Summer PD Series: Tom Daccord
This week I had the good fortune to attend a two day workshop at Whitfield School lead by veteran history teacher and technology specialist Tom Daccord. Although specifically geared toward history teachers, many of Tom’s ideas and resources can be applied to any curriculum or grade level.
Best of History Web Sites
Created by Tom and maintained by Justin Reich, the Best of History Web Sites is an invaluable resource for history students, teachers, and enthusiasts. The About this Site page includes this overview:
“Best of History Web Sites aims to provide quick, convenient, and reliable access to the best history-oriented resources online in a wide range of categories. BOHWS has been designed to benefit history teachers and their students, but general history enthusiasts will benefit from the site as well. Best of History Web Sites is ranked #1 by Google for “history web sites” and receives upwards of 112,000 visitors per month.
Best of History Web Sites contains links to over 1200 history-related web sites that have been reviewed for quality, accuracy, and usefulness. Included are links to K-12 history lesson plans, teacher guides, activities, games, quizzes, and more. Sites with engaging educational content and stimulating and useful multimedia technologies are most likely to be included in these pages. However, useful general resources and research-oriented sites have been included as well.”
Anyone even remotely interested in history would benefit from a visit to this site, and the research guides are a great starting point for students utilizing the Internet in the research process.
The Center for Teaching History With Technology
Another of Tom’s creations, The Center for Teaching History With Technology “aims to help K-12 history and social studies teachers incorporate technology effectively into their courses.” While the site is focused on history, the information on common Web 2.0 tools (e.g. blogs, wikis, podcasting) can get any interested teacher up to speed in short order. English/language arts teachers may also want to visit his Teaching Literature and Writing With Technology page for more integration ideas.
Public Domain Image Sites
Teaching students (and teachers) to observe Copyright and Fair Use is a nearly universal challenge. As Tom explains:
“If you are planning to show copyright images within the confines of your classroom then your usage more than likely falls within the scope of educational “fair use.” Mind you, more and more educators are making their (or their students) presentations available online, and this practice raises some important copyright issues. If you make your PowerPoint publicly accessible on the Internet without the express written permission of the authors of the copyrighted images, then you have most likely infringed on copyright protection.”
To assist the education community, Tom has assembled an extensive list of sites that contain images in the public domain. From American Memory to Wikipedia, these links can help students break the “Google Habit” and utilize images efficiently and properly.
Two Days of Ideas: Too Much to Share
As with any intensive and extensive workshop, there is simply no way to adequately convey all that we experienced during our two days with Tom. As a starting point, however, I would encourage you to explore the links I’ve highlighted and discover his materials and methods for yourself. If you have any questions and/or would like to learn more, please don’t hesitate to ask. If you ever have the opportunity to work with Tom in person, jump at the opportunity; it will definitely be time well spent!
