Students Publish Local History Online

K-12 teachers unveil student-created local history websites

Over the past two years, 25 teams of teachers and students from across Massachusetts, working with local museums and historical societies and the Hampshire Educational Collaborative (HEC), have researched and published local history narratives and source materials on the web. The results of these Windows on History projects are impressive. To celebrate their successes, a dozen teachers unveiled their sites at HEC via a bank of computers.

Students in several Western Massachusetts communities helped local historians present stories on the web through HEC’s Windows on History program. Students analyze and write about primary sources – documents and artifacts from the past. Students examine the sources to see what they have to say about national issues and themes of the past. Then the students create web sites based on their research to share history with the public. In the process, students learn the knowledge, skills, and intellectual discipline of traditional American history.

Some of the many student-created online histories feature: three centuries of agriculture in Hadley, the rise and decline of mills in Easthampton and Holyoke, transportation and the Connecticut River in South Hadley, the recreational trail in Southwick, elementary schools in West Springfield, and a Monson quarry.

Windows on History projects began in July, 2006 and June, 2007 at summer history colloquia offered by HEC and Historic Northampton, the Springfield Armory, and University of Massachusetts historians, educators, and computer scientists. The program is free thanks to a Teaching American History grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Teachers may receive stipends and credit. Contact Rich Cairn at HEC: 413 586-4900 x166 or rcairn@collaborative.org.