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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 2/
Any teaching technique that introduces students to proper citation management is a plus. I don't follow @DrDreaDavis' incremental plan for introducing Zotero b/c I like to start w/ showing students what's possible at the end of the process 3/
But as you'll see, Zotero also opens up possibilities for group collaboration in the (virtual) classroom. For what it does, it'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'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've taken students to the library for a session w/ the history specialist to learn about resources) 5/
You'll also need to set up a Group Library for the class, add your students. I'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's readings are a select set of primary sources (I'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's off limits to everyone else. This ensures the Group Library doesn'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'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'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'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't repeat what student has already done, vice versa. General goal to work more efficiently, encourage mindfulness around research practices 13/
