Digital Primary Sources

I think that digital primary sources are very important. They allow students and the teacher to access a wide variety of documents and material that they would not otherwise be able to access. The internet is a great place to get started. It has such an incredible wealth of material out there.

I will try and incorporate digital primary sources in a variety of ways. First, I may use the sources to simply boost the content of my lectures, perhaps drawing on diaries or letters for quotes. Next, I will use them to enhance lecture. Pictures and other images, such as maps, are excellent resources to help ‘spice things up’. I was especially impressed by the video of the Civil War battles in four minutes. That is a tool which will help all students understand the course of the war, but especially diverse learners. I will also use digital primary sources as a resource for my students to use for in class projects. Taking the students to the computer lab and allowing them to access the primary sources online themselves is an excellent way to not only introduce them to the sources and research methods but will also allow them to learn in a different and interesting way. Finally, I will direct the students to the sources for projects outside of class.

Digital primary sources are an excellent resource for a social studies teacher. As a teacher, I could spend hours exploring the various cites, and hopefully by sharing the sources with my students, I will be able to encourage them to do the same.