Hyperlänken till det förflutna : tre nationalarkivs digitala lärmiljöer

The archival sector of today is geared towards the public more than ever before. Students are now expected to actively participate in a process of life-long learning, to be more conscious about their cultural heritage and to develop an awareness of history. They shall also be able to evaluate different kinds of sources and approach source material critically. The Anglo-Saxon archives are internationally known for their well-established working methods and innovative educational tools. The aim of this Master’s thesis is to investigate how the teaching methods targeted at schools and students appear on the web pages of three national archives. The chosen countries for this study are England, the USA and Australia. Our intention is to analyse the digital tools that the institutions use for teaching history and with that knowledge draw conclusions about if and how the methods differ between the countries. The research questions of this study are the following: What are the features of the online resources directed towards schools on the websites of the National Archives in England, the National Archives and Records Administration in USA and the National Archives in Australia? What different methods can be observed between the three websites regarding their work towards education and schools? These questions have been answered by conducting case studies of the web pages of three national archives and by using the theory of history didactics. Each web page has been analysed with attention to both form and content. The results of our study displays that there are several differences regarding how the national archives pursue their new target groups with their online resources. At the National Archives in England, the primary target group was school pupils, at the National Archives in USA the target group was mainly teachers and at the National Archives in Australia the teacher was seen as an important link between the archive and the students. Therefore, this archive also