History 8885 Syllabus

Special Topics in Heritage Preservation: Theory and Practice of Digital History

Adina Langer

Tuesdays 4:30 – 7:00 pm

Classroom South 526

 

Office hours

Tuesdays 3-4 pm or by appointment

25 Park Place 20th Floor, Room 2014

Email: alanger@gsu.edu

(770) 913-6909

Description

The digital age has marked a sea change in historical practice, touching every aspect of the craft from research methods, to scholarly communication, to public presentation. Digital tools have enabled unprecedented access to primary sources, collaboration across great distances, and new platforms for publication and interpretation that promise to democratize the field of history and realize the public historians’ ideal of shared authority.  At the same time, digital tools present new challenges. Historical evidence is both more abundant and more fragile than ever before. Malleable publication media enable real-time commentary and responsive revision, but they also enable the spread of misinformation and inaccurate interpretation. Self-styled digital historians and more casual users of digital tools alike need to be aware of the promise and perils of doing history in this new environment.

This course will trace the evolution of digital history from its speculative beginnings in the 1990s through the advent of Web 2.0 in the 2000s and the changing access paradigms of the 2010s.  In addition to delving into the theoretical and ethical questions surrounding digital history, this course will also introduce students to the practical skills needed to create and maintain digital history projects of their own.  Students should have a working knowledge of computers and internet tools, but no background in programming is necessary.

Course learning objectives

Through this course, students will:

• Develop a working knowledge of the evolving set of tools, repositories, methods, and presentation models that constitute “digital history.”
• Employ best practices for doing local history research in the digital age.
• Learn how to add objects to a digital archive along with appropriate metadata.
• Create an online exhibition that includes primary sources and places them in the context of contemporary historical interpretation.
• Understand the role of digital history resources in the context of public history audiences.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of digital history projects.
• Address the factors and trends that will affect the future of historical practice in the digital age.

Course materials

Students will need to use a computer to access online resources including:

 

The class WordPress site: https://sites.gsu.edu/mhp-digital-history/

The class Omeka instance: http://atlrailarchive.org

The class digital resources rights tracker: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Amu1FdnQ00U9dGQ5R0owT0ZjRzNwLS1KSURTSk1XQ1E#gid=6

 

 

 

The following books may be purchased or obtained through the library reserves:

 

Cohen, Daniel J., and Roy Rosenzweig. Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/.

Jack Dougherty and Kristen Nawrotzki, eds. Writing History in the Digital Age. University of Michigan Press Trinity College (CT) web-book edition, 2012. http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/.

Kalfatovic, Martin R. Creating a Winning Online Exhibition: A Guide for Libraries, Archives, and Museums. Chicago: Amer Library Assn Editions, 2002.

Kyvig, David E., and Myron A. Marty. Nearby History: Exploring the Past Around You. 3 edition. New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2010

Rosenzweig, Roy, and Anthony Grafton. Clio Wired: The Future of the Past in the Digital Age. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011.

Weller, Toni, ed. History in the Digital Age. 1 edition. London ; New York: Routledge, 2012.

The following resource guides will assist you in your research for the course:

Anderson, Jill. “GSU Library Research Guides: Archival Research: Why Archival Research?” Accessed December 17, 2014. http://research.library.gsu.edu/archivalresearch.

Hurley, Joseph. “GSU Library Research Guides: Metropolitan Atlanta: Home.” Accessed December 17, 2014. http://research.library.gsu.edu/Metro_Atlanta.

Additional materials will be available online or through the GSU libraries subscription services.

 

 

 

Course requirements

In-class participation:

Active participation in class is expected including participating in discussions and labs and assisting fellow students in collaborative activities. The online exhibit “show and tell” presentation is also included in your in-class participation.

Please note that assignments are due by 3:00 p.m. on their due date. Most assignments are written for a public audience right from the start, so attention to detail and copy editing are important. Spelling and grammar matter. Please watch out for typos and missing words. 

Blogging:

Students will post reading comments to the class blog on a bi-weekly basis and will be expected to comment on other students’ posts on off-weeks. Blog posts should be between 500 and 1000 words.  They should reference texts directly and also include relevant hyperlinks to additional resources.  When applicable, students should locate images to which they have rights and include them in their posts as well. Comments should be about 100 words and students should comment on at least five other students’ posts.

