They'd be researching history themselves, not just memorizing names and dates. The library and the Kellogg Foundation asked CCT researchers and curriculum designers to explain what roles these kinds of online primary sources can play in social studies classrooms, and what support teachers and students need to use them well. After years of teaching with bland textbooks crafted so as to offend no one, and with the barely adequate resources of most school libraries, classroom teachers who can get onto the World Wide Web now have access to a growing number of primary source collections in libraries.
Students can now get at the kind of fragmentary and detailed pieces of evidence that historians use.
But electronic primary sources also pose new challenges for teachers. They invite teachers and students to confront new kinds of materials, new perspectives on historical events, and a new need for historical context. Paul was adept at helping students look closely at the meaning of texts, but he and his students had never before delved into a photo archive. They carefully observed and wrote down everything they saw in a photo. They noted what they knew about the objects and activities.