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Gaining work experience through the public history co-op has furthered my understanding of this weeks readings. When conveying historical information through various online platforms, we can sometimes forget about who we are leaving ‘out’. Relating to earlier discussions where accessibility was one of main pros for technology it can also lead to exclusion as well.
The ‘digital divide’ as Hurley calls it, is when there is a disparity between those who can access the information and those who can’t, in this case this would pertain to people who come from lower socio-economic communities where internet is not prevalent; except for the local library- and those in the elderly community. When organizations push their material in a digital direction to create more engaging platforms, sometimes those who are left out are not considered. As a public historian it is important for me to engage with ALL audiences not a select few who can access my material. Utilizing technology creates more education possibilities because of the intersectional aspects of 3D Models, artifacts as well as maps of the spaces where the object came from in connection with the historical significance.
After this course, I think most importantly to enhance civic engagement will be through the education process. Creating avenues for digital literacy will further allow me to also foster a ‘self learning’ experience between my audience and myself. I think this reflects the pedagogical shift between ‘object based epistemology’ mentioned by in Pastplay where the history was gained just from that sole object.Technology now allows us many oppurtunities to contextualize our artifacts and places like never before.
In history, there has been a shift away from focusing on famous individuals and instead focusing on the everyday man or woman. Spatial history refers to space as “a social product, created and made to seem real by everyday social practices”. This space, however, contains social relations which sometimes are not immediately evident within the literature. “There is a disjuncture between what we claim to know and how people actually lived”. GIS presents a new way to interpret this information because you can visually see and experience the places that were described in books. Experiencing the physical space that different racial groups lived in as described in the research provides historians with a more holistic view than ever before.
Layering digital information onto real world environments is useful because it provides accessible information for everyone. You can view this landscape for free and explore it to gain a better understanding of the place, or to contextualize it for further research, the possibilities and uses are endless. Because this technology transcends space, it creates an augmented reality which is great for classrooms because it is free! Teachers can utilize this as a way to allow students to create avenues for their own learning by exploring places of interest to them.
Virtual reality is illustrated through the use of 3D objects. Virtual reality is effective in the sense that students can experience environments and artifacts on a while new level. In the CBC radio podcast, museums now have a VR exhibit where you can go inside an old steam train and even pull the horn! This was not possible before because the original steam train, after years of wear and tear had to be put in a protective glass case away to be kept from dirt and grimy hands. Coming form an education background this is a great way to increase interest among student and make learning more interactive. However a question that really resonated with me was “Are you really learning? Or is VR just an experience? In my opinion people learn from experiences. However, as ‘cool’ as it is, you cannot put a price on a genuine artifact. Experiencing a VR artifact vs. looking at the real thing is different.CBC made a comment that it can also become boring very fast, which can create opposite effects for museums.
I think historical simulations are a great tool to use for learning about the past vs. just reading about that event in a book or an article. It is interactive and allows students to gain some background and lived experience through their character from that time period. However my concern is with what Taylor describes as “an important contribution simulations can make to the historical narrative is their ability to convey thinking in a historical time”. This is important because it can expose players to issues of race, class and gender of that time period, and how it affects the decision making process of certain figures in this time period. However, a downside can be the context it is represented in. The historical literature can provide context in a more in depth way than a historical game could provide. For example, the political climate and events preceding certain historical events. For example, if my game was featuring Rosa Parks and I understood the racist sentiment at the time, it would also be helpful to note the segregation going on as well to provide context about the racist sentiment within the United States.
The most important line to me in the discussion of understanding ‘big data’ in the “Accessing the Third Wave Today” section where the author states “This big data, however, is only as useful as the tools that we have to interpret it”. “Big data” is great, you can compile thousands of articles on a certain topic and look for trends in word usage or word that have simply been omitted. Referencing the “The United states are” vs. “The United States is” example, tools are only are only useful if you know HOW to use them. These findings were only found because a digital historian decided to utilize this tool to look for the trends in when the United States was described as a single entity. Relating to our lab last week, Voyant Tools was able to read our document and produce work frequencies, but it was up to us to change the ‘stop words’ to create a bigger story and find meaning in the article without actually reading the entire thing.
I agree with Milligan’s thoughts on the impact of the digital realm. History once was a series of books passed down through time. Now historians have access to websites such as the Wayback machine that can enlighten them in seconds about histories from our past. These stories can reflect the social, cultural and political ideologies of that time period. For example, websites such as blogs can reflect social and political changes such as the legalization of marijuana and the public’s response to it. It is important for historians to understand the shift from text to digital history and to use text to contextualize digital history. For example, a person can utilize GIS software to locate points on land dating back several years, to track the change over time, and visually experience that change moment by moment as if they were there.
Wikipedia’s NPOV policy allows for a larger user interface. Users can easily access controversial points of view with a click of a mouse. However, this can be frustrating if you are writing an essay on a certain point of view, and cannot filter the information to find what you are looking for. I think overall, the idea behind the NPOV was decent but did not account for the ‘ease of use’ aspect of the website. It would take extra time for users to find the information they are looking for and ultimately, everyone is biased!! Is it really possible to be 100% neutral?!
I agree! Digital history requires much more work because despite the end product, there is a lot of work that has to go into preserving the finished product. Regular backups, using XHTML instead of HTML and constantly checking for corrupted files can be very time consuming in the efforts to attempt to preserve history
‘forever’. I related this week’s reading to my family Christmas album. Usually we would take our pictures on a camera, and print them out to be placed in an album. (Ta-da!! history is preserved) However with technology, I now have countless usbs, backups and editing software in an attempt to preserve our family photos. I find this process more time consuming, and I prefer the paper and ink’ route.‘
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2D vs 3D
Many people think that archivists sole purpose is to digitize every single piece of information given to them. In fact that is actually not the case. At first glance we may think it is as easy as; copying everything through a scanner and saving it to a drive. However, because each document is one of a kind it needs to be manually scanned separately. This takes time, and one box of archives can take days to complete. Another reason is because certain documents are not on paper, but on cardstock, or even painted on canvas. Digitizing items like this can take away from its ‘realness’ because the public cannot visualize the thickness, depth, or smell from the original. Also just because an archivist digitizes a documents does not mean it is safe forever. Documents can suffer from ‘bit-rot’ causing them to disappear or become damaged. Regular archives have survived 100’s of years and can continue to do so.
I think one of the characteristics of a good website is colour and functionality. The information is presented to the user in a way that is organized and well thought out.The use of the website contributes to the overall flow of the site. A website I really like the layout of is kahoot.com. This is something I used to teach with, it is basically an online quiz site, where you can either develop or access a quiz about a particular topic. I think sites are most effective when they allow you to interact with it on another mediums of technology, such as tablets, phones etc. I specifically like it because it is very interactive and the different icons allow you to make personalized changes to your quiz such as adding pictures, sounds videos etc. You can then broadcast your quiz to however many people using a simple 6 digit code, which they can access from phones, tablets or laptops. I also like this site because if you are having trouble using it there are many tutorials posted to help you troubleshoot your problems. Afterwards your quizzes are stored in the site for further use and can be posted to share wth others, which I find useful because you can spread your knowledge with others. This is one of my favourite websites which I have utilized in the corporate and the teaching world.
It is a lot of fun with super cool background music! Try it out!
I think one of the most important qualities is accessibility, however I think it is equally important to have accurate accessibility. It is one thing to have information readily accessible but, it is another thing about how accurate it is. Providing accurate information that is readily accessible is important because it is how the public informed. Not all websites include information that us university students have access to, because of Copyright issues so the public not having the access to it is not as easily informed by the literature behind the topic.
