The Digital History Reader Project

The Digital History Reader Project resources are for introductory college level and advanced level high school learners. There are two learning modules to choose from; Introduction to United States History and Introduction to European History. Each respective module contains easy to navigate pages that include introduction, context, evidence, assignments, conclusion, resources and questions about the central topics. I was pleased to find many primary source documents listed throughout the lessons. The site is easy to navigate and contains useful lessons and questions for educators and students. It really is a wonderful site that was created by experienced educators and learned historians alongside dedicated students who were at the cutting edge of what was possible at the time of publication.

It is unfortunate that the Digital History Reader Project site appears to have been abandoned sometime after 2007 and before it was fully realized. I would love to see this project revitalized and updated with new topics, more primary sources, images and links to map collections, national archives and of course utilizing newer technologies available to us today. I suspect the project did not continue due to budget limitations and faculty time constraints.

The Digital History Reader Project is an example of why digital educational and multimedia resources are an ongoing endeavor and why it is vital that sites remain dynamic and relevant (Richardson, 2010). Historians should devote time and expertise to the development of these sites and the academe must support their efforts. A site such as Digital History should not be considered a side project to be completed during a scholar’s spare time. Faculty and partners need time, support and budgets to develop, maintain, revise and implement new technology into their multimedia educational sites. Please see http://www.dhr.history.vt.edu/about/index.html

Digital History: Using New Technologies to Enhance Teaching and Research

Digital History was created by the College of Education at the University of Houston. It is a fully developed multimedia resource to support teaching American History in college and grades K-12. Digital History is an outstanding resource for educators and one that has the potential to actively engage students of history of all ages. The site includes a full text book, primary sources, time lines, audio archives of historians speaking, multimedia exhibitions, and visual archives. In addition, there are over seventy inquiry based interactive learning modules and a tremendous amount of resources for history educators.

I was pleased to see a section on The First Americans as an integral learning module and as the first topic listed in the study of American History. I worked through the multimedia resources on the First Americans and was impressed with the presentation as well as the scholarship and sources. For an introductory course the site offers some very sophisticated primary sources. It is my opinion that students of history should be introduced to primary sources very early and this site meets that standard.

I would recommend Digital History to all history and social studies educators and students of history and cultural studies. This learning resource serves as a reminder that the creation of a body of work such as this site is truly a collaborative undertaking. The trend toward collaborative work where teams of experts create multimedia learning resources is facilitated now with easier access to more programs and applications (Richardson, 2010). The credits on Digital History include a team of professionals from the University of Houston and an impressive list of partners and sponsors. I hope these experts will continue to create, revise and enhance Digital History and that this team will continue to receive support and sponsorship for their work. Please see http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu

References

Ewing, Watson, Stephens, Lehr, and Thorp (2007). The Digital History Reader. Retrieved on Nov. 5, 2012 from http://www.dhr.history.vt.edu/about/index.html

Mintz, S., & McNeil, S. (2012). Digital History. Retrieved on Nov. 6, 2012 from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (3rd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.