Short writing assignments:

Tag suggestion assignment for History@Work (due February 20): Each student will select a calendar month and select 10 posts published during that month in History@Work (in any year) to suggest ways to improve their tagging schema. Students will post their suggestions to the course blog. (Updated assignment instructions as of February 13:

We have grouped the site’s tags into clusters of tags that often appear together (with the exception of the slavery and art tags where those tags have fewer associated posts).  Instead of looking at 10 completely different articles during a given month, I would like to ask you to sample ten articles from across the history of the site that use some or all of the tags in the cluster.  Think about these tags and determine whether they would benefit from the addition of a single all-encompassing tag for their related articles with the tags in the cluster playing a more specific role where appropriate.

In many cases, some tags seem to be playing redundant roles while others are underutilized. I am asking you, in your tagging post, to assess the role of this cluster of tags over time on the blog and make suggestions for adding additional tags or removing tags in the cluster theme.  What do you think these tags mean in the context of the blog?  Do their meanings change over time?

The overall tagging philosophy of the site is that tags should provide access points to articles beyond the text of the article itself.  Do these tags play that role?  Are there better alternatives to reach that goal?

Please note which articles you looked at and whether you have noticed changes in the use of the tags over time. You can ignore the series-specific tags such as “Letters from Chile” or “Guantanamo Public Memory Project.”)

Research tool review (due March 24, 2015): Using the resource, http://dirtdirectory.org/, select a bibliographical management tool (most will select Zotero), and at least three other digital research tools to use throughout the semester.  After using the research tools for nine weeks, post a review of the tools to the class blog.  Your review should be between 1000 and 1500 words long and should address the ease of use of the tools, the ways that they did or did not change how you approached research tasks, their sustainability as a part of your personal research practice, their broad-based accessibility, and the ways in which they leverage digital technology.  It’s fine if you did not have a good experience with the tools.  Simply describe and evaluate your experience.

Digital history site review (due April 7, 2015): Select a digital history site by March 31.  This site should be one that we have not already discussed in class and should be different from those selected by your classmates.  You will be rewarded for posting your preference early. 🙂 Post a review essay (1500-2000 words) that addresses the following topics:

• Nature and mission of the site (is it an archive, publication, exhibit, educational tool, hybrid?)
• Site origins and funding model
• Site’s author(s) (Is it a solo effort, institutional effort, scholarly collaboration? Is the author a professional, amateur, group?)
• Site’s intended audience (scholars, teachers, students, enthusiasts, others)
• Site’s content (data, metadata, credits and permissions, interpretation)
• Effectiveness of site at meeting its stated goals, unstated goals, meeting the needs of its intended and unintended audiences.

Long-form assignments:

Over the course of the semester, students will contribute to the Atlanta Rail Corridor Archive Project.  The project will trace the history of the communities and businesses that lie along Atlanta’s historic rail corridor, now undergoing transition into the Atlanta BeltLine. After learning about the BeltLine project, students will select a topic to research.  The topic can be a neighborhood, a business, a notable individual or group, a church, an environmental feature, or an event that affected more than one location.  The only rule is that the topic must be tied geographically to the rail corridor that forms Atlanta’s “inner perimeter.” Students may work individually or in groups for their project depending upon interest in specific topics. Once a topic has been selected, students will locate and digitize (or secure permission to include existing digital versions of) fifteen to twenty relevant resources for inclusion in the online archive.  Each student is responsible for fifteen to twenty resources even if he/she is working as part of a group. Resources may include images, documents, oral history interviews, sound files, moving image files, representations of artworks, emails, websites, interactive materials, or representations of artifacts. As their midterm assignments students will be responsible for uploading all resources to the Rail Corridor Archive (although they do not have to have finalized their rights to include those materials publicly until the final).

