Case Statement - National Council on Public History

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NCPH Working Group: Teaching Digital History and New Media Heather Munro Prescott, Ph.D. I’m a Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University. I have taught here for over twenty years. I’m became interested in teaching digital history as a result of a workshop I took at the Center for History and New Media about eight years ago. I have taught a graduate level Digital History course as a special topics seminar in our public history masters program three times; and an undergraduate course for our undergraduate minor in public history. Since my graduate course is aimed primarily at public history graduate students, my goals are to give them an introduction to digital history methods used by heritage institutions; and practical skills that they can use for their capstone projects and future careers. The final project for this course is a digital exhibit on a topic of their choice using the exhibit platform Omeka. In general the students find these projects manageable and are usually able to complete them within the time frame of the course. The undergraduate course was less successful because most of the students who registered had no experience with public history. Worse, some had little interest in public history and just took the course because it fit their schedule. So, I found myself having to scale back the goals of the course on the fly. I’d be interested in hearing about models for undergraduate courses that have been successful. Last summer I attended THATCamp at the CHMU where I organized a session on “More Disruptive Pedagogy: Thoughts on Teaching an UnCourse.” The idea for this session stemmed from my experiences and challenges teaching a graduate public history course on the theory and practice of digital history. The first challenge I face has to do with coverage: what are the most important things that students should know to get a reasonable introduction to the field? The second challenge regards levels of experience: some students have little or no experience with anything beyond word processing and using an online catalog; others are far more advanced in their skill level (the last time I taught the course I had a student with an undergraduate degree in computer science. Talk about a humbling experience). The third challenge is keeping up with the field and making sure that the course stays fresh and up to date. So, one question I’m interesting in discussing is: would the un-conference model, in which students decide on at least some of the themes and topics of the course, work for a graduate level course?
From: To: Cc: Subject: Date: Léon Robichaud Burg, Steven Rowe, Stephanie; sleon@gmu.edu; jon@history.umass.edu; M.S.Parry@uva.nl; tiacobelli@gmail.com; prescott@mail.ccsu.edu; baileyr4@nku.edu; AAS0010@auburn.edu; burnsaa@appstate.edu; wtscak@gmail.com; wtchak@gmail.com; ella.howard@armstrong.edu; jomac1867@rogers.com; anita.lucchesi@gmail.com; I2milligan@uwaterloo.ca; kerr@american.edu; johnny_elalam@carleton.ca; jg7138a@student.american.edu; ppayne@sbu.edu; Anne-Whisnant@unc.edu; lwinling@vt.edu Re: NCPH 2013 Working Group Introduction and <strong>Case</strong> <strong>Statement</strong>s Saturday, January 19, 2013 12:37:18 PM Hello all, I am Léon Robichaud, professor of pre-industrial Canadian history and of digital history and new media at the Université de Sherbrooke. I started my academic career after almost a decade of work in public history. I worked as a researcher in a museum setting and as a consultant on both heritage and digital issues for provincial and municipal governments. My main project was probably designing Old Montreal's heritage inventory [http://www.vieux.montreal.qc.ca/inventaire/hall.htm], more specifically the database, navigation system and queries. In my undergraduate course in digital history, after trying to cover all aspects of digital history, I now focus on a regional history project in partnership with two archive centres aimed at creating virtual tours on the HistoryPin platform. Given that this is a compulsory course, my objective is to focus on accessible tools so that anyone can contribute. Students who are new to computing can do basic work. Students with a stronger digital background can go further and help me with the layout, theme, etc. 1. What are the goals of educators? How do differing goals shape the way digital history will be approached? The current generation, the so-called digital natives, are much more familiar with the use of computers than when I started teaching such courses 12 years ago. I no longer have students who are afraid to turn a computer on. However, they need to gain a better understanding of how the systems work. I hope that in this way, they will gain more confidence and take control of their digital lives. While I would not try to teach programming in a compulsory history undergraduate class, I believe that they need to understand Douglas Rushkoff's “Ten commands for a Digital Age”, as laid out in Program or be programmed. By focusing on one project, I hope that the students will feel confident enough to use the expertise gained to venture into other digital areas. Through a public history project (creating virtual tours with HistoryPin), I hope that the students will achieve enhanced digital literacy skills. At the graduate level, I focus on providing the students with tools that can help them in their research. I introduce students to quantitative analysis, text analysis, network analysis, spatial analysis and sometimes 3d modeling (if there are interested students). While using online tools such as VoyeurTools for text analysis, I also introduce them to programming using “The programming historian” tutorials which lets them see what happens behind the scenes. 2. What should be taught? An integrated project, virtual history and heritage tours means that students will be exposed to digitisation and the use of digitised materials as well as metadata, storyboarding, selecting materials, research, writing for the general public, using social media to make
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Case Statement - National Council on Public History

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