The Case for a Nation

As we finish up our project called “The Case for a Nation” it’s time to reflect on the work we did throughout this project. Firstly let’s address what the project is about. “The Case for a Nation” is a project involving humanities, socials, and maker. Our driving question was “How can an understanding of nationalism help us understand today?” Essentially this project was all about nationalism, specifically different types of nationalism and historical examples of nationalism. The definition of nationalism is the pride and loyalty the citizens have for their country or nation. Down below you will see one of the videos I made that helped me ultimately answer the driving question.

This video was about one of the first things we learned about nationalism. We had a choice between the Italian Unification, American Nationalism (Manifest Destiny), The Crimean War, German Unification and Indian Nationalism. As you can see above I chose the Italian Unification topic. We researched the topic and came up with as much information as we could to make our first style of video which was an animatic. An animatic is basically a moving or animated storyboard it helps map out the shots you need and the movements of the subjects in the shot.

I met designing texts by answering the essential question which was “How significant was nationalism around the world?” My intro lays out the purpose, the body has supporting evidence of nationalism, and the conclusion brings everything together. I met the empowered learner competency by creating an engaging map that helps tell the story.

The next video was a “tutorial video” and this video focused on the topic of nationalism in British North America. We had a lot of flexibility in the way that we could convey this tutorial, some people did more metaphorical tutorials and some people did more literal tutorials. I chose to do a more literal tutorial as that was how I visioned the video to be in my head. Learning about this topic we ended up watching this movie called “John A: A Birth of a Country” which you can also see below.

I thought this movie was pretty good. It definitely helped me understand the story of John A. MacDonald and how Canada reached confederation. The reenactments looked very accurate to that particular time in history and there was definitely a lot of time that went into making this movie.

Back to my tutorial video, I met the designing texts competency by having factual information like the Manifest Destiny threatening the colony of Canada and the three conferences leading to the confederation of Canada. I also answered the essential question which was “How did nationalism change British North America in the 1800s?” I answered this by showing CONTINUITY and CHANGE in my video. John A. MacDonald and many other British people had the most power the whole time during the confederation of Canada and of course, the change was that MacDonald created Canada. Onto the last competency; empowered learner. I showed a tutorial effectively and I personally think that this was my best video. I thought it was very clean and simple but effective and I’m very proud of this video.

The final explainer video was done with a partner and my partner for this video was Ethan. Me and Ethan. This video was a cumulative video including the topics that we had already done which were the Italian Unification, Nationalism in British North America, and the oppression towards Métis and Louis Riel.

For designing texts we had factual information from each topic and answer the driving question which I’ll talk about a bit later. When it comes to continuity and change we provided a modern example of oppression which was the oppression in Thailand example which supports the driving question as it is an example of nationalism today that can help you understand what that means today. For using resources we got our information from reliable sources over the span of the project and have put 7 reliable sources in MLA format for this video and also the image citations.

Now, let’s bring it back to the driving question, how can an understanding of nationalism help us understand today? The final video was the answer to that question and what me and Ethan came up with was that when we learn about nationalism in the past you can connect it to the present. For example, people can feel patriotic because of what happened in their country’s past, winning battles for freedom or creating a country to unite people can give you a sense of pride for your country. Learning about the past can give people a sense of community because they are living in the same country and are living on historical land. This sense of community hold’s true when you talk about hockey for example which can unite people and build friendships and community just because you cheer for the same team.

In the end, looking back at the work we have done surprises me because there was so much and we somehow got through it all. This project felt like a sprint and a marathon at the same time, as we come to an end you can bet that I will remember at least one important thing, I don’t know what that could be but I’m sure it will be something to do with nationalism in British North America. See you in June when I talk about World War II.