Kelly, T. Mills. “True Facts or False Facts - Which Are More Authentic?” In Pastplay: Teaching and Learning History with Technology, edited by Kevin Kee, 309-28. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2014.
It is important that history students understand the difference between primary and secondary sources yet in many of the historical method courses students must take, where the historiography and historical methods are meant to be taught and understood by students, many students are not comprehending the lessons. Therefore, the author sought to find a way to revise the historical method course so that learning outcomes would be improved. In the reorganization of the course, he wanted to challenge the students to learn the historical methods while having fun and being playful. The outline for the course is offered to the reader as an example of how a research method class could be made more fun. The decision to rearrange the course came from two different areas, that history as a discipline is becoming too uptight and the author had experience working with younger students who were having fun utilizing primary sources. The author continues with a discussion of the variation of the course that he taught focusing on hoaxes in history, entitled ‘Lying about the Past.’ He also speaks to what his students learned while playing with the past, including tools such as historical thinking. The author also describes the backlash and major issues that arose from the web projects that the students created for the class. The chapter concludes with the hope that other historians will be inspired and create new and interesting versions of the historical methods course.