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#twitterstorians: Here are a few lesson ideas that should translate well to virtual teaching. The 1st 2 are more geared for undergrad research seminars, but the focus throughout is on building research skills 1/
@Zotero serves as the spine for all the lessons. This thoughtful piece from @DrDreaDavis inspired me to use Zotero in all of my courses, not just my methods seminar https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/october-2018/from-learning-to-cite-to-learning-to-write-using-zotero-in-the-classroom">https://www.historians.org/publicati... 2/
Any teaching technique that introduces students to proper citation management is a plus. I don& #39;t follow @DrDreaDavis& #39; incremental plan for introducing Zotero b/c I like to start w/ showing students what& #39;s possible at the end of the process 3/
But as you& #39;ll see, Zotero also opens up possibilities for group collaboration in the (virtual) classroom. For what it does, it& #39;s a nice LMS alternative too: as I tell students, I can drag + drop a primary source to add it, rather than the many steps it& #39;d take in Blackboard 4/
Lesson 1: Zotero primary source scavenger hunt. This requires introducing students to relevant primary source collections, like ProQuest Historical Newspapers. (By this unit, I& #39;ve taken students to the library for a session w/ the history specialist to learn about resources) 5/
You& #39;ll also need to set up a Group Library for the class, add your students. I& #39;ve made signing up for Zotero + other platforms a separate section of the syllabus, right after Readings, so students can take care of these tasks at start of semester 6/
The week& #39;s readings are a select set of primary sources (I& #39;ve done this on the US occupation of Haiti; most sources in public domain). Students then add a newspaper article + a govt primary source of their own to the Group Library 7/
Once a student has posted a primary source to Zotero, it& #39;s off limits to everyone else. This ensures the Group Library doesn& #39;t fill up w/ 10 copies of the first hit for "Haiti" in ProQuest 8/
In class (+ this would work well virtually), students speak about the importance of their sources, why they chose them. This is a good opportunity to talk about, for example, what we gain if we look at an entire newspaper pg, to see context beyond article itself 9/
Lesson 2: Students pair off to find newspaper sources for one another& #39;s research papers. This builds on the skills introduced in Lesson 1 10/
Start by having students create folders w/ their last names in the Group Library. This allows their partner to add sources directly through Zotero browser plugin 11/
I& #39;ve done this as an in-class exercise; one could dedicate some of a virtual class session to the work. At a minimum, students will have 60 min worth of newspaper research done for their papers. Having a research partner will hopefully expand a student& #39;s universe of sources 12/
Still trying to come up w/ best practices around having students log their search queries. This is important here so partner doesn& #39;t repeat what student has already done, vice versa. General goal to work more efficiently, encourage mindfulness around research practices 13/
