Is There a Time Machine for Digital Natives?

Teaching Digital Natives About History

How do you teach history to digital natives?  My students are very visual, they are used to seeing videos and movies.  A few years ago I had left a typewriter out on the table.  My students came in and wanted to know about the unusual keyboard.  One asked, "Where's the monitor?"

How can we give them the background knowledge to understand different times.  One powerful technique is primary sources.  Teaching students how to analyze and understand them.  I can hear you say. "Great sound bite.  Where do we start?"

Three Resources for Primary Sources

1.  National Park Service Photo Collection

There are over 2,000 images taken by park service photographers, documenting architecture, Native American heritage, nature, transportation and scenic views.  This is a search able database, that brings in a visual element to learning. This site also has maps available for the viewer.

There are over 400 National Parks in the United States.  The National Parks Service has made teacher resources and curriculum materials available for using with students. Teaching With Historic Places is a great gem.  It uses parks listed in the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places.  It focuses on history, social studies, geography, civics, and other subjects.   There is even a template for developing your own lessons involving historic places. The National Park Service goals is to bring historic places into the classroom.

2.  Library of Congress

American Memory  You can look at webcasts, maps, newspapers, you can browse topics.

Library of Congress Online Catalog  This is where you can find their on line collection.

My Library of Congress  This is really the key to discovering the Library of Congress.  There are virtual tours.  Focus on collections, exhibitions, there is also a section directed at students and teachers.

Teachers  Primary Source Kits.  Classroom materials and professional development.  Information on how to look at primary sources and use them to teaches students how to analyze and examine, photos, documents, maps etc. They have developed themed resources and lesson plans.

3.  Repositories of Primary Sources

This is a database of over 5000 websites describing holdings of - manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photos.  It is primarily used by research scholars.  Great resource for educators looking for background information.

Is that All There Is?

This is only the beginning.  As teachers we need to encourage our co-workers, our students and communities to preserve our local and family history.  Documenting the stories behind the photos are an incredible rich source of information.  For further ways to incorporate photos and history you might look at a previous post 

"Story Maps and the Digital Age".  Primary sources allow students to develop their own understanding of events, people, and ideas.

Storymaps and the Digital Age

Maps have always intrigued me.  I remember as a student being told that the early cartographers drew the known area and then wrote "Beyond this point there be dragons".  I've never found the dragons but I still look.

Recently I discovered some map sharing tools that appeals to the historian and storyteller in me.  It is a way to connect pictures and maps and include your own stories to go along with the pictures.  I think it would be a great way to study things for social studies and history using primary sources.  It would also be a great way to look at family history in context to the times.

As a student I would be engaged to compare and contrast pictures from "Historical Events" with current pictures.  I am a very visual learner.  Pictures are a really important tool that guides my learning.  Learning how to evaluate pictures and add the storytelling element is higher level thinking at its best.

We Are What We Do developed Historypin in partnership with Google.  I have included the introductory video and How to Use Historypin.