New Free WW1 DVD & CD Rom Resources

People of the Great War: Shaping the Modern World is an exciting new educational resource that will be distributed free to every primary and secondary school in the UK this November. 

To mark the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War and the passing of the generation of men and women who lived through the conflict, the Imperial War Museum (IWM), in association with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) and with support from the Minister for Veterans, has created People of the Great War: Shaping the Modern World.

This innovative educational resource - a DVD featuring short films, and CD-Rom including teaching activities and original historical sources - has been produced to help schools mark this important anniversary. It encourages young people to think about Remembrance today and its meaning in the future, provides teachers with new teaching resources and enables learners of all ages to explore the experience and impact of the First World War through a range of exciting and informative resources.

The learning package uses original archive material from the IWM and CWGC archives to explore in a fresh and engaging way the impact of this conflict and the significance of the passing of the First World War generation. It includes short films which are ideal for school assemblies and for classroom use, guidance for teachers, classroom activities for a wide range of curriculum subjects, and a large selection of original photographs, posters and documents from the IWM and CWGC collections, including a significant amount of previously unseen material.

"This resource is a new and innovative way of exploring the meaning of the First World War," said Samantha Heywood, Director of the Their Past Your Future project at the Imperial War Museum. "By going into every school in the country we hope it will inspire students to think differently about the events and impact of the war itself, and how it is commemorated today. It also provides useful materials for teachers to enrich their teaching of this key topic, in this important anniversary year, but also for the future."

Additional learning resources and teaching ideas, as well as the full content of the educational resource pack will be available online from 10 October 2008 at www.iwm.org.uk/peopleofthegreatwar.

Schools with any queries about the resource should contact TPYFmail@iwm.org.uk