The series consists of 6 webinars. We recommend watching live on the dates below. Recordings will also be made available to booked delegates until the end of the term.

Session 1: What is digital literacy – and why history sits at the centre of it (FREE for HA members)
Thursday 7 May, 4pm–5pm

Session 2: Working with digital archives: authenticity, access and critical evaluation
Thursday 21 May, 4pm–5pm

Session 3: Teaching online source evaluation: from historical provenance to platform reality
Tuesday 2 June, 4pm–5pm

Session 4: History assessment in the age of AI: validity, authenticity, and smarter task design
Tuesday 9 June, 4pm–5pm

Session 5: Historical thinking in a digital world: developing digital literacy through historical skills
Wednesday 17 June, 4pm–5pm

Session 6: History + English for digital and media literacy: complementary disciplinary lenses
Tuesday 23 June, 4pm–5pm

Each session includes:

• • short research framing
• • classroom-ready examples
• • suggested readings/resources
• • a ‘next steps’ task for departments

All participants will receive access to a Digital Literacy Mapping Tool – a practical template for auditing existing curriculum to identify where digital literacy is already being taught and where explicit connections can be strengthened.

Session 1: What is digital literacy – and why history sits at the centre of it (FREE for HA members)
Thursday 7 May, 4pm–5pm

Presenter: Ben Walsh

This opening session establishes a shared, research-informed definition of digital literacy and distinguishes related terms (media literacy, information literacy, critical digital literacy, data literacy). Drawing on frameworks including Eshet-Alkalai’s six-component model (photovisual, reproduction, information, branching, socio-emotional, and real-time thinking literacies), UNESCO standards, and the European Digital Competence Framework (DigComp), we examine what digital literacy means beyond basic technical skills. Read more

Session 2: Working with digital archives: authenticity, access and critical evaluation
Thursday 21 May, 4pm–5pm

Presenter: Andrew Payne (The National Archives)

Digital archives represent both an enormous opportunity and a complex challenge for developing digital literacy. This session explores how to work effectively with digitised historical sources while building students’ critical understanding of digital curation, authenticity, and access. Drawing on The National Archives’ extensive education programme and online collections (with over 2.5 million annual visitors to their education website), Andrew Payne will demonstrate practical approaches to using digital archives in the history classroom. Read more

Session 3: Teaching online source evaluation: from historical provenance to platform reality
Tuesday 2 June, 4pm–5pm

Presenter: Ben Walsh

A practical session translating classic source analysis into the messy conditions of the web: reposts, screenshots, decontextualised clips, algorithmic feeds, and influencer credibility cues. We’ll explore teachable routines for evaluating online material, building on the Stanford History Education Group’s research on lateral reading (leaving a source to investigate its credibility elsewhere), triangulation across multiple sources, and reverse image search workflows as concepts – even when specific tools vary by school. Read more

Session 4: History assessment in the age of AI: validity, authenticity, and smarter task design
Tuesday 9 June, 4pm–5pm

Presenters: Ben Walsh and Andrew Beattie (Olex.AI)

This session tackles the immediate departmental challenge: how generative AI changes homework, extended writing, and ‘independent research.’ The focus is not panic or policing – it’s assessment validity and workload reduction. We’ll examine what AI makes easier to fake, what remains robust, and how to redesign tasks so students must demonstrate thinking that is hard to outsource: process evidence, oral defence, in-class micro-writes, annotated bibliographies, source trails, comparative reasoning. Read more

Session 5: Historical thinking in a digital world: developing digital literacy through historical skills
Wednesday 17 June, 4pm–5pm

Presenter: Bethany Holmes (University of Derby)

This session showcases an innovative pedagogical framework connecting historical source analysis with digital literacy to increase student digital resilience and address online misinformation and safety concerns. Partnering with PGCE beginning teachers, Dr Holmes will investigate and share schemes of learning that integrate these skills within existing curricula. Read more

Session 6: History + English for digital and media literacy: complementary disciplinary lenses
Tuesday 23 June, 4pm–5pm

Joint session with the English Association

A conversation-style session bringing History and English into productive alignment. We’ll compare how each subject approaches credibility, rhetoric, argument, narrative, and interpretation – then plan how departments can complement rather than duplicate each other. The goal is a coherent whole-school approach: history strengthens evidence, provenance, causation and contextual reasoning; English strengthens language, rhetoric, genre, and discourse awareness. Read more

The series is for anyone who teaches or leads secondary history, from early career to experienced teachers. This includes colleagues in history Initial Teacher Education, mentors, Senior Leaders with responsibility for curriculum/literacy/assessment, Trust or Local Authority history advisors. It is also suitable also for Key Stage 2–3 transition leads and will include notes on Key Stage 2 transfer where relevant.

By the end of this series, participants will be able to:

• • Define digital literacy using established frameworks (e.g., media/information literacy, critical digital literacy) and identify what is distinctively historical about it
• • Design history enquiries and source work that explicitly teach evaluation of online claims, provenance, and manipulation (including AI-generated content)
• • Work effectively with digital archives, understanding authenticity, curation, and the critical evaluation of digitised sources
• • Make informed decisions about assessment in a world of AI, including what can/cannot be validly assessed and how to protect integrity without narrowing learning
• • Develop cross-curricular strategies that leverage History’s distinctive contribution alongside other subjects, particularly English

Lead convenor: Ben Walsh (digital technology + history education). Ben has extensive experience in digital history education, including work with The National Archives and the Learning Curve project, and has pioneered approaches to integrating digital literacy into history teaching.

Additional contributors: Bethany Holmes (Senior Lecturer in ITE, University of Derby); Andrew Payne (Head of Education and Outreach, The National Archives); Andrew Beattie (Olex.AI); James Wright, (DRET Trust Lead for English)

Meet our CPD presenters

All prices are listed inclusive of VAT. Any webinar booked individually on Cademy will incur an additional fee.

To access the member price please provide your membership number when prompted. You must have a valid membership at the time of booking and attending. All webinars in this series are eligible for the corporate member free offer.

The webinars will take place online over Zoom. While we strongly recommend participating live, if you are unable to attend for any reason a recording link will be made available. This will be emailed to all registered participants to access for a limited period until the end of the term.

To book for multiple webinars or request an invoice, please complete the form below.

If you have missed a session, a recording can be accessed using the form. You will be emailed an invoice for the cost of the recording(s) and a time-limited link to access the webinar recording on Zoom.