Digital Images in theHistory Classroom

rF r istorical thinking skills,1j] according to the U.S.

L National Standards forHistory, differ significantly fromhistorical understandings. Historicalunderstandings refer to content-specific knowledge. Historical think-ing encompasses the "doing of histo-ry," including chronological thinking,historical comprehension, historicalanalysis and interpretation, historicalresearch, historical issues analysis, andhistorical decision making. Digitalimages hold the potential to facilitatethese skills and understandings.

Using Images in the ClassroomThe following categories of use offera starting point for consideration ofdigital images in the social studiesclassroom.

Images Constitute an ImportantComponent ofPrimary DigitalSources. Until the advent of theInternet, interpretation and inquiryin history was mediated through thelens of the textbook. Vast collectionsof primary sources have now beencompiled in digital archives at institu-tions such as the Library of Congress,the Smithsonian, and other scholarlyinstitutes. Digital archives allow stu-dents to directly access source materi-als used in social studies.

Digital images are an importantcomponent of these archives. Boththe economic cost of reprinting pic-tures and limited physical space forprinting them restricts reproduction

of images in social studies texts. Now,however, the corpus of available his-torical images and primary sourceshas expanded exponentially sincethe advent of digital images andthe Internet.

Digital Images Provide ImportantConnections to Community. Pilotstudies at the Virginia Center forDigital History and other sites havedemonstrated that students them-selves can play an important role ascollaborators with historians. (Editor'snote: For this URL and others, seeResources on p. 25.) In these pilotefforts, students have collected his-torical artifacts in their communitiesthat have become useful componentsof digital archives. Throughout the20 'h century and continuing today,students have played a significantrole in the collection of communityhistories in conjunction with socialstudies projects.

Digital Images Can Promote Inquiryin Social Sttudies. Increasingly, theimportant events of our times arecaptured through images. The historyteacher has a responsibility to ensurethat future citizens can thoughtfullyinterpret images, including facilitatinginquiry regarding context, motives,circumstances, and whether manipu-lation was involved.

Photographer Charles Moorecaptured iconic scenes of the escalat-ing U.S. civil rights movement inthe 1960s. Many of these images are

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available at Kodak's Web site PowerfulDays in Black and White. Studentsexamining photographs such as thesecan be encouraged to consider keyhistorical questions related to author-ship, perspective, motive, context,and accuracy. For example, in analyz-ing a photograph of Martin LutherKing, Jr., being arrested, studentscould inquire into the context sur-rounding King's arrest, examine theattitudes of the arresting officers andbystanders, and predict the eventsthat would follow.

Exploring a Classroom ApplicationFor the past year, preservice and in-service teachers in Tampa, Florida,and Charlottesville, Virginia, havebeen adapting elementary and sec-ondary history activities to includeimages as representations of historicalinformation and social issues. Thefollowing project developed throughthis initiative could work well withupper elementary or secondary his-tory students. The project requiresaccess to classroom sets of two to fourdigital cameras. Computers with ac-cess to the Internet and presentationsoftware (e.g., iMovie, MovieMaker,PowerPoint) are also employed in thisproject.

"Then and Now: From Horsesto Hondas" is designed to facilitatedeeper student understanding ofchronology and change over time us-ing archived photographs and images.The National Standards for Historyemphasize the importance of teach-ing students to identify the temporalsequence in which events occurred,to measure calendar time, to interpretand create timelines, and to explainpatterns of historical continuity andchange. Following a description ofan essential introductory activity, we

describe the content, process, andproduct of this project.

The overarching framework forthis activity was developed for el-ementary methods courses at theUniversity of South Florida and theUniversity of Cincinnati by MichaelBerson and Keith Barton, respec-tively. One variant of an associatedassignment is posted online at theUniversity of South Florida Collegeof Education site.

Participating teachers selected fivepictures from U.S. historyWeb sitessuch as the National Archives andthe Library of Congress. They chosepictures from times that were widelyseparated and reflected diversitythrough inclusion of women andminorities. They were also careful toselect pictures with more than onechronological clue, such as fashion,technology, and social roles, muchlike the three sample images to theright. Digital collections providea much broader wealth of choicesthan teachers could reasonablyexpect from traditional sourcesof images.

Students given sets of these photo-graphs worked together to place thephotographs in chronological order.They developed hypotheses about thedates of the photographs. They wereoffered a series of questions as cues,such as:

* How do you know which pictureis oldest? How do you know whichpicture is most recent?

* How did you arrive at a date foreach picture? What clues informedyour hypothesis?

* Pick one picture. How do youthink your life would have beendifferent if you had been alive atthis time?

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After a classroom discussion ofgroup findings, students were giventhe actual dates of each photographand asked to compare these to theirinitial hypotheses. This activity pro-vides students with an introductionto chronological thinking and pro-vides a foundation for the local his-tory project that follows.

Documenting Local HistoryThis type of introduction to chrono-logical thinking could be used as aspringboard for successful local his-tory projects. This extension of theactivity follows the four phases ofacquiring, analyzing, creating, andcommunicating.

