History Teacher 2.0

Eric Langhorst, an eighth-grade history teacher at South Valley Junior High School in Liberty, MO, is one educator who has immersed himself in technology. The only trouble might be keeping up with all of it.

There is a regular series of podcasts called “Speaking of History,” which Langhorst records and posts on his blog of the same name (speakingofhistory.blogspot.com). That’s in addition to the “studycasts,” audio files that he creates to help his students prepare for unit tests. Through membership in the Discovery Educator’s Network, Langhorst also trades tips with teachers across the country about using video streaming, and the like. And then there’s his latest project, a second blog based on, of all things, a traditional book, the historical novel The Year of the Hangman (Dutton, 2002) by Gary Blackwood.

“Wow! This is so much fun. The comments are rolling in and they are awesome,” Langhorst writes in a recent blog post, somewhat astonished by the enthusiastic response of his students. He launched the Web page in March to encourage a book discussion, and an extracurricular one at that. Yet Langhorst’s ability to sell his audience on a good read must rival that of Oprah, as his students snatched up all 60 copies that the teacher had secured through a local grant.

Prompted by thought-provoking questions posed by Langhorst, students have held a wide-ranging dialogue around the book—a historical novel whose alternate take has the British conquering the patriots in the Revolutionary War. The teacher asked the kids, for example, to take another major event and explain the impact on the world if that event had ended differently. Reflecting on the young protagonist’s experience of being expelled from several schools, Langhorst had his kids open up about the one thing that scared them the most about having to start at a new school.

The blog has drawn other participants, including a lunchtime book club in upstate New York and a homeschool student from Minnesota, as well as a growing international group of fans. So far, the site has been viewed by 156 visitors from as far away as the Netherlands, Malaysia, and the Dominican Republic. Author Gary Blackwood is also getting into the act and will join a live chat session with the project’s participants.

What’s next for Langhorst? He’s considering hosting another blog discussion, this time around a Civil War–era novel set in the Liberty area, Guerilla Season (Farrar, 2003) by Pat Hughes.

Although a true believer in the learning potential of blogs and other 2.0 social networking tools, Langhorst, who earned his master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis on instructional technology, still maintains an attachment to books. He works closely with South Valley’s library staff, who frequently hold book clubs of their own, he says. “But sometimes it’s hard to physically get everybody together. We can achieve that with the Internet and blogs.” Still, Langhorst maintains, “We’re never going to get away from physically holding a book.”

Little wonder, Langhorst has a book lover’s pedigree. His dad, Larry, is a library media specialist for the Pierce Public Schools in Nebraska. And his brother Kurt, who currently teaches third grade at Lillian Schumacher Elementary, also in Liberty, is earning a master’s degree in library science. “Yeah,” Langhorst says. “I like the book thing.”