Posts Tagged ‘history’

  • 30 Apr

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    Archives, Media and Scholarship

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    I’m interested in looking at media-based geo-location software such as WhatWasThere and Broadcastr in order to explore how scholarly research can be enhanced with online visual and audio collections. In addition, new developments in archiving and digital exhibits are moving traditional finding aids and “back room” scholarship onto the open and visible Web. At Eastern Michigan University we are using these two tools and looking at others to explore those ideas.

    I would also like to look at how particular collections might be useful and enhanced for online scholarly research, and for this purpose I would like to offer EMU’s Gordy Motown Collection as a test case. How do we design the collection’s online presence to encourage open scholarship?

  • 28 Apr

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    Digital Databases, Oral History and K-12 Education

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    My interests are twofold.  First, I am interested in knowing how individuals have made oral histories available in a digital format.  What programs have you used and found successful or problematic for audio files? What meta-data do you include with your recordings? How do you tag your materials to make the database useful to users?  Have you had to make decisions to exclude certain materials from access to the general public?

    My second interest is in discussing how we make digital databases accessible AND useful to K-12 instructors.  In particular, I am interested in linking databased objects to State Educational Standards, so that teachers can quickly and easily find materials to supplement their curriculum.  Are there other ways to make digital databases useful for K-12 classrooms?  Should a certain level of contextual information be included with each object?  I’d like to discuss successes and failures that others have had interacting with K-12 instructors while trying to make their digital databases useful to a varied public.

  • 26 Apr

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    Putting Content in Context: Geo-Locating Images and Audio with WhatWasThere and Broadcastr

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    In this era of rapid digitization, I fear that we may be losing our sense of place. Comments such as “It’s the content, not the carrier,” imply that no significance should be attached to previous technologies, but does the same hold true for location? Photos stripped of their origin often lose their significance, especially those of places and events. Being able to leverage technologies such as WhatWasThere.com to see the changes between the past and the present can provide significant platforms for discussion (e.g. the loss of buildings and commerce in Detroit) in addition to chronicling local history.

    Aural history faces similar problems, which I will illustrate through my local bands project that features ska, alternative, and punk music from Livingston County in the 1990s. Originally designed for storytelling, Broadcastr.com can handle 4 MB audio clips, which you can use to preserve and disseminate a variety of aural content including (but not limited to) oral histories, campus walks, music, poetry readings, birdcalls, or any material could be enhanced by cartographic context.

    Both WhatWasThere and Broadcastr have iPhone apps and Broadcastr just released their Android app. For example, with the WhatWasThere app, you can take a virtual walk through the history of Ann Arbor and other cities as an immersive experience.

  • 25 Apr

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    Film and Digital Humanities

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    With the development of new and cheaper film technology the ability to tell stories and reach a broader audience with academic research is expanding. I want to use the example of my experience as a first time filmmaker to discuss some of these challenges and opportunities. Filmmaking poses some unique challenges and requires thoughtful adaptation of content. Telling stories on film requires more than merely reading a conference paper over some video images. One bonus it that film presents us with an unprecedented opportunity to control and communicate our message to a much wider audience.
    Using my film, Cahokia: Native American City of Mystery, I want explore the potential of digital media, including but not limited to film, to tell stories that engage multiple audiences. More specifically I am hoping generate discussion on ways to make the project accessible across multiple formats as there is a good possibility it will expand into a longer series of films.
    You can watch a 3 1/2 minute trailer of the film click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLGL9V4VNUw

  • 06 Apr

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    Entry level historical mapping in the classroom

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    It’s no secret that the geographic knowledge of today’s students (as well as the general American) is not where it should be.  This is particularly noticeable in my history classes, where I have learned to include plenty of maps in my class discussions or lectures and–in my online classes–providing brief Camtasia-created voice-overs of historical maps.

    But just as I want my students to write as well as read, and talk as well as listen, I would like to develop a way for them to map historical events themselves rather than always relying on the maps which the textbook (or I) provide.  The issue I’m having, and what I would very much appreciate talking to fellow THATcampers about is how to best teach my students how to use resources like Google Earth to create maps which contain historical information.  While I’ve used Google Earth and Fusion Tables to play with creating maps of my own, I’ve gotten a bit stuck on how to make the transition to teaching these skills and developing assessment activites in the context of a 3 hour per week course that also needs to cover (for example) the history of the world from 1500 to the present.

    What tools, resources, and techniques have others used to teach basic historical mapping?  How do these activities fit into the assessment of course outcomes (Assessment!  Whee!)?  I have ideas (well, notions) and look forward to talking about them and learning more about this from colleagues from a variety of disciplines.