Roy Rosenzweig, professor of history and new media at George Mason University, will deliver the keynote speech at the "Developing Democratic Citizens" conference at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 27, in Hoyt Hall on the University of Rochester's River Campus. Rosenzweig, who is a nationally recognized leader in the field of new media, will address the use of new technology in teaching social studies and social history.
The keynote speech, "Digitizing the Past: The Promise and Perils of History and New Media," is free and open to the public. It will include a multimedia demonstration of CD-ROM technology. Rosenzweig will explore such topics as using the Web and CD-ROM to enhance the teaching of the humanities, and the advantages and limitations of new media. He will also present a related workshop later in the day.
Rosenzweig is a widely published author and the founder and director of the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. The center sponsors numerous projects that use the Web and CD-ROM technology to present the past to a variety of audiences.
For the last decade, Rosenzweig has been working with the American Social History Project at City University of New York and other groups to explore the possibilities of new technology and new media for history. Through this research, he developed the prize-winning multimedia CD-ROM "Who Built America? From the Centennial Celebration of 1876 to the Great War of 1914" and its forthcoming sequel, "Who Built America? From the Great War of 1914 to the Dawn of the Atomic Age in 1946."
Rosenzweig's visit is sponsored by a grant from the Office of the Provost. Other University sponsors are Academic Technology Services, the Department of History, the Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, and the Graduate Organizing Group.
The conference, which focuses on instructing students in kindergarten through college on social history and democracy, is presented by the Warner School and will take place from 9 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. Other presenters will include elementary and secondary teachers as well as professors and graduate students from Rochester and throughout the Great Lakes area.