The UCLA Asian American Studies Center today unveiled a very impressive online textbook for high school classes on Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders. It’s titled Foundations and Futures. Here is an excerpt from its description: Foundations and Futures: Asian American and Pacific Islander Multimedia Textbook celebrates the hidden histories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders […]
The UCLA Asian American Studies Center today unveiled a very impressive online textbook for high school classes on Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders.
It’s titled Foundations and Futures.
Here is an excerpt from its description:
Foundations and Futures: Asian American and Pacific Islander Multimedia Textbook celebrates the hidden histories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to provide a fuller understanding of the American experience and the contemporary world. The scapegoating of Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic was a reminder that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders remain little understood despite centuries of history as part of the United States and touched by its reaches across the Pacific.
This textbook democratizes over fifty years of scholarship that flourished since the emergence of Ethnic Studies in the 1960s. Together with over 200 of the nation’s top scholars, subject experts, and curriculum developers, the textbook features dozens of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities across the United States, its territories, and the Pacific. It contains hundreds of images, videos, poems, archival documents, and interviews, with ready-to-use lesson plans for high school and college students and the general public.
Foundations and Futures features standards-aligned high school lesson plans available to download for free, providing teachers with the tools and resources to implement textbook chapters directly into their classroom.
Foundations and Futures utilizes open access technology to create a multisensory learning experience. The textbook features a variety of tools to create an engaging reader experience, enhance student comprehension, and develop digital literacy skills. It is available on any device connected to the internet (computers, tablets, phones). Digital learning tools include an embedded glossary, hyperlinked sections that enable easy navigation, information pop ups, and a large collection of interactive audio and video media elements.
Foundations and Futures website also hosts a collection of accessibility features including reading rulers, color filters, reading masks, customizable text size, spacing, and font options. The website experience was built to be accessible through keyboard navigation, compatible with screen reader technologies, and features alt-text for every multimedia asset. Google Translate is embedded for instant translation. All written content is downloadable and WCAG (Website Content Accessibility Guide) compliant.
You can read more about it at this Associated Press article, UCLA online textbook gives voice to Asian American, Pacific Islander history and cultures.
I’m adding this info to The Best Sites For Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
