Schul, J.E. (2009). Historical practices and desktop documentary making in a secondary history classroom [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. The University of Iowa.

Abstract:

“A surge of interest in desktop documentary making by history teachers and students has unearthed a series of important questions regarding its role in history teaching and learning. Desktop documentary making requires students to manipulate visual and aural primary and secondary sources, with aid from conventional written sources, to adduce a story about the past. Because desktop documentary making elicits a new and unique way of doing history, an examination into its integration into classroom instruction is warranted. I, therefore, explored in this study the historical practices in both the teacher instruction and student composition of desktop documentaries in a secondary history classroom. I focused this case study on one AP History teacher, his AP European History classroom, and five of his students during a unit that featured desktop documentary making during March 2008. I inductively analyzed teacher and student interviews, classroom observations, student think-alouds, and document data to generate themes and categories that elicit new understandings of the historical practices involved with the integration of desktop documentary making into a classroom.

Uniquely employing Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) and Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) together as theoretical frameworks, I reveal through this study how a teacher’s instruction fostered an activity system wherewith his students composed their desktop documentaries. This activity system included various inquiry-based skills and instructional rules that affected student compositions. This activity system allowed for students to construct historical narratives over a span of time and to transform the content and aesthetics of their documentaries into something that they hoped their classmates and other viewers would find useful and meaningful. Additionally, students employed various practices of professional historical scholarship while also creating their own practices in order to produce their desktop documentary.

This study has significance for history teachers and teacher educators who seek to integrate desktop documentary into their own instructional practice. Furthermore, understanding the historical practices involved with the integration of desktop documentary making into a classroom can inform teachers and teacher educators about the problems and potentialities that surround the use of desktop documentary making as an instructional technique.