Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement in the U.S. History Survey: Teaching with Digital History and Online Civic Engagement Tools

Student engagement in community through civic engagement, service learning, and adopting the practice of deliberative democracy has been an important theme of my U.S. history course in the 12 years that I have been teaching it.  But I can do even more to further engage my students in this civic learning in three ways: First, I plan to conduct research and benefit from the ongoing conversation about civic engagement in the digital age (by the Pew Research Center, for example).  Second, I will redesign the course through a “blended” (or hybrid) community of inquiry approach that allows students to take full advantage of the digital history in their pursuit to become more engaged, active citizens. Third, I will identify and encourage the students to employ various online engagement tools, such as those available at the Center of Civic Digital Engagement, and other online tools for engagement as recommended by the Deliberative Democracy Consortium.