Education
FEATURE
at the time. The letters pages show that in 1933 not everyone in Britain thought that Hitler should be condemned, or that German anti-Semitism at the time was excessive. At all levels, English literature lessons can be enhanced by reading the contemporary book reviews of the classic text being studied in class. How was the book received at the time? What does this tell us about the author’s readership and intended audience? To those of us who have always failed to see eye-to-eye with the works of Thomas Hardy, it is pleasingly revelatory to read the 1895 review in The Times stating that ‘Jude the Obscure is, to speak plainly, a somewhat dull novel’. [2]
There are challenges to bringing digital archives into the classroom and getting students to explore them for themselves. Fundamentally, digital archives are databases, and databases are not Google. Does anyone use the Advanced Search page on Google?
‘Digital archives can help students acquire the versatile analytical skills that subjects such as history provide’
themselves against vocational and scientific subjects with direct applications to the “real world”, digital archives can help students acquire the versatile analytical skills that subjects such as history provide.
Archives in the classroom All this being the case, how are teachers using newspaper archives in the classroom? At the undergraduate level, the focus is on teaching students how to find, interpret and evaluate primary sources. One particularly imaginative teaching plan I have seen involved a class filling in the case files for notorious criminals from history. Students were asked to search the archives to find out what crimes Eugene Allmayer committed (he was a master con-man), how he was caught (three times, escaping twice, on one occasion
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forging his own release papers), and his eventual punishment (12 years’ hard labour). They were then asked to what extent they thought the press was glamorising Allmayer, and why. Was it possible that the press had made up some of the details? What does this tell us about Victorian society’s attitudes towards crime? At the secondary school level, the emphasis is currently on the teacher using archives to guide the class. In the UK Key Stage 4 (ages 14-16) history curriculum, many, if not most, students will study Weimar Germany and the rise of the Nazis. Some teachers are now basing lesson plans around articles found in The Times Digital Archive, which allow their students to follow the narrative of these years, with the added benefit of witnessing the different opinions held by commentators
Yet to get the most out of a digital archive, students will need to master Boolean searching and wildcard operators – essential information and communication technology (ICT) skills, but ones rarely developed without guidance. Teachers will need to provide training and guidance, but pressures on their time will only increase. Publishers can help here by providing tutorials, further support materials and facilitating the sharing of lesson plans.
Digital archives are firmly established in research. Now, unexpectedly but happily, we must help them become embedded in teaching and learning.
Seth Cayley is publisher for media history at Cengage Learning EMEA
FURTHER INFORMATION
‘The London and Colonial Export Co., Ltd.’ Picture Post [London, England] 18 Mar. 1939: 80. Picture Post Historical Archive. Web. 16 Dec. 2011. [2]
[1]
‘Jude The Obscure’. Times [London, England] 18 Dec. 1895: 4. Gale NewsVault. Web. 16 Dec. 2011.
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