Next, students will produce a narrative online exhibit that incorporates digital resources included in the archive.  They may use their own resources and those of their classmates. The narrative exhibit must draw on contemporary historiography (secondary sources) in the crafting of its interpretive schema and must include at least ten primary resources in the archive. Students working in groups will be responsible for sections of a group exhibit comparable to those students working on their own. The exhibit must be aimed at a public audience but use best practices in historical interpretation.  All items included in the exhibit must have copyright license secured for public view. In addition to the final exhibit, students must submit an annotated bibliography to the instructor showing how they crafted their interpretation.

For extra credit, students may submit a grant narrative proposing an expansion of their project into another aspect of digital public history.  This may include the creation of educational resources, an accompanying mobile tour, an interactive game, a text encoding project, or other possibilities based on the topics covered over the course of the semester. The grant narrative should include an analysis of the resources required to undertake the project expansion as well as a preliminary budget to see the project through to completion.

The parts of this assignment must be submitted on the following schedule:

January 27: post preliminary topics to personal page on WordPress site.

February 3: final topics due on WordPress site. Determine if you will be working alone or as part of a group.

February 24: Upload first item to Omeka site with metadata. Wait for feedback before uploading additional items. Include rights status on permissions log.

March 3: Fifteen-twenty items uploaded to Omeka with metadata. Information filled in permissions log (does not yet have to be confirmed).

March 10: Add mapping and/or timeline capacity to uploaded items.

March 31: Exhibit outlines due. These can be created in Omeka or in another format.  They should include section headers and an initial list of items to be included.

April 14: Have part one of exhibit ready to workshop in class.  This should include at least five digital resources and should have an overall exhibit introduction.

April 20: First draft of complete exhibit ready to share with instructor. Submit draft annotated bibliography to Desire2Learn. For extra credit, submit grant application narrative for expanded project to Desire2Learn.  Grant application should be 1000-1500 words.

April 28:  Present exhibits at CURVE. Final exhibit screenshots and annotated bibliography due to instructor via Desire2Learn.

Grading

Grades will be earned in this class through thoughtful completion of reading and writing assignments, engaged contributions to class discussion, and demonstrated knowledge of metadata and digital history practice as shown through contributions to digital archive and creation of online exhibits. Letter grades will be calculated in this course according to the following weights:

 

Participation (includes class discussion, attendance, and blogging) – 25%

Tag suggestion assignment–5%

Research tool review – 15%

Digital history site review – 15%

Final project–40%

 

Extra credit assignment carries the possibility of adding 5% to your grade.

 

Plus and minus grades will be assigned on a 100-point scale:

A 93-100

A- 90-93

B+ 87-89

B 83-86

B- 80-83

C+ 77-79

C 73-77

C- 70-73

 

Attendance in class is required and will count as part of your grade. Please let me know in advance if you need to miss class; you will be responsible for making up any work missed due to absence. Missing more than three classes without an excuse will result in a lowered grade. In dire circumstances paper extensions can be considered; be prepared to document your emergency.

 

In the event that you wish to dispute your grade, please submit the request and rationale for the change in writing to me within one week of receipt.

Other Policies

Academic Honesty: Sources are the stuff of history, so I expect you to fully cite all sources used in your written work. I also expect that all your work will be your own; plagiarism will be taken very seriously, in accordance with University Policy on Academic Honesty (Section 409). You can review this policy at:

http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwdos/codeofconduct_conpol.html. Plagiarized work will receive an automatic F with no credit and will be reported to the Dean’s Office, at minimum. Repeat offenders may be subject to further action. For more on plagiarism and how to avoid it, check out

http://www.plagiarism.org/. For information on how to cite sources, see the Chicago Manual of Style

Quick Guide at: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html.

Please advise me if you have a documented disability that needs to be accommodated.

 

Be advised that the last day to withdraw from a course with the possibility of receiving a ‘W’ is January 16. If a student withdraws by this date but is failing the course, he/she will receive a ‘WF.’ All students who withdraw after this date will receive a ‘WF.’

 

Your constructive assessment of this course plays an indispensable role in shaping education at Georgia State University. Upon completing the course, please take the time to fill out the online course evaluation. I appreciate your feedback.

