Primary Sources and Web 2.0: Unlikely Match or Made For Each Other?

Primary Sources and Web 2.0: Unlikely Match or Made For Each Other?

      The article that I read titled “Primary Sources and Web 2.0: Unlikely Match or Made For Each Other?” pulls using web 2.0 applications all together. It discusses how teachers can use wikis, blogs, podcasts, and social bookmarking with their students to help them do research and put together a high quality end project. The main subject area that was focused on in this article was social studies but could be applied to any other subject as well. They discussed how using primary sources in the social studies classroom can enhance what the students take away from the lesson. It lets them see something from the past that is concrete. Primary sources are the real documents that are talked about within texts or real audio of the people themselves delivering speeches or talks. Because they are the real document, they allow for the student’s to make their own judgments and conclusions based on what they see or hear.
      Using the internet, students can find some of these primary sources and use them in web 2.0 applications to get the most out of them. For example, a student could find an electronic copy of a news paper article that deals with the topic they are exploring. They could post this document up on a wiki or a blog and invite family members, peers, teachers, and other professionals to comment on the document. This would give them more incite on the document. They might also use a wiki as a home site to store all of their primary sources while they are doing their initial research. As they are finding podcasts, audio, pictures, and newspapers, they could store them all in one place (using their wiki). This would make putting together their end project a bit easier.
      Using web 2.0 applications as tools and not only as a presentation sources, can really help out students as they are trying to find ways to store and keep track of all of their treasured finds. It makes keeping things like podcasts and primary source audio easily accessible so that when they are ready to use their sources within their final presentations, they are all at their fingertips.

Johnson, M. (2009). Primary Sources and Web 2.0: Unlikely Match or Made for Each Other?. Library Media Connection, 27(4), 26-30. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.