Treks and Primary Sources
The Internet affords some pretty amazing treks during which students can accompany or visit explorers to remote places.
The Explorations of Lewis and Clark
Because computers can track and remember different points of view and alternative decisions so much more easily than people, we find this feature more frequently on the Web than we would in hard copy. For example, in conjunction with its special television programs PBS and General Motors have mounted a Web site, devoted to the expeditions of Lewis and Clark. Students can begin one of the expeditions but, in this simulated version, can make different decisions than Lewis and Clark and trace the consequences.
OmnesViae: Roman Routeplanner
OmnesViae.org offers a Google Maps type reconstruction of the Tabula Peutingeriana, a medieval copy of a Roman roadmap from about the year 300 CE.
You can get a real feel for the length of journeys during that period and scale of the Roman road network. A trip from Athenas (Athína) to ROMA (Roma) would require fording eight rivers and traversing three mountain ranges.
All roads did lead to Rome.
D-Day: June 6th 1944 as it happened
The Telegraph newspaper has created a timeline of the D-Day landings of 6th June 1944 hour by hour as events unfolded. Formatted like a modern breaking news page, start at the bottom of the page and read up.
Would make a great spoken word project.
Center for Teaching History with Technology
The Center for Teaching History with Technology posits the idea that Virtual Tours are excellent vehicles for bringing primary source materials into the classroom and provide a number of examples.
Should recreation of historical treks online be considered of equal value to primary sources?
Other Areas To Check Out...
• History & Primary Sources
• Biographies
• The Library of Congress
• Primary Source Document Collections
• Audio/Video Primary Sources
• Exhibits as Primary Sources
