Teaching

Many members of the ‘Tensions of Europe--ToE’ research network are involved in programs of study (undergraduate, graduate, doctoral) that benefit from ToE research. In effect, ToE is, also, a unique teaching/education network on history, technology, Europe.

We will publish lists of Resources, Programs and Courses available through/around ToE. The lists will be populated as we receive related material from ToE members and friends.  Please send your material to be uploaded in this section to Aristotle Tympas (at tympas[at]phs.uoa.gr), whom you can contact for more information on the  teaching/educational activities of the ToE network.

Inventing Europe: European Digital Museum for Science and Technology

This remarkable European digital museum explores the history, culture and formation of Europe through the lens of technological objects and images. Historians and cultural heritage institutions from across Europe have joined in this pioneering collaboration. Inventing Europe brings the Making Europe book series to life by interrelating it with the collections of over eleven cultural heritage institutions. On Inventing Europe visitors will discover that nothing is quite what it seems and that there is more to an object than appears at first sight.

Visitors can follow a number of object-based tours through the history of the last century and a half. The tours are collected within different exhibitions that explore the broader themes of Daily Lives, Media & Communications, Knowledge Societies, Infrastructure, Globalization and Governance. Visitors will see how the grand processes of history have worked through localized objects and interactions.

 Education program

Inventing Europe has developed a new educational program where students across Europe learn new ways of engaging with rich primary materials. European universities in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Sweden already use Inventing Europe as a teaching tool.

Since the start in 2011, most parts of the Inventing Europe website have been used in teaching, from the Exhibitions and Tours, to the Explore Europeana section, the MyEurope environment and the Education page. Teachers clearly use the different entry points into the website for achieving different learning objectives, varying from a more content based orientation, a more research skills based orientatian, or an object based orientation.

Learning objectives

  1. Students engage with a current debate in European historiography that they can contrast with other historical approaches, like national histories, European integration literature etc.
  2. Students learn to write for the web, and recognize how that differs from other writing styles.
  3. Students learn to engage with the web in an academic way. They learn to contextualize objects, how to relate objects and academic content, and how to deal with metadata questions, copyright issues and with source criticism.
  4. Students learn new ways of building museums in a virtual world.
  5. Students enhance their creative and innovative skills.
  6. Engineering students obtain an understanding of their future working identity, and their contributory role to society.

MyEurope

Visitor are invited to log into the interactive environment, MyEurope, on the website and engage actively with this new history. In MyEurope visitors can create their own tours through European history, sharing their knowledge, experiences and objects with the Inventing Europe community. They can also pose questions to curators, start or join in ongoing discussions, and share their favorite objects and stories with their friends.

 Inventing Europe partner institutions

  • Deutsches Museum
  • Dokumentationzentrum  Alltagskultur der DDR
  • Europeana
  • Fondazione ISEC
  • Hungarian Museum for Science, Technology and Transport
  • Museum Boerhaave
  • Museum Centre Vapriikki
  • Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision
  • Norsk Teknisk Museum
  • Science Center NEMO
  • Science Museum in London
  • Tropical Research Institute of Portugal