Digital Primary Sources

Digital primary sources are useful resources for teachers and students. Primary sources can be difficult to use with students because it is hard for them to connect to the material. Students often struggle to understand the significance behind a document or picture. The opportunity to use them through a digital context will help to engage students as there are more opportunities to help scaffold students’ knowledge. For example, digital primary sources can be displayed in ways that are more engaging and the teacher can edit parts of the resource that might confuse students. Teachers can also transcibe the digital primary resource so that students can read them. Ultimately, the teacher wants to help students extract the important information from the primary source. The accessibility of digital primary sources is unbelievable. It is easy to obtain pictures, songs, photos, posters, letters, etc. While this is an obvious strength, teachers need to make sure to have a focus in mind when retrieving these sources and using them in the classroom.

I have and will continue to incorporate digital primary sources in my teaching. In the past, I included digital primary sources in the Power Points that I use during my lectures. It is helpful to include them while you are going over a topic because they provide students with a visual representation (ie. a picture of a protest to help understand a student movement). I have also located newspapers from digital primary source websites and had students look at advertisements from certain time periods. This is useful as it helps students understand what kinds of items people were buying during different time periods in history (which can lead to discussions about culture, economy, etc). Digital primary sources, if utilized correctly, can humanize social studies for students and help them connect to the material. Overall, they are excellent resources that should be utilized in the classroom!