Major Digital Project Update #2 - Digital Resources

Back working on the Major Digital Project. As stated last week, I decided that I would like to create a week long WebQuest on the topic of life in colonial america. In order to get started, I decided that I would browse the web and see what kinds of resources exist out there for students to engage with!

The first resource I came across was a website called "Virtual Jamestown." This is an interesting little website that has links to original colonial newspapers and letters, which is amazing. I love that there are photos of the primary source documents here, so that my students can get an idea of what things really looked like back then. There are thousands of documents archived in this site, which can be a little overwhelming, but I also think that it makes the website a valid resource for research and discovery for my students. Interestingly enough, it also contains the complete works of Captain John Smith!

The Armorial Bearings of Captain John Smith of Virginia as Recorded at the College of Arms, London, by Sir William Segar, Garter Principal King of Arms, 19 August, 1625. Rouge Dragon Pursuivant of Arms

The Armorial Bearings of Captain John Smith of Virginia as Recorded at the College of Arms, London, by Sir William Segar, Garter Principal King of Arms, 19 August, 1625. Rouge Dragon Pursuivant of Arms

Next, I stumbled upon this document here that appears to be from a library collection. This excellent resource is a hub of sorts that links out to many articles and resources from pre-colonial america all the way til 1850. This site links to a bunch of other sites which all have good first hand information and artifacts from colonial times.

From this site, I was eventually led to the official Library of Congress, and holy wow that site is amazing! How have I not heard of this? Library of Congress has access to all sorts of original political cartoons, posters, newspapers and original documents from early United States history. There is even an entire section dedicated to documents pertaining to the Boston Tea Party! Talk about wild! I am sure that I will be able to find a plethora of resources here for my students to learn from first hand. 

One last resource I found was this neat little timeline oriented website, History World. This website gives the history of events during Colonial America in chronological order, which is an awesome resource for my students. Then, it also provides images and explanations of each of the events on the timeline, allowing students to explore the events of Colonial America more thoroughly.