Week 6: The Digital History Reader: Teaching Resources for United States and European History

This article, from the AHA's History and Technology column of the May 2007 Perspectives issue, by E. Thomas Ewing and Robert P. Stephens discusses what the Digital History Reader is, an online learning experience designed to enable students to develop the analytical skills employed by historians, which I read from their homepage. http://www.dhr.history.vt.edu/modules/us/intro/index.html. It mainly focuses on key topics presented throughout U.S. and European history. It also provides students and teachers with free peer-reviewed resources to enhance the teaching and learning of history. http://www.historians.org/Perspectives/issues/2007/0705/0705tec3.cfm

This article stated the purpose and goals of Digital History Reader, which is to push students beyond absorbing information and interpreting it for themselves. It made me think even more in depth about how the standards for Social Studies are changing drastically. I remember reading in The Record a brief article about how Bergen County was changing the requirements of its high school students and having them take at least one semester of an Introduction to Economics course. I believe that is a good idea and students should be aware of how this subject translates across to other subjects, obviously Mathematics and Social Studies. Students should be able to understand what the economy is going through right now and be able to explain in simple terms how it can be related to the Great Depression. I think it is so important for students to have a wide range of knowledge from all different subjects and not just the subjects that affect them in regards to test scores in Mathematics and Language Arts. Because of projects like Digital History Reader, students will be more diverse in their knowledge and be able to apply it to the real world. A project such as this makes students interested in Social Studies and views it as just as important as any other school subject.

The module design is very typical in that it is based around a central questions students must answer as they explore the information they are presented with. This is almost always a successful way to engage students and teachers in learning about U.S. and European history as well as any subject for that matter. This reminds me of Bloom's Taxonomy and how important it is for students to be able to achieve higher level thinking and/or learning as they sort through information provided by Digital History Reader. I like how the different sections are in stages that help the students progress in their thinking and learning, especially the Assignment section which students complete a self-evaluation, as well as the Conclusion section that help the student rethink the initial question in a different context now that they have the complete knowledge of the historical event. The Resources section also aids students who have become even more interested in the topic to perform further research which is key in developing the qualities of a good historian which is what teachers want students to become. I also like how the module asks students to a wide array of questions involving politics, the environment, labor, etc. which exposes them to many issues throughout history that they may not have learned previously.

The module design incorporates different forms of technology that students can become involved in hands on such as examining photographs, videos, and audio clips of speeches and other information. When students interact with history in a way that interests them by doing something instead of reading a 20 page historical document, that draws them in and I am a huge supporter of these ideas. In any format, the students learn the same amount of information in a non-traditional fun way which is always a plus for the teachers teaching them and the students enjoying what they are learning. This outs learning in the hands of the students and the teacher takes a more passive role, which I think is exactly what classrooms should be like when teaching any type of history course.