Aside from some really great lesson plans, I've found what might be the best part of teachinghistory.org. The search engine on the History Content page of the site is an invitation to explore basically everything we talked about during the technology portion of class last night. Even better, it combs through the vast collections of material for you when you type in a topic. I performed a topic search for "slavery" in Historical and Museum Sites and was given a list of of online exhibits from all over the country, along with brief descriptions of the information they contained. You can further refine your search to include or exclude certain regions of the country or specific states.
The same type of search can be completed in the Multimedia, Website Review, and History Gateway sections. I especially like how the multimedia section allows you to search for things like dramatic readings or podcasts.
This section is like having a personal assistant make sense of all things related to your topic on the web!
What do you think?
I thought this was a good idea, but slightly limited. In the same way that the time period were limited for lesson plan searches, I found it difficult to find something on my current capstone research paper project, which is piracy.
ReplyDeleteI wish that a similar type of database existed that was more comprehensive, but if you are searching for an American history topic, it would certainly make a lot of sense to use this website.
The Museums/Historic Sites search function is a pretty cool idea. Unfortunately, you do need to be pretty broad in your searching. The benefit though is that you will most likely be directed to actual museums and places with great resources rather than "roadside attractions."
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