Jimenez, J. D., & Moorhead, L. (2017). Recasting the history textbook as an e-book: The collaborative creation of student-authored interactive texts. The History Teacher, 50(4), 565–595. Retrieved from             http://www.societyforhistoryeducation.org/pdfs/A17_Jimenez_and_Moorhead.pdf

Abstract:

“In millions of households across the world, many teenagers will come home from school to enthusiastically design content to post on social media sites. Yet many of them will only open their history textbooks to complete their coursework with great reluctance. For the past few decades, discussion of student-centered pedagogy and technology in the classroom have often dominated educational discourse; however, the daily grind of teaching in an era of high stakes testing leaves many technological developments underutilized in classroom instruction. Thus, a pivotal question remains: in what ways might recent advances in digital technology be coupled with student-centered pedagogy to elicit greater engagement in history classes? In this paper, we explore the ways in which students can construct historical narratives using digital technology. We study how students can synthesize digitized primary source documents with content-authoring software. We consider how digital technology can not only increase students’ access to primary sources but also how student-authored historical texts can facilitate their usage. Our yearlong exploratory effort culminates in a 9-day school intervention in which 96 students from a Northern California public high school author their own interactive digital history textbooks, as a way to expand their view of world history through multiple perspectives as well as develop greater media literacy.”