Marian Faulkner
Digital Archives - Endless Possibilities
Digital Archives
After reading Mark Hofer's article, Online Digital Archives, and doing a simple search on Google for digital archives for Mexico and Latin America, I have to say I am truly excited. I knew all this wonderful information was out there, I just did not know it was there in a format I could easily access and use to help my students do research and projects. I like the way Hofer presents the information about digital archives. He is correct, there is a lot of great information in digital archives, but it must be paired with student activities wherein they construct the meaning (HOfer, 2004).
Digital archives are sites which house collections of media focused on a specific topic, according to Hofer (2004). Those that are usually the best and most reliable are sponsored by the government agencies or universities. Hofer describes some digital archives and student-centered activities that can accompany them. He suggests using ideas and images from digital archives for writing prompts and poetry, following and contacting a NASA mission, arguing for mathematicians to be part of the Math Hall of Fame, student inquiry research projects, and developing digital stories (Hofer, 2004). After my simple Google search, I can see similar activities occurring in my classroom. I found a site for digital archives for Mexico (http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/hispanic/mexico/resources/mexico-libraries.html) and for Latin America ( http://www.utexas.edu/lai/resources/). I could have students use these and other sites to find information about countries, culture, art, history, language, etc. They could then use any of a number of these ideas for writing prompts, writing songs and poetry. The Benson Latin American Collection found in the digital archive of Latin America Initiative from the University of Texas at Austin offers a site entitled Border Cultures: Conjunto Music which has information about the blended music of the borderlands of Mexico and the United States which includes photos, music clips and a journal. Students could read and view this information and compare it to some of their music, write about how music connects and/or divides people, or write some music of their own. Another digital archive, Digital Librarian Latin American Resources (http://www.digital-librarian.com/latinamerican.html) has too many sites to mention. One offers interactive exhibit objects from The Cultures and History of the Americas. Students could research this type of information and develop research questions about who used these artifacts, and why and how and if it was effective or if it is still used in some form today. There are also sites devoted to specific peolpe, like Pablo Neruda. Students could research these sites and make arguments for famous Latin Americans and Spaniards and why they should get into the Hall Of Fame for their work. CARE is also a website housed in the Latin American Resources digital archive. It offers virtual tours to Guatemala and Peru. One to Guatemala shows high school students working with a local community to fight poverty. Students could discuss similar topics after reading and watching the virtual tours. We could even make it relative to what goes on in our community, by comparing our town to the one on the tour and seeing what is being done there and in our town and if either place had an idea that may work in the other. I know everyone keeps saying it, but the possibilities are endless.
Hofer does discuss the importance of copyright laws and fair use issues. This is of particular interest to me because of the cheating epidemic at our school. After assigning a paper this past semester, I had almost half of my students turn in papers that were basically copied and pasted from websites. One student did not even bother to un-highlight the words from the website. I do not know if they did not think I would check, or did not think they did anything wrong, or if they are so used to doing it that they no longer think it is wrong, but I gave them all zeros and reported all of those in Honor clubs. I have already had to sit in on one Honor Society hearing. After reading the articles for this session, I believe I know now how to better design assignments to avoid some of this and I also know how to teach my students how to avoid this, if they so choose.
I like the digital archives for offering organization of information on the web and leading me and my students to more reliable sources. I am looking forward to all the ideas that will stem from exploring some of them.
Posted at 09:03PM Jun 18, 2006 by mrfaulkn in General | Comments[0]