This week’s roundup of interesting articles and resources found around the web includes videos on “Essential Questions in American History,” articles on using Twitter for professional development, resources for the 150th anniversary of the D.C. Compensated Emancipation Act, and more.

Insights

• Essential Questions in American History
  Gilder Lehrman has a redesigned website and a series of short videos on “Essential Questions in American History,” including Christopher Brown on slavery, Edward L. Ayers on the Civil War, Pauline Maier on the American Revolution, and many others. 
• Using Twitter to Talk about Teaching
  Use Twitter to build a “personal learning network” that will expose you to new research and ideas in your field, suggests James M. Lang, associate professor of English at Assumption College, in this article in the Chronicle.
• Fanfare for the Comma Man
  Ben Yagoda discusses in the New York Times how right and wrong comma use changes historically, using as an example the significance of the commas in the Second Amendment.
• E-books in the Academy—A Story of Limitations and Affordances
  Joseph Esposito, at The Scholarly Kitchen, investigates academia’s reluctance to embrace e-books.

Civil War

• 150th Anniversary of the D.C. Compensated Emancipation Act
  Monday, April 16, is the 150th anniversary of the D.C. Compensated Emancipation Act, which freed slaves in Washington, D.C., eight and a half months before the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves nationwide. The National Archives is recognizing this date with a panel discussion next Wednesday, April 18, and with this video it’s shared online.
• Civil War Washington
  The Civil War Washington website, mentioned in the video above, has over 200 digitized emancipation petitions, maps, and other data that examines how the Civil War affected Washington, D.C. Learn more about the site in this Chronicle article (please note, this article is behind a paywall).

Resources

• The history of the web, brought to life
  Tech Republic reports on a new exhibition, Life Online, at the National Media Museum in the UK that explores the history of the Internet, how it’s impacted culture and society, and what the future of technology holds.
• Jazz Appreciation Month
  April is Jazz Appreciation Month, and EDSITEment offers a number of ways to teach the history of jazz in the classroom. The site includes resources like a Jazz and World War II lesson plan, the Ken Burns film JAZZ and the corresponding resources online, Columbia University’s Jazz Studies Online, and more.

Contributors: Elisabeth Grant, Vernon Horn, Allen Mikaelian, and Robert B. Townsend

This post first appeared on AHA Today.