Course schedule

In weeks marked LAB, please bring a laptop computer or tablet. If you do not have one, you may check one out from the GSU library. Please see this page for library policies: http://library.gsu.edu/home/services-and-support/services/borrow-renew-materials/graduate/

January 13: Week One

Topic: What is digital history? Introducing the course.

Theory: History and memory in the context of changing technologies.

• Phaedrus and the problem of writing (Plato dialogues, section 427)
• Renaissance
• Invention of the printing press

Practice: Does digital history have a history?

• The evolution of digital history projects from Valley of the Shadow to Digital Harlem

Readings:

Weller, Toni, ed. History in the Digital Age. 1 edition. London ; New York: Routledge, 2012.  Introduction, Chapter 7.

Jack Dougherty and Kristen Nawrotzki, eds. Writing History in the Digital Age. University of Michigan Press Trinity College (CT) web-book edition, 2012. http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/. Introduction http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/introduction-2012-spring/, “Is (Digital) History More Than an Argument about the Past?” http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/revisioning/dorn-2012-spring/

Cohen, Daniel J., and Roy Rosenzweig. Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/. Except for “Owning the Past” chapter 7.

Review early Digital History projects including Valley of the Shadow http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/, Library of Congress American Memory http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html,  The Lost Museum http://www.lostmuseum.cuny.edu/intro.html, and Digital Harlem http://digitalharlem.org/

We will look at another early Digital History project, the September 11 Digital Archive, in greater detail on February 10.

Assignments due:

Register for class blog and create introductory biographical page.

Schedule BeltLine tour on January 15. http://BeltLine.org/programs/atlanta-BeltLine-tours/

January 20: Week Two

Topic: Historical research in the digital age.

Theory:

• Time management tools
• Navigating the archive
• Visual literacy
• Wikipedia and crowd-sourcing scholarship

Practice: Researching the Atlanta BeltLine

Speakers: Nicole Knox and Heather Hussey-Coker from Atlanta BeltLine, Inc.

Readings:

Look over Dirt Digital Research Tools site: http://dirtdirectory.org

Weller, Toni, ed. History in the Digital Age. 1 edition. London ; New York: Routledge, 2012. Chapters 3-6

Jack Dougherty and Kristen Nawrotzki, eds. Writing History in the Digital Age. University of Michigan Press Trinity College (CT) web-book edition, 2012. http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/. “The Historian’s Craft, Popular Memory, and Wikipedia” http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/crowdsourcing/wolff-2012-spring/ “Teaching Wikipedia without Apologies” http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/teach/seligman-2012-spring/ “Only Typing? Informal Writing, Blogging, and the Academy” http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/collaborative/mehlman-petrzela-manekin-2012-spring/

Alex Garvin & Associates, Inc. The BeltLine Emerald Necklace: Atlanta’s New Public Realm, December 15, 2004. http://beltlineorg.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Emerald-Necklace-Study1.pdf

Rosenzweig, Roy, and Anthony Grafton. Clio Wired: The Future of the Past in the Digital Age. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011. Chapter 3.

Assignments due:

Reading review blog post

January 27: Week Three

Topic: Doing local history in the digital age.

Theory:

• Relationship between “analog” and “digital” resources

Practice:

• Archival and secondary research

Speakers: Jill Anderson and Peter Roberts of GSU Library and Special Collections. Starting in the Colloquium Room from 4:30 to 5:30 and then Classroom 2 from 5:30 -7:00.

Readings:

Kyvig, David E., and Myron A. Marty. Nearby History: Exploring the Past Around You. 3 edition. New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2010

Jack Dougherty and Kristen Nawrotzki, eds. Writing History in the Digital Age. University of Michigan Press Trinity College (CT) web-book edition, 2012. http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/. “Historical Research and the Problem of Categories: Reflections on 10,000 Digital Notecards” http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/data/erickson-2012-spring/ “The Accountability Partnership” http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/collaborative/mehlman-petrzela-manekin-2012-spring/

Review the Rails to Trails research toolkit: http://www.railstotrails.org/build-trails/trail-building-toolbox/corridor-research/

Review the BeltLine official website: http://BeltLine.org/

Assignments due:

Post preliminary BeltLine topics to personal pages. Choose set of research and time management tools. Comment on other students’ posts.