Acquire. The University of VirginiaSpecial Collections Library, likemany libraries and museums, hasestablished an online database of ap-proximately 1,000 digitized historicalimages of the local community. TheHolsinger Collection, as it is called,offers a photographic record of life incentral Virginia from the late 1 800sthrough the 1 920s. Teachers whowish to replicate this activity in theirown community might find the localhistorical society to be a useful start-ing point. Local families and commu-nity founders are often willing to pro-vide support for such efforts as well.

Students can be assigned to the-matic groups, such as buildings,roads, people, commerce, culture,and transportation. Each group canassume responsibility for searchingthe database and acquiring at leastthree historic photographs thatreflect their assigned theme.

Analyze. The Photo Analysis Work-sheet developed by the NationalArchives and Records Administrationmay be useful for the next stage of theactivity. Students complete one work-sheet per photograph. The chart cov-ers the following items, summarizedfrom the form developed by educa-tional staff of the National Archives:

1. Observations. Study the photographfor two minutes. Form an overallimpression of the photograph andthen examine individual items.Next, divide the photo into quad-rants and study each section to seewhat new details become visible.Then list people, objects, andactivities in the photograph.

2.Inference. Based on what you haveobserved, list three things youmight infer from this photograph.

3. Questions. What questions doesthis photograph raise in yourmind? Where could you findanswers to them?

Create. Students can then be givenan opportunity to capture equivalentmodern-day scenes or subjects.

Communicate. Once students havecaptured modern day photographicequivalents, they can construct avisual historical narrative that exam-ines the concept of change over timein relation to their chosen theme.Although this type of activity couldhave been undertaken in prior eraswith conventional film cameras,access to images in digital form fa-cilitates a number of instructionalactivities. Students can, of course,incorporate digital images into word-processed documents. They can alsodevelop short digital stories after thefashion pioneered by filmmaker KenBurns. His historical documentariescommissioned by PBS combine stillimages with an accompanying narra-tive to explore historical topics rang-ing from the Civil War to the Brook-lyn Bridge.

At one time, this type of activitywas the province of the professionaldocumentary maker, but nonlineardigital video editors such as Movie-Maker (on Windows) and iMovie(on the Macintosh) now bring thiscapability into today's classrooms.Because the software is included at noadditional cost on all new WindowsXP and Macintosh OS X computers,

E Leaming & Leading with Technology_w 1

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classroom projects can be undertakenwithout undue additional expense.Comparable activities can be under-taken on older computers throughpresentation programs such as Hyper-Studio or PowerPoint.

Narrations for these projects canaddress topics such as the following:

* Describe each photograph.* Describe the process of historical

excavation you followed to locateand capture your modern-dayimage.

* What has happened since the origi-nal photograph was taken? Usingyour modern-day photograph,how do you know?

* What more would you like toknow about each photograph?How would you find this out?

It is important to limit the scopeof such projects. A digital movie of90 seconds to three minutes is ap-propriate for most classrooms. A full-length documentary may take hun-dreds of professionals more thana year to produce. By limiting thescale to short vignettes, such projectscan be realistic for class projects.

In this example, the underlyinghistorical concept of change overtime can be used to frame discus-sion of the end products developed.Sharing these products with an audi-ence-classmates, other classes, andparents-has proven to be an impor-tant part of the process in pilot ef-forts. The sharing enables students toengage in historical dialogue, just likehistorians, as they explain how theyinvestigated and analyzed the imagesin their project.

Bringing Historical Thinkinginto the FutureHistorical thinking asks students tobecome detectives in the quest tomake meaning of the past. Thesetypes of exercises actively engagestudents in uncovering past events,places, and people and assist social

studies teachers in making historycome alive and become more relevantfor their students. The strategies pre-sented in this article offer an initialframework for realizing the potentialof digital imagery in the history class-room and the larger social studiescurriculum.

ResourcesHolsinger Collection: http://wwwlib.Virginia.

edu/speccol/collections/holsinger/Kodak's Powerful Days in Black and White:

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/features/moore/powerfulFrame.shtml

Library of Congress: http://www.loc.govNational Archives: http://www.archives.govNational Archives and Records Administra-

tion: http://wwwtarchives.gov/digitaLclassroom/lessons/analysis._worksheets/photo.html

University of South Florida College ofEducation: http://www.coedu.usf.edu/sse4313/history.htm

Virginia Center for Digital History: http://wwv.vcdh.virginia.edu

Stephanie D. van Hover isan assistantprofessor ofso-

* cial studies education in theDepartment of Curriculum,

j Instruction, and SpecialEdu-- S ' 1 cation at the Curry School of

5_ • B rEducation of the University ofVirginia. Her research interests include the infliu-ence ofstandards and accountability on teachingand learning history.

Kathleen Owings Swan isa doctoral candidate in theDepartmentof Curriculum,Instruction, and Special Edu-cation at the Curry School ofEducation of the University ofVirginia. She serves as a center

fellow at the Centerfor Technology and TeacherEducation at the University of Virginia. Herresearch interests include the use of technology insocial studies education.

1 MichaelJ. Berson is an associ-ate professor in the Depart-

1,'l 4}t ' j ment ofSecondary Educationat the University of South,Floida, Tampa. He served

| A t as the 2002-03 chair of theCollege and University Facilty

Assembly (CUFA) ofNational Councilfor theSocial Studies and conducts research on globalchild advocacy and technology in social studieseducation.

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