Columbia University Asian History for Educator - Contemporary China (21st Century)

[Chris Hertzog]

http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/

Above is the main site for the 'Asia For Educators' operated by Columbia University.  Overall this site has a multitude of links for Asia in specific regions, times and comparative sites as well as some detailed pages dedicated to Asian geography features and regions, art expositions and language arts ideas and recommended sites and titles as well as video/ print resources, lesson plans and leveled resources for teachers at the primary or secondary levels.

http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/timelines/china_timeline

A dedicated timeline with links to Chinese dynasties is very helpful for teachers or students  to get back history on any time period with key events, beliefs and locations of capital cities.

But, for the current course from USC that was offered focusing on modern China, this site has an excellent selection of resources, including USC Asia for Educators... full circle.  

The modern section is great to find outside links from an non-Chinese point of view then they have selections like those below that are from an inside China perspective, but in English for students to see news and perspectives.

• Beijing Scene | "Beijing's Best Bilingual Lifestyle Magazine"

• Caijing Magazine | "China's Most Respected Business Magazine"

• China Daily | "The Most Cited Chinese Newspaper by Foreign Media"

• Danwei | "Chinese Media, Advertising and Urban Life"

• People's Daily | "The Latest News Dispatches of Policy Information and Resolutions of the Chinese Government"

• Shanghai Daily | "English Window to China News"

Hong Kong

• South China Morning Post

Taiwan

• The China Post

• Taipei Times | "Bringing Taiwan to the World and the World to Taiwan"

Then there is a section below that is for educators with news source and current educator/ university research links, but one that I really like personally and have used is the Stanford SPICE which highlights current event topics related back to historical lectures from Stanford professors.  Always relavent and tied to historical back stories.

See below...

• The Choices for the 21st Century Education Program >> Teaching with the News [Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University]
"The Choices Program's Teaching with the News initiative provides online curriculum materials and lessons to connect the content of your classroom to the headlines in the news. Topics cover a range of foreign policy and international issues." The "Teachers Corner" section of this website also features teaching tools, assessment tools, and other resources. The Scholars Online section features video interviews with university scholars (see, for example, Xu Wenli and the China Democratic Party). Choices also publishes excellent curriculum units for purchase.

• For Educators >> Academic Modules [Council on Foreign Relations]
"Academic Modules — featuring teaching notes by the authors of CFR publications — are designed to assist educators in creating or supplementing a course syllabus. The modules are customized packages built around a primary CFR text, such as a book or report, and include teaching notes; additional readings; video, audio, and transcripts of CFR meetings; Foreign Affairs articles; and other online resources." Also see the Publication section for "Daily Analysis," Interviews," "Online Debates," and "Backgrounder" articles on current world issues.

• Great Decisions: In the Classroom [Foreign Policy Association]
The Foreign Policy Association, in collaboration with PBS, sponsors an annual series on current events topics. On the website above, click on the list of "Topics" to see which will relate to East Asia in the current year. Look also at the "Materials" list for the Classroom Packet, should you wish to order it.

• Education about Asia (EAA) [Association for Asian Studies]
This journal has excellent articles on contemporary topics written with the classroom in mind. A subscription is highly recommended.

• Global Issues and Current Events [Asian Educational Media Service, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign]
Featuring resource guides (with links to newspaper articles, editorials, video clips, and lesson plans) on selected current events topics.

• SPICE Digest [SPICE: Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University]
"SPICE Digest was created to provide educators with background information on a wide variety of topics related to Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the global environment, and international political economy." A selection of articles on China and Japan, some on topics of contemporary concern, are available online. The Digest is disseminated twice yearly via email subscription. SPICE also publishes excellent curriculum units for purchase.

[Heidi Kwalk]

This is a very well organized, comprehensive, and reliable and respectable website--well, it is Columbia University's site after all! I love that such prestigious university's site has such treasure trove of resources dedicated to the educators of history. I am wondering if this is a trend in the field of history in general. That is, history  scholars realize  that the way history has been taught in the past is just not working. I have seen at least a couple of articles in the last year about the decline of history majors in colleges. Are history scholars and scholars of education, are they realizing the best way to impact the history understanding and history education of the future is to impact the school teachers and provide them with the best tools, resources and training?  If that is the case, I believe they are on the right track!

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