February 3: Week Four

Topic: Intellectual Property, Copyright and the Public Domain

Theory:

• Scarcity, abundance, and access

Practice:

• Copyright licensing and digital history

Presentation by Kathryn Michaelis, Digital Projects Coordinator, Digital Library Services, Georgia State University Library.

Readings:

Cohen, Daniel J., and Roy Rosenzweig. Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/.“Owning the Past” chapter 7.

Rosenzweig, Roy, and Anthony Grafton. Clio Wired: The Future of the Past in the Digital Age. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011. (Except chapters 3-5).

Laura Clark Brown, Judy Ruttenberg, and Keven L. smith, J.D. The Triangle Research Libraries Network’s Intellectual Property Rights Strategy for Digitization of Modern Manuscript Collections and Archival Record Groups, January 2011. http://www.trln.org/IPRights.pdf.

OCLC Research. “Well-Intentioned Practice for Putting Digitized Collections of Unpublished Materia,” n.d. http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/activities/rights/practice.pdf?urlm=161703.

Skim:  Peter B. Hirtle, Emily Hudson, and Andrew T. Kenyon. Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Library, 2009. http://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/14142/2/Hirtle-Copyright_final_RGB_lowres-cover1.pdf.

Check out posts on fair use and licensing in:

“Scholarly Communications @ Duke -.” Scholarly Communications @ Duke. Accessed December 18, 2014. http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm.

Look at: “Creative Commons.” Accessed December 18, 2014. http://creativecommons.org/.

Weller, Toni, ed. History in the Digital Age. 1 edition. London ; New York: Routledge, 2012. Chapter 2.

Assignments due:

Finalize BeltLine topics and determine if students will ultimately work in groups. Blog post comments on readings

 

February 10: Week Five

Topic: Metadata, Standards, and introduction to Omeka

Theory:

• Dublin core
• Folksonomies
• Tagging

Practice:

• Exploring Omeka

Readings:

Weller, Toni, ed. History in the Digital Age. 1 edition. London ; New York: Routledge, 2012. Chapter 9.

Go to Public History Commons and compare a search on “digital history” with the results found by clicking on the “digital history” tag.  Compare to clicking on the “digital media” tab.

Explore Dublin Core Initiative website: “DCMI Home: Dublin Core® Metadata Initiative (DCMI).” Accessed December 19, 2014. http://dublincore.org/

Julie Meloni, “A Brief Introduction to Omeka,” ProfHacker (2011)

Tom Scheinfeldt, “Omeka and Its Peers,” Found History blog, Sept. 1, 2010.

Diane Hillmann, Using Dublin Core. Updated version

Susan Cairns, “Tag! You’re It! What Value do Folksonomies Bring to the Online Museum Collection?,” Museums and the Web Conference (2011).

Clay Shirky, “Ontology is Overrated: Categories, Links and Tags,” Clay Shirky’s Writings on the Internet (2005).

Peter Merholz, “Clay Shirky is Overrated,” Peterme (2005)

Review the September 11 Digital Archive at 911digitalarchive.org.

Assignments due:

Comment on students’ posts, Download Audacity on your computer and record a five-ten minute interview with a friend about their experiences with digital tools (this really needs to be ready to go for February 17).

 

February 17: Week Six

Topic: Text encoding and Oral history (timestamping and transcription) LAB

Theory:

• Enhancing historical information through digital tools

Practice:

• Playing around with Audacity
• We will bring in copies of recordings, transcribe them, and discuss ways that we would timestamp and encode the transcripts.

Readings:

Explore website for Text Encoding Initiative: http://www.tei-c.org/index.xml

Explore website for Oral History Metadata Sychronizer: http://www.oralhistoryonline.org/

Explore website for Oral History in the Dgitial Age: http://ohda.matrix.msu.edu/

Explore website for Scripto: http://scripto.org/

Mary Jo Kline and Susan Perdue, “Transcribing the Source Text,” Chapter 4 of A Guide to Documentary Editing.

Lou Burnard, “A Gentle Introduction to XML,” TEI Guidelines, 2014.

