Home PublicationsJRTEPast IssuesVolume 38 Number 1

	Edited by Dr. Lynne Schrum, University of Utah
formerly Journal of Research on Computing in Education

Volume 38 Number 1 Fall 2005

Fostering Historical Thinking With Digitized Primary Sources

Bill Tally and Lauren B. Goldenberg
Education Development Center
Center for Children & Technology

Abstract

This pilot study examined middle school and high school student performance on an online historical thinking assessment task. After their teachers received training in the use of digital historical archives, students from all groups engaged in historical thinking behaviors (e.g., observation, sourcing, inferencing, evidence, question-posing, and corroboration) in response to an open-ended document analysis exercise. The types of thinking they did are described, and differences between AP-level and non-AP students are discussed. Challenges teachers face in developing students’ historical thinking around visual documents are also discussed. Educators seeking to take advantage of digitized primary source documents need activities with clear curriculum linkages and small exercises that give students guidance in working with different kinds of documents (visual, textual, and audio). In addition, students and teachers need far more practice in learning to make meaning from primary source documents -- in beginning to think like historians.

Download the full article (PDF, 1.32 MB, PDF instructions)

Contributors

Bill Tally is a senior researcher at the Education Development Center’s Center for Children and Technology. He has worked in the area of digital archives and history teaching and learning for more than a decade, developing software and teacher development programs in addition to conducting research. His research interests include media literacy and the digital divide, and he is the author, with Cornelia Brunner, of The New Media Literacy Handbook (Knopf, 1999). Lauren B. Goldenberg, PhD, is a researcher at EDC’s Center for Children and Technology. Her research interests include the role of technology in teacher learning, and its role in learning second and foreign languages.

Contact

Bill Tally
EDC Center for Children & Technology
96 Morton Street, 7th floor
New York, NY 10014
btally@edc.org

Copyright © 2005, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). All rights reserved.