- A while back a received a review copy of the Civil War Animated CD from the good folks over at Civilwaranimated.com and thought I would share my thoughts on how this could be used in the classroom.
This website and CD have a great deal of potential in the classroom. The animations cover numerous battles in the Eastern and Western Theaters such as First Manassas, Antietam and Gettysburg, Shiloh, Vicksburg and the March on Atlanta. There is some general background information on a particular battle that leads into the actual animations. These animations give a general overview of the battle on an hour-by-hour basis. Viewers can read a description of the action taking place, visually see the troop type (artillery, cavalry, or infantry) and troop strength.
Additionally there is some great information on various generals including Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Stonewall Jackson, Ulysses Grant and George Meade.
Finally, there is some good supplemental information on Unit Organization and a nice timeline of the war.
These animations can be used in many ways from providing students with something different than just reading about a battle to using them as discussion starters on why a battle happened the way it did. I also like how the authors provided bibliographic information with each of the battles where you can obtain additional information.
While you can view most of this material online, I highly encourage you to make a $25 donation to the company and purchase a copy of the CD. As part of the CD, you get all of the material available via the website, plus additional materials and a special Teacher’s Edition of the animations. The Teacher’s Edition includes all the animations without the text boxes. Click here for a sample: Teacher’s Edition
Finally, the Civil War Animated folks provided me with a second copy to give away. So, leave a comment here on this post and on July 31, 2009 I’ll randomly choose a number and you can get a free copy of the Civil War animated CD.
Good luck and until next time…
Posted under Applications, Miscellaneous
This post was written by Jim on July 16, 2009
