Technology and Social Studies

Web-Based Information Sources

Need. If students are to engage in authentic historical inquiry, they need to have access to more than a textbook. They should be able to examine and analyze historical evidence—or multiple primary and secondary source documents. Working with evidence enables them to learn how to integrate information and deal with conflicting points of view and biases that these documents may contain.

Addressing the Need in SSPBL. As researchers, we have helped teachers to assemble historical documents for students’ SSPBL inquiries. School libraries rarely have the types of evidence we’d like students to use, and, in the early 1990s, our research team had to scour school, local, and university libraries; teacher centers; and local bookstores to assemble sufficient information about the various historical topics that our students investigated.

Technology-Based Option. The World Wide Web has proved invaluable in the implementation of SSPBL. It contains a treasure trove of historical information and artifacts that teachers and students can use in the classroom. As our readers undoubtedly know, much of the information on the Web is of dubious value and many websites are written at a level that is inaccessible to middle-grade students and impossibly difficult for students with disabilities (Debashis, 1995). Therefore, our research team and teachers have invested considerable time in screening websites prior to and during the implementation of a unit. However, we have found that the time spent locating appropriate sites is offset by richness of historical information available on them.

Of particular note, the Web has many sites containing diaries, documents, photographs, and pictures of historical artifacts. Like the anchor videos we use, pictures and photographs have proved especially useful in helping students gain a deeper understanding of the historical period they are studying. Overcoming presentism (Ashby & Lee, 1987; Judd, 1915), or the tendency to interpret the past through the lens of the present, is a major challenge faced by serious and casual historians alike. We make extensive use of pictures and photographs, typically drawn from historical websites, to enrich students’ understanding of people who lived at the time they are studying. The class examines images that depict the manner in which people dressed, their homes and work environments, leisure activities, and material possessions. Some images offer insight into the stereotypes and popular beliefs of the time and are used as springboards for discussing bias in evidence.

Merely presenting photographs and other images to students may do little to advance their historical understanding, however. Students lack extensive knowledge of the past and of the technologies used to create these images (which can affect the way a photograph or picture appears). Furthermore, students’ interpretations are biased by their present-day lives, as discussed above. Thus, skillful and thorough classroom discussion is an important component accompanying the analysis and interpretation of historical images. We typically copy images from the Web to CD-ROMs for efficiency in displaying them to the class. Teachers then engage students in discussion about the context and purposes for which the images were created, help students analyze their features, and guide consideration of biases they might reflect. Students may choose to use these images, or others they locate on the Web, in the multimedia projects or presentations they create.

Typically, we have created for students a front door, of sorts, to the Web that gives them access to sites that are relevant to the historical topic they are studying. We realize that this practice constrains students’ use of the Web and limits their opportunity to learn important information technology skills, such as use of search engines and analysis of website value and credibility. However, in the classrooms in which our work has been situated, it has been difficult to find adequate time in the school day, or a sufficient number of computers, to permit students to engage in open ended searches of the Web. We also have been sympathetic to teacher and parental concerns about accidental access to inappropriate sites. Although it is beyond the scope of this document to provide an exhaustive list, Figure 1 (on page 6) offers some websites and sources that provide resources for history instruction.