New & Noteworthy

The Barbary Pirates: Letters from Tripoli

Military action in Libya is capturing the world’s attention and making headlines today, but what about the past? Watch as historian Christine Sears discusses how Libya’s capital, Tripoli, garnered U.S. attention with stories of piracy, ransom and intrigue during the Barbary Wars. Learn more.

Elementary

VoiceThread in a 1st Grade Classroom

Think that your students are too young to use digital tools in the classroom? Watch as first-graders in Jennifer Orr’s class record stories about Benjamin Franklin and George Washington using VoiceThread, a tool recommended by the American Association of School Librarians. Watch here.

Middle

Making Sense of Documentary Photography

In this guide from History Matters, learn about the history of documentary photography. You'll find examples of questions to ask when examining a photograph, plus a bibliography and a list of online resources. Explore here.

High

Is the Internet a Reliable Source for History Content?

Like any other source of information, the Internet can provide good sources, bad sources and everything in between. In Ask a Digital Historian, we tackle the big question related to online research: how do you teach students to evaluate online sources? Read more.

Primary Sources

Tech for Teachers

Laura Jernegan: Girl on a Whaleship

In 1868, six-year-old Laura Jernegan embarked on a whaling voyage with her father, mother, and brother. Read about the voyage through her journal digitized for the Martha Vineyard Museum. Written in a child’s hand, examine the original scans, read a transcript, use the “magic lens” to transcribe handwriting into print, or listen to a young girl read the journal aloud. Photographs, a timeline, maps, diagrams of whaling vessels and online exhibits about whaling accompany the journal. The site also features lesson plans for elementary grades. Explore here.

Prezi

More than just a flashy new way to create presentations, Prezi offers a lot of great tools to help students learn. In a Prezi, you can move beyond a linear presentation and explore topics as they come up in the learning process. You can group ideas together and model a graphic organizer or zoom in on a section of text or part of an image to focus student attention. It is also easy to embed multimedia right into the presentation. Learn how to get started and see some examples of how to use Prezi in your classroom. Read more.