The Potentials of Using Digital Primary Sources in History Classroom

Abstract

The latest approach to History Education requires student not to be a passive recipient of encyclopaedic knowledge but as empowered individual that plays an active role in the knowledge generation process. This can be achieved by teaching students how to generate historical knowledge through historical sources. Therefore, digital primary sources (DPS) that refer to primary sources that are in electronic format are very important in History Education. DPS encourage students to relate it in a personal way to past events and promote a better and deeper understanding of past events. However, DPS is underutilized in this digital age, it has not yet been fully accessed and used in a meaningful way. Therefore, this paper presents the definition of DPS and the importance of using DPS in history learning process. Our purpose of this paper is to present a clear review of literature concerning the potentials of using DPS in fostering students’ historical thinking skills, fostering students’ historical inquiry, encouraging students to view a historical event in a multi perspective way, helping students to gain a deeper understanding of a past event and motivating students to learn history. We further provide suggestions of the implementation and alteration of DPS platforms for various authorities, as well as how educators can use and take advantage of DPS in history teaching and learning process.