Warsaw 1939. NewBook (review)

Focus on Teaching FOCUS ON TEACHING: REVIEW OF COMPUTER SOFlWARE 89 Computer software is being used increasingly as a teaching tool. Shofar welcomes reviews of specific software programs afld descriptions of innovative teaching ideas using this technology. Here Ehud Ben Zvi of the University of Alberta discusses the Macintosh program Warsaw 1939. Warsaw 1939. NewBook, by the Center for Research in Interactive Technologies and AnneberglCPB Project. Chariot Software Group, for Macintosh. $22.50. (No IBM-compatible version available)! The introduction to the Reader's Guide describes Warsaw 1939 as "an interactive, computer-based introduction to the issues and events surrounding the Holocaust in Poland," and states that "its most obvious use, and the one for which it was intended, is in college-level history and/or ethics courses." College-level students learning about these topics with Warsaw 1939 face first a series of pictures and sounds to introduce them into the somber atmosphere of the events to be discussed. They then read a historical introduction about Poland between the two world wars. This introduction is presented as a hypertext (Le., some words or terms in the texts, if selected, lead to further information on the topic). Afterwards the students learn about the Nazi invasion of Poland and conquest of Warsaw, and how these events affected Jews and Poles by the beginning of November 1939. The students then are introduced to a very specific situation, namely a Gestapo line-up of putative "alternate" members of the Jewish Council Oudenrat). At this point, each student is asked to imagine two characters standing in this line-up, David-aJew, and Stefan-a Pole. To continue his or her work on Warsaw 1939 the student has to decide whether she or he would like to follow the story of David or that of Stefan. Following the choice, a brief characterization of the selected "hero" appears on the screen. 'This review appeared in the History and Macintosh Society Newsletter, Vol. 3, No.1, 1993. Used by permission. 90 SHOFAR Spring 1993 Vol. 11, No.3 From now on, the narrative presents a series of choices to the hero. The student must decide which among two or (less frequently) more alternatives he or she wishes the hero to choose. According to the choices made, the story develops into one of the several pre-set versions of the story. Eventually, following a number of choices that depend on the selected path of action of the hero, the story comes to an end. At this point the full narrative that the student helped to create is presented to him or her. The student is now able to re-read the complete story, comment on it in a notebook, and create new links. She or he may also ask for background comments about choices already made, for more information, or for a bibliography about the issues involved in these choices. In sum, the student is asked to reflect on the character of the choices she or he caused the hero in the story to make. This description may suggest that Warsaw 1939, in its present form, is a helpful teaching tool for college students. This is not the case, in my opinion. Although Warsaw 1939 is based on a promising idea for interactive teaching, in its present form it can hardly be considered more than a relatively poor first draft of the good piece of educational software it may become. As it stands, Warsaw 1939 suffers from flaws in the presentation of historical material and in the wording of some of the instructions and explanations. The latter are quite significant because they seem to indicate, or may suggest to the student, a breach of the differentiation between the fictional narrative being developed in this program and a critical historiographical work, and what is even worse, between the ongoing narrative and the historical events. Warsaw 1939 also suffers from a few breaches of the required sequence i!1 which information must be presented, from a limited choice of characters-and from some aspects of their characterization, and from a variety of more "technical" problems. A few examples will suffice to show the kind of shortcomings I found in the presentation...