Social studies involves looking at the past to understand the present.
Such looks include, among others things, looking at people and their
culture, history, geography, economic and political systems, globalization,
and communication. These things are the essence of social studies.
Yet, for students today, much of the past seems irrelevant simply
because they were not there. They can only imagine.
With today's technology, however, students need not imagine what the
past was like. They can actually participate in the events of the
past. The Internet provides such a place for these experiences. Making
use of all previous media, the Internet invites students to explore
history as it was lived and in the way it was lived. The telegraph,
often considered the birth child of the Internet, is one way to do
this.
Below is a quick and easy exercise that will help students participate
briefly in the world of telegraphy. The exercise introduces them to
the telegraph and Morse code. They will not only translate Morse into
English, but will hear the code as it sounds over a virtual telegraph.
By doing so, they will gain a better understanding of communication
in the late nineteenth century. This in turn can lead to personal
reflections and classroom discussions about communication and the
impact it has had and still has on almost every theme relevant to
the social studies curriculum. For example, students can contrast
and compare the use of telegraphy during the First World War with
that of the Internet during the recent Terrorist attacks in the United
States. In addition, classroom discussions and assignments can centre
around the increasing marriage of space and time from the onset of
the telegraph era to today's global-wide use of the Internet.
Dot Dash Scavenger Hunt:
First Word •— — ••••
• — —
Second Word •••• •—
— ••••
Third Word — —• — — —
—••
Fourth Word •— — •—•
— — — ••— — —•
•••• —
Instructions:
The message above is in Morse code. Your job is to unscramble the
message and then listen to it via the online Morse box. Here is how:
1. Go to <http://www.zianet.com/sparks/coder.html>
2. Match the symbols in Morse code to the letters used in the Morse
legend on the site.
3. Once you have the message unscrambled, type the phrase into the
box and click "Morse."
4. Listen to how the message sounds.
5. Also - play around with the sounds of Morse until you can begin
to decipher the letters clearly - type and listen to the sound of
your own name.
6. Post a brief reflection under the telegraph discussion board. In
your reflection, do not give away the answer of the message (because,
of course, we are asynchronistic and others will be coming on later.)
The significance of the message will naturally come up later. The
point of the reflection is simply to share your own insights about
the experience as it was for you and to stimulate more global discussions
relevant to the telegraph.
[Note to instructors. The answer is "What hath God Wrought,"
the first message to be sent via telegraph. On May 24, 1844, Samuel
Morse sent this message through the 40-mile telegraph line from Washington
to Baltimore. There are numerous websites on the telegraph, but this
one gives a synopsis of the evolution of Morse Code and the telegraph
in brief: http://mirrorus.unesco.org/courier/1999_08/uk/connect/txt1.htm.]
Conclusion:
We are, as commonly expressed, living in an "Information Age."
Human communication - its history and its impact - is a fundamental
social studies concept. This brief activity can help your students
come to understand how radically different communication is in the
just over 150 years since Samuel Morse sent the first telegraph message.
Extending this activity could provide an interesting critical speculation
for students. How will communication change in the next 150 years?
What vision do humans have already (as seen in movies and novels,
for example) about communication in the future? And, most importantly,
how has and will human communication change the way humans live?
