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Sender: American Memory Fellows <AMFELLOWS@RS8.LOC.GOV>
Poster: "Frances F. Jacobson" <francey@UX1.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
Subject: What gives? Classroom Connect
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Hi all -
I just got a catalog from the Classroom Connect people ("Our passion at
Classroom Connect is to support you in creating powerful learning
experiences for your students by integrating the Internet into your
classroom curriculum"). They are advertising a product ("New for Spring!")
called "American Memory Primary Sources." There are four CD-ROMs, each
with a unit on a different theme. Each unit comes with a 112-page
curriculum guide, the CD "for speedy access," and a one-year membership to
a companion web site that gets you a password to the "special Primary
Sources Web site," which includes reproducible student pages, links to
primary sources and history sites, and links to American Memory.
I think it's interesting that people would pay ($69.95 for one unit,
$225.00 for all four) for something that's essentially free. A question
for the teachers out there: how much do you use these types of full-blown
teacher guides that come with various classroom resources? I guess I've
thought of the lessons we've developed as being conceptual templates rather
than step-by-step handholding guides. I suppose that this Classroom
Connect product line is just another venue for American Memory, another way
to get the word out. I wonder if the "special Primary Sources Web site"
links to the Learning Page and the lessons that are posted there. What do
others think about this type of commercial phenomenon?
Frances
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