logy Instructional Techno Social Studies5-12

Volume 1, Issue 3
BVCPS

November 2012

Historically Inaccurate
No matter how many times we say its not so, too many people believe that if its on the Internet it must be true. A major insurance company, obviously aware of this, has even turned this into a major ad campaign. I wont name names, but if you watch TV, you probably know the commercial Im referring to. It ends with, This is my date. I met him on the Internet. Hes a French model. So not true! Or even worse, the recent debacle with our state sponsored and recommended history books. The author used information from the Sons of Confederate Veterans website, a group with some bias, as the source of information of the Civil War. Teaching our students how to select appropriate websites for research is critical. They need to understand the importance of verifying the source of information. Is the source legitimate? Is it unbiased? Do experts in the field contribute to the information? Can they rely on this information as factual? How to Check for Reliability The first item to check on a website is its address. What is the domain? Is it .gov, .org, .com, .net, .edu or something else? Which domains indicate a reliable source with valid, factual information? .gov is the domain for government sites. These sites provide reliable information on a variety of history and social sciences topics. The information is typically up-to-date as the sites are usually maintained on a regular basis. A good example from this domain is: Bens Guide to US Government. .edu is the domain for higher education institutions and indicates another source of reliable information. Information on these sites may be biased depending on the subject and author, but the information is generally well documented and accepted as factual by leading historians. An example would be the eHistory site maintained by Ohio State University: http://ehistory.osu.edu/ osu/ .org domains can be great sources, but they can also be very poor sources. Anyone can start a not-forprofit organization. The Sons of the Confederate Veterans site is a .org. And while some of their information is good, much of it is undocumented and subject to considerable bias. .com and .net domains are commercial sites, but can still be an excellent source of historical information. Discovery Education and the History Channel are both .coms but are still good sources of reliable information on numerous topics. Facebook has become a good source of good information on many different topics as long as the author is an accepted expert. Harvard University, for example, has a Facebook page for their History of the United Nations project. The key to using these sites is confirming who the author of the site is and that the author is a reliable source of information on the topic being researched.

Inside this issue:

Feature Article: Historically Inaccurate 10 Sites for Educational Documentaries RecommendationsWebsites, Apps and iTunes U Courses 1

10 Sites for Educational Documentaries

By: David Kapuler

Documentaries are used in education all the time to educate and inform students about different nonfiction topics. While there are a ton of sites to choose from, I've decide to curate this list to make it easier for educators to find what they are looking for. This list is in alphabetical order.

place to find 1000s of documentaries on a wide variety of subjects. Documentary Storm - A fun community for finding documentaries rated on a six-star scale. Users have the ability to leave comments and collaborate with others.

Free Documentaries - This is a excellent place to find political and educational documentaries. John Locker - A nice place to find documentaries where people can rate and upload videos as well. Snag Films - One of the most popular sites for finding documentaries and independent films. Also, users can share these films and view on a mobile app. Top Documentary Films - A terrific site with lots of documentaries to search through where users have the ability to leave comments.
Reprinted from: http://www.techlearning.com/

Documentary Tube - A wonderful place to find documentaries where users can save documentaries by Chockadoc - A nice site for finding creating playlists. documentaries with an educational category where people can rate Documentary Wire - A simple site videos as well. (Editor's note: with lots of educational documenChockadoc's website is down temtaries to browse through. porarily while they switch servers. Visit them on Facebook to learn DocumentaryZ - A great place to more.) find free documentaries where people can search by most popuDocumentary Heaven - A great lar, subject, or best rated.

Recommendations
Websites eHistoryProduced by Ohio State Universitys History Department, this site contains numerous historical documents, maps and much more. Smithsonian History Explorer Produced by the Smithsonian, this site contains lesson plans, interactives, maps, historical documents, podcasts, and much more. ThinkfinityProduced by the Verizon Foundation for the benefit of educators, this site provides lesson plans, videos, webinars, and more for teachers of all subjects. iTunes U Courses Early Middle AgesYale University The Roman WorldLa Trobe University American RevolutionYale University Story of Freedom in America University of Oklahoma Lincoln and the Civil WarThe Huntington Library Ancient Greek HistoryAudio course from Donald Kagan World HistoryDr. Richard Moss, Neolithic to 1500 CE. Exploring the PastNational Geographic Live Apps for iPads History: Maps of the World incredible collection of maps from around the world and through the ages. Constitution for iPadcomplete copy of the US constitution at your fingertips. Constitution and Federalist PapersNot just a copy of the constitution, but an explanation of each and every clasue as well as commentary on each amendment. US History TimelineInfo on major events in US history. The StatesInformation on each state including the formation of each state.