DocsTeach vs Pliny

DocsTeach is a free interactive teaching website built around primary sources in the National Archives holdings. Its collection includes thousands of letters, photographs, speeches, posters, maps, and videos. Teachers can create activities by selecting a tool and sources, then customizing instructions. Activity formats include document analysis, discussion, compare and contrast, zoom and crop, sequencing, mapping, and interpreting data. Students can submit and save responses for a teacher to view in My Students’ Responses, or send responses by email. Teachers can share activities to Google Classroom, where students can turn in their work through its button. For lessons using other materials, teachers can upload JPG, PNG, GIF, or JPEG documents and images up to 8 MB per file. The redesigned site supports exploring and creating activities on computers and tablets, and students can turn in work through the DocsTeach App for iPad. A free account costs nothing and allows users to create, save, and share activities and primary sources, and access hundreds more educator activities. Creating an account requires a name, email address, and password.

Pliny is a history-learning app for iOS and Android, offering short lessons and quizzes about ancient and modern history. Lessons are presented as roughly five-minute reading modules, with optional narration. Available topics include Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, the Vietnam War, and the Iranian Revolution; Ancient Rome and World War II are marked as coming soon. Scoring at least 80% on a level quiz unlocks the next chapter. Completing all levels in a topic opens the timed Grand Trial, which can lead to a badge and leaderboard place. The app tracks progress and includes review quizzes. Pliny is currently in early release. Its Free plan costs nothing and provides five gems daily, while rewarded ads can provide more. Premium offers unlimited gems, removes ads, and opens every topic, but no Premium price is listed. Sign-in supports Apple, Google, or email.