The National Endowment for the Humanities recently chose the Penn State Center for Medieval Studies’ Web site “Building Community: Medieval Technology and American History” for inclusion on its list of the best online resources for education in the humanities. The NEH list, part of its EDSITEment site, http://edsitement.neh.gov/websites_all.asp (scroll down to "Building Community"), aims to highlight the highest quality humanities-related educational content on the Internet.
On the Penn State site, visitors can explore how Old World technologies led to the reorganization of American society once employed outside the aristocratic controls of Europe. The site examines the core medieval technologies like water wheels and blacksmithing that built the American colonies into an industrial powerhouse in their own right. Site creators put particular emphasis on providing classroom-ready information related to these subjects.
The site was chosen by an NEH peer review panel composed of teachers and leaders in education and non-profit organizations after meeting the criteria for intellectual quality, content, design, and classroom impact.