Helping Colorado Educators and Students Discover the Treasures
of the Library of Congress

AAM-Colorado Newsletter • Edition 1 • September 2004

AAM-Colorado Announces
its NEW Web Site!
Get information about the AAM-Colorado program,
Primary Source Workshops, online resources and links to help educators and educational support personnel use digitized primary sources in the classroom. Visit AAM-Colorado online at: http://aamcolorado.mscd.edu.

What is An Adventure of the American Mind – Colorado?
The innovative AAM-Colorado program is part of the larger national AAM program. The goals of the program are to train in-service and pre-service classroom teachers, faculty such as librarians, media specialists and educational support personnel, and college faculty to access, use, and produce curriculum using the Internet and digitized primary source materials from the Library of Congress (LOC) collections.

Why Use Primary Sources?
Primary sources are snippets of history that may include sources such as letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspapers, speeches, photos and interviews. They often come with minimal context. Working with primary sources requires students to be analytical, to examine sources thoughtfully, and to determine what else they need to know to make inferences from the material. History comes alive for students who are motivated by primary sources. Analysis of primary sources deepens student understanding of the curriculum by developing memory, reason and imagination to foster empathy for the past, perspectives on the present, and the ability to influence the future.

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Dr. Milligan believes that educators who participate in the AAM-Colorado program will build a bank of resources and tools they can use in their classrooms, and that the program will help participants more easily gather artifacts. She feels that participation in the program will stimulate creativity and spark imagination, creating motivation in both educators and their students. She also sees potential in connecting pre-service teachers with those already teaching in classrooms.

Dr. Milligan earned her B.A. in History from Tufts University, and her M.Ed. and Ph.D. in Educational Administration from the University of South Carolina. Dr. Milligan, a classroom teacher for 12 years and an administrator for 14 years, has taught at Metro since 2001.

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There are numerous reasons to participate in this curriculum enhancement program. As an AAM-Colorado participant, you will be part of a national program that will help you and your colleagues learn to access and use Library of Congress online materials and other digital primary sources. You can become an influential mentor in your school and help others learn how to best access, use and create digital media resources in the classroom. You can earn Recertification Credits and Graduate Credits to enhance your career. By participating in the AAM-Colorado program, you can obtain your American Memory Certification and apply for a $1,500 Technology Acquisition to be used in your school, and earn up to $450 in Digital Resource Certificates redeemable at Metro State’s Digital Primary Source Center.

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AAM-Colorado Workshops are Coming Soon!
The AAM-Colorado project will be implemented by presenting the training as two components: Workshops and Curriculum Development Institutes. The Series I Workshops will introduce the participant to the Library of Congress digitized primary sources and other local and national digital collections, including techniques such as searching, acquiring, and downloading digital resources. The Series II Workshops will cover strategies for using primary source material to enhance curriculum using authentic artifacts, documents, photographs, and manuscripts from the Library of Congress Historical Collections and other sources. Series III Workshops will provide technology skills that are necessary to present digital resources in the classroom, including downloading digital primary sources, capturing new digital resources, and integrating digital resources into a presentation format.

To view the current schedule of upcoming Primary Source Workshops, visit the AAM-Colorado Web site at http://aamcolorado.mscd.edu/schedule.

The Workshops are offered as modules that allow participants to attend workshops as individual classes or for continuing professional development credit or for 1-3 hours of Graduate Credit. The modular format allows participants to select the number of workshops and the amount of professional development or college credit they desire.

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Earn American Memory Certification and a Technology Acquisition for Your School!
Upon completion of Series I and Series II Workshops, the participant will be awarded the American Memory Certification.

A school with at least one person having an American Memory Certificate is eligible to apply for up to $1500 in Technology Acquisitions to assist their school in using digitized primary sources in the classroom. A school with at least two people having American Memory Certificates is eligible to apply for up to $3000 in Technology Acquisitions.

AAM-Colorado Rich Media Prototypes Are in Progress
In order to enrich primary source based curriculum, AAM-Colorado’s Rich Media Development will use resources available at Metro State and the community to develop and produce rich media sources: images, audio, video, and/or animation. These instructional elements will include Library of Congress primary sources, and may include Colorado digital primary sources and original media elements created to accomplish learning outcomes.

AAM-Colorado will produce three Rich Media prototypes demonstrating rich Media integration. These prototypes will show three different ways that primary sources along with Rich Media can be used in the classroom. The Rich Media prototypes, described below, incorporate an existing television documentary, public domain footage, and a commercially authored DVD program to enrich classroom learning. More details about these Rich Media prototypes will be available soon!

AAM-Colorado Rich Media prototypes focus on using primary sources and will include lesson plans or learning activities to aid teachers in using Rich Media in the classroom.

Unlike streaming video that is played over the Internet with quality that varies depending on bandwidth, Rich Media DVD can use full screen video, 30 frames per second, full motion, multiple languages, and subtitles to enhance the video experience. Rich Media DVD offers a movie-like viewing experience with no compromise of playback quality.

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AAM-Colorado Rich Media Prototypes:

AAM-Colorado Workshops are coming soon!
Contact AAM-Colorado Director Peggy O’Neill-Jones at 303-352-4945 or aamcolorado@mscd.edu
for details about enrolling in AAM-Colorado Workshops.

Please do NOT respond to this e-mail. Instead, use the contact information below.

Peggy O’Neill-Jones, AAM-Colorado Director
Metropolitan State College of Denver
PO Box 173362, Campus Box 35
Denver, CO 80217

Phone 303-352-4945 • Fax 303-556-8135
E-mail aamcolorado@mscd.edu • Web http://aamcolorado.mscd.edu

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