Analyzing Historical Sources
Using New Media
Learning Challenge:
Students often struggle to engage deeply with an historical text, particularly when it comes to reading, evaluating, and comparing differing perspectives, narratives, and opinions. Using new media tools such as NowComment or VideoAnt, students can collectively annotate a particular text and even compare two texts that offer different points of view. This tool allows students to dig deeply and consider the importance of authorship, perspective, and bias when considering an historical text that provides an account of a particular era or event. NowComment, for example, makes reading a collaborative, participatory task rather than a solitary, passive one. When reading historical sources, students should be able to:
- Identify authorship and perspective
- Evaluate sources for bias and subjectivity
- Compare/contrast two or more texts in terms of authorship, perspective, bias, and authenticity
- Critically analyze the claims made in an historical source through corroborating evidence and further research
New Media Tools
NowComment
NowComment provides students with an opportunity to annotate a text together as a class. Students can view one another's comments and consider a text in a more interactive and collaborative manner. Additionally, teachers can upload multiple texts on NowComment so that students can compare and contrast the elements of more than one text related to a particular historical concept. Check out NowComment here: https://nowcomment.com
EdPuzzle
EdPuzzle is a great resource for creating or editing videos. Teachers can imbed multiple choice or open-ended questions, insert audio commentary and notes, or crop/edit a video. Video questions could pertain to authorship, perspective, or evidence in order to assess students' understanding of an historical video or first-person account. Beyond academic questions, teachers can also include open-ended reflection questions to encourage deeper consideration of a particular topic or as a prelude to in-class discussion. Check out EdPuzzle here: https://edpuzzle.com
VideoAnt
VideoAnt provides students with an opportunity to annotate and comment on a video in an interactive and collaborative space with other classmates. Similar to NowComment, this tool can be used to engage students in the task of considering authorship, perspective, and bias in an historical narrative, including instructional videos as well as personal interviews and testimonies. Check out VideoAnt here: https://ant.umn.edu
Example of NowComment in Action!
See an example of NowComment being used to analyze and annotate two historical sources.