Explore, Discover, and Create Using National Archives’ Primary Sources on DocsTeach.org
Press Release · Monday, June 13, 2016

Washington, DC

The National Archives has updated its popular teaching website, DocsTeach.org [https://www.docsteach.org/]. In addition to a new look and improved features, teachers and students can now use the full website and all of its interactive features on any computer or mobile device — including the tablets so often used in the classroom today.

DocsTeach is the online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives. Since it first came online in 2010, its pages have been viewed over 12 million times, in over two million visits from around the world. More than 35,000 registered users have created over 20,000 DocsTeach learning activities. And teachers, students, and schools have downloaded the DocsTeach app for iPad over 580,000 times.

Using DocsTeach.org teachers, students, and other history explorers can access thousands of primary sources —including letters, photographs, speeches, posters, maps, videos— spanning the course of American history.

Educators can register for a free account to create their own fun and engaging online activities for their students. Or they can borrow from an ever-expanding collection of document-based activities created by the National Archives or fellow teachers around the world. They can even copy and customize activities for their students.

DocsTeach is now easier to use, more customizable, and provides a more complete experience for all users. In addition to mobile friendliness, major updates include the ability to:

• Organize and share favorite documents;
• View multimedia directly on the site;
• Access document transcriptions and archival citations;
• Easily save and print primary sources;
• Include primary sources from outside the National Archives, and
• Search activities by grade level.

Other changes to the site drive openness, increase public access, and cultivate public participation. All DocsTeach learning activities are labeled with the CC0 Public Domain Dedication and classified as open educational resources — anyone around the world can copy, modify, or distribute them freely. The copyright status of each primary source on the site is clearly indicated, making use of statements from RightsStatements.org. And the site is now more “discoverable” due to the addition of education-specific metadata to the code, following Learning Resources Metadata Initiative (LRMI) and Schema.org specifications.

DocsTeach is made possible in part by the National Archives Foundation through the support of Texas Instruments, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, and Capital One.

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For press information contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at 202-357-5300.

Connect with National Archives Education:
Archives.gov: www.archives.gov/education/
Education Updates blog: http://education.blogs.archives.gov/
Twitter: @DocsTeach
Facebook: NationalArchivesEducation

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