Archival Resources in the Classroom: Letters from the Trunk

Collene Armstrong, Points North Design Services, Canada
Michael Gourlie, Archives Society of Alberta, Canada
http://www.ataoc.ca/archives/main.html

Demonstration: Demonstrations - Session 1

The session describes the process of developing Archives in the Classroom: Letters from the Trunk, an online learning object designed by archivists for use in classrooms in Alberta and elsewhere. Recognizing that school children know more about museum and libraries than archives, the Archives Society of Alberta used funding from the Canadian Council of Archives to work with teachers to create a compelling learning object that met archival as well as pedagogical goals. As a result, compelling personal histories of Canadian immigrants have been brought to life through an interactive, online project that combines technology and primary source materials through an innovative partnership between educators, historians and archivists. The resulting content-rich learning object develops critical thinking and research skills, describes the principles of archival processes and opens the vault to the resources of Canadian archives. The session will describe the origins of the project, the process of creating the learning object, the plans to promote and market the completed product, and future initiatives.