The USC Shoah Foundation Institute (SFI)has partnered with the Center for Digital Systems (CeDiS) at Freie Universität Berlin to organize a two-and-a-half day workshop dedicated to integrating video testimonies into secondary school classroom instruction. Looking at History: Incorporating Video Testimony Across the Curriculum will be held on the campus of the Freie Universität, where the Shoah Foundation Institute’s entire Visual History Archive has been available and searchable since 2006. The goal of the workshop is to bring the Institute’s international partners from Europe into dialogue with each other, and with the educators who have developed and/or used lessons and educational resources based on SFI’s video testimonies.

From May 13-15, 2009, representatives from NGOs and governmental entities who partner with the Institute in its educational work, along with educators, will gather at the Freie Universität to share best practices and experiences in developing educational materials using video testimonies. To this end, participants will meet and discuss topics of relevance to their work. These topics might include, but are not limited to: procedures for developing video-based educational resources as well as the use of technology to support learning with video testimonies.

In addition, participants will discuss the successes and challenges that they face in their work. Topics for these sessions might include, but are not limited to: conducting effective teacher training, measuring the success of programs/conducting evaluation, and facilitating the process of lesson-creation for educators.