- 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
great info and thanks for the post! will definitely try to use this in the classroom next year.
This sounds like an awesome resource! Would love to see this in use…
Jim,
Thanks for sharing. This cd does look like a great visual resource for teaching the Civil War.
Thanks for tells us about this CD… it looks AWESOME. I know my students would love it!!
Wow! This is a great opportunity to add to the Civil War repertoire of activities, animations and timelines. I was especially impressed with the inclusion of various semi-famous generals and battles. I’m always interested in those who lived, fought and died on the fringes of historical popularity. My favorite general is General Pike. To me, he is the enigma of the war, capable, yet flawed by his distaste for the war.
While I don’t teach about the Civil War now, I will share this information and the CD, if I win it, with my colleagues who do.
What a great resource! I will be passing this post on to other teachers that can use it. Thank you so much for all of the great resources!
This is a totally awesome CD. It will definitely catch students attention and spark more conversations, thanks for the information!
THIS GIVES A NEW PROSPECTIVE TO THE CIVIL WAR. MUST DIFFERENT IN READING AND OBSERVING SMALL ILLUSTRATIONS, YET THE ANIMATION SHOWS MOVEMENT OF SOLDIERS ON BOTH SIDES AS WELL THE COMMANDER’S INTENT. ABSOLUTELY EXCELLENT!!!!!