Jack Dougherty and Kristen Nawrotzki, eds. Writing History in the Digital Age. University of Michigan Press Trinity College (CT) web-book edition, 2012. http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/. “Creating Meaning in a Sea of Information: The Women and Social Movements Sites” http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/data/sklar-dublin-2012-spring/

Assignments due February 20:

Tag suggestion assignment for History@Work

 

February 24: Week Seven

Topic: Metadata LAB

Theory:

• How metadata turns historical information into “data” or machine-readable information

Practice:

• We will go over the sample items posted by students. Students should come prepared to enter additional digital items during the workshop, as well as ask questions about how to handle specific items.

Readings:

Jack Dougherty and Kristen Nawrotzki, eds. Writing History in the Digital Age. University of Michigan Press Trinity College (CT) web-book edition, 2012. http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/. “The Hermeneutics of Data and Historical Writing” http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/data/gibbs-owens-2012-spring/

Assignments due:

First item uploaded to Omeka with metadata. (Wait for feedback before uploading additional items)

 

March 3: Week Eight Midpoint

Topic: Mapping, GIS, and Visualization

Theory:

• The “spacial turn” in history
• Deep maps
• Exploring history visually

Practice:

Speaker: Joe Hurley at the CURVE. Joe Hurley is the Interim Director of CURVE and also provides support for GIS and social science data services.  He works on several interdisciplinary research projects and also leads the NEH funded Planning Atlanta digital project.

Readings:

Explore: ATL Maps website: http://disc.library.emory.edu/atlantamaps/

Hurley, Joseph. “GSU Library Research Guides: Metropolitan Atlanta: Home.” Accessed December 17, 2014. http://research.library.gsu.edu/Metro_Atlanta.

Weller, Toni, ed. History in the Digital Age. 1 edition. London ; New York: Routledge, 2012. Chapter 1

Christian Rudder. “The United States of Reddit: How Social Media Is Redrawing Our Borders.” Slate Magazine, October 23, 2014. http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2014/10/mapmaking_using_reddit_okcupid_twitter_and_other_social_media_websites.html.

Jack Dougherty and Kristen Nawrotzki, eds. Writing History in the Digital Age. University of Michigan Press Trinity College (CT) web-book edition, 2012. http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/. “Visualizations and Historical Arguments” http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/data/gibbs-owens-2012-spring/ ; “Putting Harlem on the Map” http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/data/gibbs-owens-2012-spring/

Assignments due:

Midterm: fifteen – twenty items uploaded to Omeka with metadata and information filled in permissions log spreadsheet (does not yet have to be confirmed).

 

March 10: Week Nine

Topic: Presenting history in the digital age: online exhibits LAB

Theory:

• What makes an exhibit different from an archive?
• What makes an exhibit engaging and impactful

Practice:

• Online exhibit “show and tell”

Readings:

Kalfatovic, Martin R. Creating a Winning Online Exhibition: A Guide for Libraries, Archives, and Museums. Chicago: Amer Library Assn Editions, 2002.

Familiarize yourself with a selection of the exhibits mentioned in the book.

Assignments due:

Add mapping and/or timeline capacity to uploaded items.

Select two online exhibits for “show and tell.” Post your choice of exhibits to the class blog as soon as you choose so that other students do not choose the same exhibit.  One exhibit should be one mentioned in the book, and another should be one you find on your own.

 

March 17: No class – spring break

March 24: Week Ten

Class will take place at the Emory Library in the Center for Digital Scholarship

There is a parking deck (Fishburne) within a 3-minute walk of the library: http://arts.emory.edu/plan-your-visit/parking/fishburne.html.

Shuttles are also available (http://transportation.emory.edu/shuttles/index.html). There is one that leaves from Grady, one from Tech, and another from Emory Midtown hospital.

Topic: Presenting history in the digital age: mobile applications and games

Theory:

• History in situ
• Exploring history through immersive environments

Practice:

Speaker: Daniel Pollock and Brian Croxall, Emory Univeristy

Readings:

Review The Lost Museum: http://www.lostmuseum.cuny.edu/home.html

Jack Dougherty and Kristen Nawrotzki, eds. Writing History in the Digital Age. University of Michigan Press Trinity College (CT) web-book edition, 2012. http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/.

