A case study of technology‐enhanced historical inquiry

Abstract

The paper describes the integration of web resources and technology as instructional and learning tools in oral history projects. The computer‐mediated oral history project centred around interviews with community elders combined with new technologies to engage students in authentic historical inquiry. The study examined learners' affective attitudes and cognitive perceptions in grades 5 to 11 in order to understand the challenges and opportunities that students faced in the project. Data were collected using interviews with students and teachers, electronic group projects on the web, the researcher's observations, and a subjective–qualitative questionnaire. Qualitative analyses consisted of categorical and thematic analysis. With respect to categorical analysis, the excerpts of students' responses were categorised using two codes based on whether they related more to the challenges or advantages of the project. These multiple categories were then aggregated into larger analytic themes. The study showed that from this computer‐mediated oral historical project, students were provided opportunities to develop better insight into the past, better historical thinking, and more positive attitudes toward the elders. The project challenged learners to conduct historical inquiry with technology while facilitating the development of historical thinking, honing interview skills, enhancing computer literacy, sharpening critical thinking, and problem‐solving, as well as nurturing interpersonal and teamwork skills. Some challenges to the implementation of computer‐mediated historical projects are discussed.

Keywords:

• oral history
• computer‐mediated project
• historical inquiry
• interviews
• history and technology

Notes

1. The National Center for History in the Schools has developed subject matter and critical‐thinking standards in history for grades K‐12 (http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs/).

2. Since Japanese rule of Taiwan officially ended on October 25, 1945, the day has been designated as Taiwan's Retrocession Day in memory of this event.