ChronoZoom TimeBooks: The American Citizen
PROJECT SUMMARY: The American Citizen TimeBook will provide training in the use of primary source materials to that explore the evolution of citizenship in American history. With an explicit belief that there is a regional and local view of national narratives, this TimeBook will organize digital materials from the Library of Congress to show the deep and complicated evolution of the concept of citizen.
Central to this project will be the use of an emerging new technology called ChronoZoom, a free online timeline tool that allows students and teachers to create nested timelines and see the interconnectedness between events as represented by primary source documents. ChronoZoom provides users with tools for standards-aligned education of historical thinking, introduce students to exciting technologies and demonstrate how they can be used even if your school has limited infrastructure, and empowers teachers with non-digital tools and techniques to encourage your students to collaborate and practice higher-order communication. Once created, ChronoZoom allows for critical analysis of individual digital assets as well as narrative analysis of the relationship of documents, events, and choices. In this project, teachers will use ChronoZoom to explore their understanding of this complex topic as well as their teaching of these understandings in the K-12 classroom.
Each timeline will be seeded with relevant digital assets, including documents, audio and video files, contextual powerpoints and short vignettes. Each regional TimeBook will allow teachers the flexibility to expose students to pre-selected LOC resources that illustrate key historical moments, model the historical thinking pedagogy of the Teaching with Primary Sources program, and feature LOC materials as the centerpiece for continued student exploration and discovery – all with a regional perspective of the American Southeast, Northeast, Midwest, and West.
PARTNERS: This project will be implemented in partnership with the National Council for History Education, Brigham Young University, University of Oklahoma, Teachers College at Columbia University, North Carolina State University, and Sky Highway, LLC.
FUNDING & SUPPORT: Funding pending.