 “Pox and the City: Challenges in Writing a Digital History Game” http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/evidence/zucconi-etal-2012-spring/

“Emory launches mobile tour for historic Battle of Atlanta sites” http://news.emory.edu/stories/2014/06/upress_battle_of_atlanta/campus.html

Familiarize yourself with Emory’s mobile app: BattleAtl.org

Assignments due:

Research and time management tool reflective piece

March 31: Week Eleven

Topic: Audience Part 1: K-16 Students and Teachers

Theory:

• What is historical thinking?

Practice:

• Grant writing for digital history applications

Readings:

Explore Historical Thinking Matters website: www.historicalthinkingmatters.org

Explore National History Education Clearinghouse: Teachinghistory.org

Explore Digital History: using new technologies to enhance teaching and research http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/credits.cfm

Explore Digital Humanities Start-up grants website: http://www.neh.gov/grants/odh/digital-humanities-start-grants

Rosenzweig, Roy, and Anthony Grafton. Clio Wired: The Future of the Past in the Digital Age. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011. Chapters 4, 5.

Sonya D. Lovine (Note: This is not a publication of the National Council on Public History, which assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of its content.), “Taking Public History for Granted: A Grant-Writing Guide for Public Historians,” Public History Commons Library, accessed February 17, 2015, http://publichistorycommons.org/library/items/show/15.

Assignments due:

Exhibit outline in Omeka. Comment on students’ reflective pieces. Post digital history sites that you intend to review for your site review assignment so that you can be sure that you are not reviewing the same site as a classmate.

 

April 7: Week Twelve

Topic: Audience Part 2: Shared authority and stakeholders in the digital age

Theory:

• Stakeholders and history communities

Practice:

• Navigating multiple audiences

Readings:

Harry Klinkhamer. “Where Are the Citizen Historians?” In History@Work. The Public History Commons. November 3, 2024.  http://publichistorycommons.org/where-are-the-citizen-historians/

Benjamin Filene, “Passionate Histories:  ‘Outsider’ History-Makers and What They Teach Us,” The Public Historian Vol. 34, No. 1 (Winter 2012): 11-33 – See more at: http://publichistorycommons.org/where-are-the-citizen-historians/#sthash.h5Ue0Rw1.dpuf

History in the Digital Age: Chapter 8

Writing History in the Digital Age: “’I nevertheless am a historian’: Digital Historical Practice and Malpractice around Black Confederate Soldiers” http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/crowdsourcing/madsen-brooks-2012-spring/

“Wikipedia and Women’s History: A Classroom Experience” http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/crowdsourcing/saxton-etal-2012-spring/

“Writing Chicana/o History with the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project” http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/public-history/rosales-castaneda-2012-spring/

“Citizen Scholars: Facebook and the Co-Creation of Knowledge” http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/public-history/sikarskie-2012-spring/

“The HeritageCrowd Project: A Case Study in Crowdsourcing Public History” http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/public-history/graham-etal-2012-spring/

Assignments due:

Digital history site review post. Your review should also engage with the readings for this and the previous classes.

April 14: Week Thirteen

Topic: The future of digital history

Theory:

·         Big data

·         Public vs. private,

·         Social media

·         Politics of scarcity and abundance

·         Understanding authenticity

Practice:

·         Exhibit LAB

Readings:

Mary Rizzo. “Moms at the Myth parts 1 and 2.” October 30, 2014.  http://publichistorycommons.org/moms-at-the-myth-part-1/

History in the Digital Age: Conclusion

Writing History in the Digital Age: Introduction, special website pages, Conclusion

Assignments due:

Have part 1 of exhibit ready to workshop in class. Comment on students’ review posts.

 

April 21: Week Fourteen

Work on exhibits (schedule individual meetings with instructor)

Assignments due:

First draft of complete exhibit ready to share with instructor. Annotated bibliography.  Extra credit: grant application narratives for expanded projects.

 

April 28: Final

Present exhibits at CURVE

Final exhibits due.