New app brings Shoah education programme into the digital age
WHILE THE Holocaust remains a compulsory part of the national history curriculum in English secondary schools, the educational experience is only as good as the teachers and resources that deliver it.
The Imperial War Museum has not only revamped its Holocaust galleries, which opened in London to the public last week, but also updated its learning programme for schoolchildren.
Whereas in the past young visitors had an audio guide to accompany them around the exhibition, now they are given iPads with a specially designed app.
“We wanted to create something that took education to where children are,” said Anil Glendinning, cofounder of Friday Sundae, the Bristolbased studio that produced the app. It has previously done work with the IMW for its air museum in Duxford.
“One of the things we have found in the past,” he said, “is when you give students free rein is they will spend a lot of time in the early rooms and then rush through the later section as they start to run out of time.”
They can pick objects which speak to them or arouse their curiosity ’
Instead, the new app gives them a curated tour which keeps them on track. The children generally spend around an hour and a half in the galleries, between an introductor session and a post-visit debriefing.
The technology also allows greater interactivity than before. As they move around the rooms, the app will pose questions for discussion. It also provides additional information about some of the objects in any room. Although they cannot touch the items, they can examine them in closer detail via the 3D images of them on the app, which the designers devised by taking hundreds of scans of exhibits in the museum.
“They can pick some objects which speak to them or arouse their curiosity,” Mr Glendinning explained. “Sometimes they belong to an individual who may be referenced further on in the gallery. The app allows
them to interact with some of these objects.”
The app may ask them about the significance of the object or why they think the curator placed it there at that particular point.
One of the main aims is to “encourage confidence in students in discussing the Holocaust,” he said.
Another educational concern was to clear up common misconceptions and misunderstandings children have. The designers were steered by the research of University College London’s Centre for Holocaust Education, which produced a major report five years identifying gaps in children’s knowledge.So to help them with chronology, the app includes a timeline of events at every stage.
When students are able to interact, they retain more knowledge’
“One of the popular misconceptions is that the percentage of Jews within the German population was far higher than it actually was. Many students said 10 per cent, 20 per cent, even as high as 30 per cent and were shocked to discover just how miniscule the population was [below one per cent].”
Another misconception resulted from linking the images of Allied soldiers landing on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day to those of the liberation of Belsen so that they came to believe that the Second World War was ostensibly fought to prevent the Holocaust.
When children finish, they will be given a learning pack to take back with them. The museum also plans to prepare materials for teachers.
“Research has shown that when students are able to interact and make decisions during their learning experience versus a passive experience where they were just listening, they are able to retain more knowledge,” Big school, big heart, he said.
“That is what we are hoping to do with this interactive learning application.”