Seen but Not Heard: A Case Study of K-12 Web Archiving and the Importance of Student Participation in the Archives

Seen but Not Heard: A Case Study of K-12 Web Archiving and the Importance of Student Participation in the Archives

Pedagogy

This article examines different attempts by educators to incorporate web archiving into their curriculums when teaching student from K-12, believing that utilizing archives can empower students to contribute their views to the “historical record”. Initially, archivists did not prioritize in reaching out or teaching K-12 students, believing they would not be capable of working with primary sources that are crucial to archives. However, as standardized testing and access to the Internet increased, this began to change, and more educators incorporated archiving into their curriculums. As students progress through their classes, they are exposed to higher levels of archival engagement and gradually learn how to identify and analyze archival information. Eventually, students will be able to give resources to participatory archives, web archives where the users add contributions instead of professional archivists. Even though there are many benefits to participatory archiving, many teachers face challenges in incorporating them into their classrooms. Many schools have strict curriculums with no room for adding lesson in web archiving. In addition to this, many teachers struggle in how to evaluate their students’ web archiving. Many of them are not able to determine how to properly grade this work, since there are no established standards set for them to look to.

Freeman, JoyEllen

2016

Rahman, Sabiha

Journal Article

Freeman, JoyEllen. "Seen but Not Heard: A Case Study of K-12 Web Archiving and the Importance of Student Participation in the Archives." Archival Issues 37, no. 2 (2016): 23-42. www.jstor.org/stable/44981988.