12 centuries in 12 months

Imagine using the entire year as a framework for learning history. For example, starting in the 8th century, which marks the end of the chaotic period following the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the beginning of Charlemagne’s reign and the Middle Ages in Europe. If you dedicated one month to each century for a whole year, you would essentially cover up to the 20th century. This approach could be applied at various scales.

Envision it as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), similar to Connectivist MOOCs, where participants have diverse interests. Some may wish to explore specific geographical areas, such as Norway or the Scandinavian countries, or delve into the happenings in Islamic countries. Others might focus on disciplines like philosophy, science, theology, literature, visual arts, music, or politics. This multidimensional approach allows for a global overview. Within a month, one could gain a general understanding of the situation in Europe during the 8th century, identifying the main powers and the geographical landscape at that time. This could be done from both a global perspective and a more localized focus on a region of particular interest.

There’s an incredible amount of media indexed to every country and century, including TV shows, movies, podcasts, books, primary sources, and artworks. For instance, while learning about Charlemagne, one could watch documentaries, read articles, and engage with various resources. The abundance of material means that each person can choose a unique path and contribute to the collective discussion.

Visual guides such as maps and timelines can be constructed collaboratively. Guiding questions can also be posed, such as inquiries into the relationship between Europe, Christianity, and the Islamic world, the role of Latin in Europe, or the concept of democracy during different periods. Participants can trace these themes and place their findings into a broader context with the help of others. An indexing system could highlight the most relevant resources for one’s research question, based on the contributions of the group.

This method could also be applied to the antique age. For example, studying from the 5th century BC to the 7th century CE would encompass the most significant periods in Greece, the Western Roman Empire, and the subsequent chaotic period leading up to Charlemagne. This framework could be repeated multiple times, allowing for a deeper exploration of specific topics in subsequent years. Such a project could become incredibly rich with contributions from people of various languages and perspectives.

If this approach were adopted as a cohort-based system, each cohort could leave a legacy for the following year, such as a comprehensive database of curated resources, recommended paths, tentative conclusions, hypotheses, open questions, and deeper research opportunities. This could even become a national project, with schools participating and national broadcasters like the BBC or Norwegian TV featuring monthly documentaries and discussions on the time period. Newspapers could publish articles, and families could engage with local museums to view art from the era being studied.

The concept could scale infinitely, from an individual undertaking the project alone to large networks and communities. Even a single person dedicating one day a month to research a century and creating basic artifacts like notes or a timeline would gain a better overview of European history by the year’s end. A small group committed to sharing their findings publicly could enrich the collective understanding without needing to coordinate their individual explorations.

The idea could extend to collaborations across different Personal Knowledge Management systems (PKMs). For instance, a Rome book club and a Tana book club could exchange insights while pursuing their respective interests.

For each century, participants could focus on one song, one artwork, one text in Latin, one text in Greek, and one text in another language. They could explore the political situation, philosophy, inventions, and famous people of the time. While some centuries may be more interesting than others, the 19th and 20th centuries might not fit this mold due to the vast amount of information available. However, it could serve as a nice continuation of the historical exploration.