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Course: World History Project - Origins to the Present > Unit 1
Lesson 3: History Frames | 1.2- BEFORE YOU WATCH: Frame Concept Introduction
- WATCH: Frame Concept Introduction
- BEFORE YOU WATCH: Communities Frame Introduction
- WATCH: Communities Frame Introduction
- BEFORE YOU WATCH: Networks Frame Introduction
- WATCH: Networks Frame Introduction
- BEFORE YOU WATCH: Production and Distribution Frame Introduction
- WATCH: Production and Distribution Frame Introduction
- History Frames
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WATCH: Frame Concept Introduction
The past is vast. How can we organize the massive amount of events and sources in a way that makes it understandable and usable? Frames are a tool that historians use to sort through, group, and think about long term historical trends. In this course, we use three frames—communities, networks, and production and distribution. These frames help us connect events, people, and trends across era and enable us to create frame stories that make the past meaningful.
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Website: https://whp.oerproject.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OERProject/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/OERProject. Created by World History Project.
Want to join the conversation?
- Can there be any type of "hybrid" frame, like a distribution/network frame, or a production/community frame? Just curious.(10 votes)
- Well a they overlap so I guess you could say there is this and that frame, but I don't think that there is a hybrid.(5 votes)
- i have another question, what grade do you actually start doing algebra ??help me plz(5 votes)
- If you decide to take pre-ap (advanced) math in 7th grade, you must take it in 8th grade, otherwise you can take it in high school.(3 votes)
- can I take world history instead of this in 10th grade(4 votes)
- whats the original definition if “era”(2 votes)
- an "era" is a period of time defined by some characteristic, and bound by a beginning and an end. Like "the Mickey Mouse Club era" at Disney.(5 votes)
- is there any sports history or Boston tea party.(0 votes)
- should i take a practice a world 2 on a test on atom bomb(0 votes)
- is there class on a punnet square practice(0 votes)
- what history class should take for 11 grade(0 votes)
Video transcript
(music playing) A good map, on paper
or on your phone, is critical when traveling
in unfamiliar territory. Maps help you navigate a trip, locating your place
on the Earth, showing you where you are, where you've been,
and where you're heading. And good maps provide just
enough detail-- and no more-- to get you where you're going. But what if you're
traveling through time? What tool can help
locate you in time, help you to "see" where you are, where you've been,
and where you're going? Are there tools
we could use, like maps, that might help you
as you start your journey through the familiar
and unfamiliar territories of world history? In this course,
we think Big Story frames, or simply frames, will help as you travel
through history, mapping the trip
our species has taken over hundreds of thousands
of years. Like maps, the frames highlight
important milestones or turning points on a trip. But unlike maps,
these historical milestones or turning points are snapshots in time, showing changes in how
our ancestors lived, worked, organized themselves,
and connected to others. The frames in this course
provide a way to get meaningful pictures
or answers out of a huge amount
of information. A world history course
cannot possibly tell you everything that happened
to everyone for the entire history
of the world, but sometimes it seems
like your teacher and your class materials are trying to do just that. Lots of places, lots of dates,
lots of people, lots of events, and lots of ideas
will come your way. And there's a risk that
you'll get lost in the details, losing your place in time,
until it seems like history is just one thing
after another after another. You need a way to connect
what you're learning, to find answers to questions or ways to understand
what it all means. The frames should help you
to do this kind of work. Now, what kind of tool
is a frame? By viewing the past
through a frame, it should help you make sense of
the wild diversity of history. It should help you use
what you learn about the past to understand our present
and to anticipate the future. (music playing) The three frames we use
in this course are: Communities; Production and
Distribution; and Networks. The Communities frame looks at how we've structured
the societies around us, including the state
and religion. The Production
and Distribution frame explores how we have made
and moved the stuff we use every day. Finally, the Networks frame
looks at how humans have been connected to and
interact with one another. Now, these are only three
of the many possible ways you could frame the past
and the present. But we think using these three will help you make sense
of the details you'll encounter. They will offer insight
into important questions about how the events of the past have led us to the lives
we live today. This, in turn, should help you
to think about and prepare for the future. How might the frames do this? For example, in looking at how
humans changed the communities in which they lived, the Communities frame might help
you to understand the promise and limitations
of democracy-- yesterday, today, and tomorrow. In seeing
all the changes we made in the ways we produced and
distributed goods and services, the Production and Distribution
frame might help you to think about
how work has been changing and what jobs might
be available in the future. And using the Networks frame
might help you to think carefully
about the ways new forms of communication-- from spoken words to letters to
telephones to the internet-- historically changed society and to prepare you
for the changes to come. (music playing) Each frame enables us
to connect particular events and trends in the past to those that came before
and will come after. However, depending
on which frame we use, we can get different
but complementary answers. For example, the transition
to farming in the distant past and the Cold War
in the recent past assume very different meaning if we consider them as changes
in community identities, or economic systems
of production and distribution, or the networks
of people and ideas. Of course, these elements
of human life all overlap, and so the frames also
all overlap. But that's okay. The past is messy
and complicated, and so are the tools
we must use to study it. Frankly, that's why using
multiple frames is so useful-- each frame reveals
important information that other frames may not. After all,
you need different maps to help you see
different territories, right? One map may be great
for one purpose but not so good for another. So it is with the frames. The important thing
to remember about frames is that they let you connect
events and people and trends across multiple eras. They create big stories
over grand sweeps of time, all the way to the present. Now, even though it might appear that we're studying
each era separately, it's very important to help you
see bigger patterns of change, patterns sweeping
through all the eras, all the way to the present. For example, consider-- as we do
in the Communities frame-- that some humans began living in
cities thousands of years ago, but it was only in 2007--
just over a decade ago-- when more than half of all
humans were living in cities for the first time. Clearly, the history of cities
isn't confined to one era, nor is any other history. Frames, then, are useful tools for understanding big changes
in human history. However, because
they focus on big changes, they are not perfect tools. They leave out
more than they include. Indeed, frames look at events,
trends, and long histories through particular filters. None of them tells
the whole story. It's really impossible to tell
the whole of human history through any single story. Even as we use the frames,
we'll evaluate and modify them. We will test their claims
by asking critical questions about how well they guide us in thinking about events
of the past and the present. By both using
and evaluating the frames, we hope to improve our skills in analyzing the stories
we get from the past. This includes the frames
that others give us. We'll test their claims
using evidence and logic, considering the impact of
using one frame over another. So there you have it. Frames allow you to construct
histories that are usable for interpreting the past, orienting yourself
to the present, and preparing for the future. They enable you
to study a complex event from a particular perspective. They allow you
to generate big questions and to test them using evidence. They help you
to perceive patterns that cross different periods. They can be modified
through your own experience. This is why we have designed
this course for you to use frames, test frames, and eventually construct
your own frames for understanding
and using world history. (music playing)