talk about the stories of real people.”  Davis was still able to teach and take questions from the students, even though there were many technical difficulties.  Despite the difficulties, the students were still able to ask him questions about the presidential election.  Sophomore Cassandra Browne thinks the lesson would have gone better if Davis personally came into the classroom instead of teaching over a screen.  “I think [him coming in] would have been better because we could’ve actually gotten a lot more information from him,” Browne said.  Johnson hopes that the students were able to take away a memorable experience from the Skype lesson.  “What I hope they get out of it, though, is…an experience with a professional historian, … seeing the way the professional historian might take history,” said Johnson.  The Skype lesson gave students a chance to learn in a new and exciting way and allowed them to learn about a bestselling author at the same time.

Works Consulted

– http://dontknowmuch.com/

Brushing Up on History: A book by Kenneth Davis, Don’t Know Much About Mythology, is one of the many books in his series. Photo By: Molly Stanley
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Skype allows students to learn from bestselling author