In an interesting turn of events, this week’s blog post does not relate to the coursework of my Digital Public History class. Instead, while still being related to Digital Public History, this post was inspired by an assignment from my Understanding Archives course. The main focus of the class is to consider how archives can manage the use of primary sources in an increasingly digital age. To this extent, we have recently been exploring the use of Digital Classrooms (ie: online lesson plans, web portals, online exhibits, etc.) to increase public access to an archive’s collection.
Historical Pedagogist Sam Wineburg contends that there should be a greater effort placed on introducing students to primary source materials in the classroom at an earlier age, rather waiting until the undergraduate level. “The sooner the better” according to Wineburg. Teachers may have a desire to introduce their students to archival materials but are unsure of where to find them or how to integrate them. As taking a class trip to an Archive maybe be fiscally or geographically prohibitive to a public school teacher, Digital Classrooms are an excellent way for teachers to introduce their students to Archives, and by extension, primary source materials from the comfort of their own classroom.
Digital Classrooms also make information accessible to teachers who may not be familiar with particular subjects. While Canadian teachers are required to hold a bachelor’s degree, they may not have specialized in the subject they are asked to teach. Elementary teachers are required to teach a number of subjects, only two or three of which they may hold a degree in. A high school history teacher may have a degree in history, however, they likely did not study every time period the curriculum asks them to cover – from Ancient Egypt to the American Revolution. Digital Classrooms allow a teacher who may be uncomfortable or unfamiliar with the lesson or material to find comfort in trusting that the professionals have put together a well thought out lesson. A good Digital Classroom includes aspects of independent thinking, research, group discussion, recreation, and roleplay to invite students to be actively involved in their own learning experience.
For an assignment on Digital Classrooms, I looked particularly at a lesson plan that had been developed by a public archive. Since the mandates of most public archives include some degree of public access to information or educational objectives, creating a lesson around a certain collection they hold can be a wonderful way for the Archive to fulfill their mandate and encourage young students to conduct research using primary sources. It can also be seen an excellent example of public outreach and organized collaboration within the heritage community. Pre-constructed, archives-based lesson plans allow teachers to gain experience bringing archival materials into the classroom so that they get a sense of what kinds of lessons could be done with them and where to look to create their own.
While most of the lesson plans, I looked at that were produced by various archives were very well-done, I think one of the most important things for archives staff to remember when creating a public tool like these is their audience. They must keep the questions simple enough that they will not lead a discussion in any particular direction so as to allow for the discussion to be student and teacher driven, rather than having complex questions forced upon them by the archivists – but not so simple that students are bored and unengaged with the lesson. Like most things in Digital Public History, there is a fine balance between conveying the creator’s enthusiasm for a particular subject/topic and making it accessible for everyone to enjoy.