February+ITSE+Research+Paper

Doing Digital History with Students - Is it Engaging, Challenging, and Effective?

The purpose of the pilot, mixed method study was to examine the level of engagement, challenge, and effectiveness of 36 highly rated, field-tested social studies lesson plans that incorporated digital primary sources. It examines whether or not digital primary sources are being utilized, and which mechanisms, such as lesson plans, might improve the quality and quantity of their use in classrooms. The quantitative results showed that 45% of lesson plans were rated highly engaging, 29% highly challenging, and 37% highly understandable. Seventy-nine percent of teachers ranked the overall utility of the lesson plans high. The qualitative results were teacher narratives answering three prompts. These results reported that there were consistent problems that students experienced including the following: students’ lack of background knowledge, low vocabulary, and low ability to make inferences. Successes that were reported included high quality of student discussion mentioning use of knowledge and vocabulary, listening to and challenging other students, and considering different points of view.