Tag: #ArchivalLiteracyOnlineCourse

Posted on

New audiences for archives – the Archival Literacy Online Course addressing teachers and students

One of the primary objectives of the European Digital Treasures project is to address new audiences and introduce them to the world of archives. Engaging young people plays a vital role in it and will be achieved with various project activities. The focus lies on offering a low threshold and adventurous entry point into the world of archives, using narrative techniques (“story telling”) that are based on the historical data of the archival documents.

Archival Literacy Online Course

As one of the major parts regarding a young audience, the Archival Literacy Online Course has been developed to assist teachers in introducing students of grade 9 and higher to the world of archives.

This course offers a sustainable and attractive tool linked to young user education on how to use archives, teaching students how to conduct research within the archival holdings, through traditional lectures and presentations at schools and integrate the possibilities offered by archives, mostly in Humanities, specifically in areas like history, arts, and geography.

The Archival Literacy Online Course is available in English and Spanish.

The course has been organised around three key modules:

  • Module 1: Archives – an introduction
  • Module 2: The archive of anyone, an archive for anyone
  • Module 3: Teaching with primary sources
Archival Literacy Online Course

The Archival Literacy Online Course presents the relevant information in an attractive way tailored to the target group of young students. Step by step, the course content is presented, with a knowledge check where the students answer questions based on the section they have just read.

By the end of module 1, the students will understand what an archive is, they will be able to explore the qualities archives need to have, understand the evolution of the archives, and appreciate the importance of archival literacy as well as the value of archives to society.

Module 2 – The archive of anyone, an archive for everyone teaches the students how to identify the key records about different periods and activities in their life, shows them how to differentiate between legal and formal information and also tells them about their rights in relation to those records.

Module 3 – Teaching with primary source offers resources that teachers might find helpful in their teaching practice. The resources are organised in three thematic sections with a high level of relevance today, namely Pandemics and Epidemics, Economic Crises and Migration.

Introductory videos to these modules are available online:

On May 6, 2021, the Digital Treasures project partners will present the Archival Literacy Online Course in a webinar. Click here for details on the agenda and the registration form.

Posted on

The importance of the dissemination of memory in the teaching of History

As one of the major parts of the European Digital Treasures project, the Archival Literacy Online Course has been developed to assist teachers in introducing students of grade 9 and higher to the world of archives.

One of the teachers who has been using this tool in her teaching is Teresa Gomes, History teacher at Mem Martins Secondary School in Portugal. In an online presentation of the Archival Literacy Online Course on May 6, 2021, she will give insights into the course together with other lecturers. To join this event, please register here.

Teresa Gomes is the author of the following text.

Project “Digital Treasures”

This text aims to be not only a reflection on the pedagogical component of the training performed, but also on the social and informational functions associated with the archives, for the role they play in keeping the memory of the different communities and individuals.

National Archive of Torre do Tombo, Portuguese Political Constitution of 1822, one of the archival documents explored with students in a classroom context.

The preservation of memory, throughout history, has been possible through the multiplicity of testimonies that allow the reconstitution of the timeline for the succession of events. The act of preserving the record of these actions constitutes the original basis of the archives which, by subjecting the documents to archival procedures, have allowed access to information through their reuse.

As mentioned in the document Aprendizagens Essenciais for the discipline of History A, must have a teaching that encourages in students a method that values the exhaustive analysis of diverse sources promotes the development of a critical perspective, enabling the deconstruction of information, identifying error and illusion (2018:2), which attributes to pedagogical tools such as those presented during “Digital Treasures” formation a particular highlight in the analysis of primary sources.

National Archive of Torre do Tombo, Portuguese Political Constitution of 1822, one of the archival documents explored with students in a classroom context.

An example of the partnership between the Archive and the School was promoted through two initiatives that counted with the collaboration of the Arquivo Municipal de Sintra (AMS) and the School Library of the Mem Martins Secondary School (BE ESMM): An exhibition of the existing AMS documents, with particular emphasis on written and iconographic documents about the localities Algueirão-Mem Martins and Rio de Mouro, given that the educational community is located in these places.

During the fortnight in which the exhibition was in the BE ESMM, a lecture was held with the head of the AMS on the dematerialisation of and accessibility to documents, using digital media. During the lecture, it was shown how to navigate through different types of documents related to local and regional history was performed.

Later, in the classroom, the students worked on the website of the Assembly of the Republic and National Archive of  Torre do Tombo/Digitarq to read and analyse documentation relating to the Liberal Revolution of 1820 and the Civil War between Liberals and Absolutists, as well as the involvement of the municipality of Sintra in both events.

For the knowledge of the historical context under study, the students are thus led to the reading and analysis of coeval written production as well as to the observation of records of images of the time or that in histography allow the identification of elements that promote the hermeneutic and heuristic analysis of the sources, namely in the subject of History A, in secondary education.