Visegrad IWalks: Teaching Democracy through Digital Local History Walks
As part of this project supported by the International Visegrad Fund, Zachor Foundation and its partners in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia build video-testimony based local history walks to teach about xenophobia and democracy. The mobile app-based innovative and accessible educational tools deal with local history, remembrance and encourage civic participation.
We build on our previous Visegrad project: "Local History – Personal Memory” when the first IWalks were developed in partner countries. The successes and the interest shown by participants at the closing conference led us to create more IWalks in new locations.
IWalks combine video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust from the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive (VHA), physical sites, and critical thinking questions. Partners create IWalks (hosted on the existing free mobile application) and disseminate them in partner countries to educational multipliers and educators via teacher trainings and webinars.
IWalks are localized - discussing local history brings the topic closer to the students and allows them to think about geographies holistically and draw on regional themes. We use video testimonies of local survivors on location, allowing the students to use digital technology while connecting to their community.
IWalks are based on a shared methodology but respect local specificities: by disseminating them through the partners we integrate these programs into the general pedagogical program of these organizations and thus institutionalize the IWalk program on an organizational level.
PARTNERS
Czech Republic: Památník Terezin (Terezin Memorial)
Poland: Centrum Żydowskie w Oświęcimu (Auschwitz Jewish Center)
Slovakia: Nadácia Milana Šimečku (Milan Simecka Foundation)
Closing Conference
Program outcomes:
learn about the newly developed IWalks in Terezin (CZ), Oświęcim, (PL), Kosice (SK) and Baja (HU).
learn about the pedagogical potentials, shared methodology and possible uses of the IWalk program in an offline and online educational setting.
The language of the conference is English.
Date: 2021, April 27-28 (15.30pm – 18.30 pm)
Place: online (via Zoom platform)
