Digital history is...

The emerging field of digital history presents opportunities for learning which are quite seductive, but ironically, equally limiting. Many scholars, excited about the potential of digital history, trumpet the arrival of new electronic or “digital” historical resources as enabling students to actively and authentically engage in acts of doing history. Most of these “promises” of new learning opportunities, while productive and encouraging, fall short of realizing a full constructivist design form.

As currently conceptualized, digital history is the study of the past using a variety of electronically reproduced historical resources as well as electronically delivered historical narratives, accounts, or presentations. What this conceptualization of digital history offers is meaningful. The simple availability of historical resources through the Web positions teachers and students to engaging in historical inquiry more efficiently and more extensively. The electronic resources used by teachers and students are also more dynamic, particularly with regard to the capability of the resources being searched and represented in multiple electronic formats. But, ultimately work with these resources is not substantively different that work with paper resources and importantly does not realize extent of constructivist learning which digital resources can offer teachers and students.

So, how does digital history differ from historical work done in traditional or non-digital environments, specifically with regard to resource use, presentation, and structure? Digital historical resources are more accessible. Their use encourages increased archival activity and promotes the development of social networks. They are easier to manipulate and search. They are more flexible and they include an organizational strategy related to the content of the collection. Furthermore, digital historical resources can enable students to create their own representations of historical knowledge and can facilitate teachers as they construct pedagogical knowledge about how to teach history.

The act of historical inquiry in digital environments (with digital resources and/or the intent of reporting digitally) must involve unique elements. Most importantly, the process of historical inquiry is repositioned in digital environments to take advantage of multimedia in the process of enabling learners to construct unique representations of their knowledge of the past.