The Best of History Web Sites internet site is a portal to a selection of history sites covering topics from Prehistory to Modern History, and Art and Oral History. There are also links for Lesson Plans, Games and Research. A great tool for educators as the searching is done-just choose and click.
The Best of History Web Sites internet site is a portal to a selection of history sites covering topics from Prehistory to Modern History, and Art and Oral History. The historical categories found on the homepage are:
- Prehistory,
- Ancient/Biblical History
- Medieval History
- American History
- Early Modern Europe
- Modern History (Modern History Lesson Plan on BrightHub)
- World War II
- History Today with Choices
- Art History
- Oral History
- General Resources
- Maps
There are also links for History Lesson Plans, Games and Research. This site is an excellent tool for educators as the searching is already done and teachers need only to read the summaries of listed resources and decide which are worth investigating. To eliminate information overload, each page contains a keyword search feature that helps to sort through the data and find exactly what is wanted. These features help to minimize time spent searching the net for information leaving the teacher more time to devote to creating history lesson plans.
Each page contains a list of websites rated by a five star system and an unrated see-also list. The date of the last update is included on the top of each page so the user knows how recent the information is. For example, the World War II History link was last updated on December 12, 2008. This aspect of the site is especially helpful to the teacher tying to develop modern history lesson plans. For example, The Modern History and History Today sections have been updated with events as recent as the Mumbai attacks.
To review this site, I used it in developing a lesson plan on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A couple of quick clicks led me to what appeared to be three relevant sites based on their summaries on Best of History Web Sites. Unfortunately, the first link, Middle East: Centuries of Conflict, a CNN Special was no longer available. This was true of all the CNN links I encountered on the site. However, most of the other sites were functioning and informative.
Yes. Overall, I would recommend this site to educators and students for efficient time-management, easy navigation and, although the few links to nowhere were disappointing, reliable reference material. The link to Global Connections: Lesson Plans was a great find. It led me to detailed lesson plans covering an array of topics on the Middle East complete with resources and NCSS Standards. Visit and see for yourself.
