To Collaborate or Not to Collaborate… Is That Really The Question?

Today’s discussion really got me thinking about education and museums and the question of authority in terms of who is the expert. I liked the things we were able to tease out of the readings in terms of the practical world knowledge/ideas (refreshing for university, eh? haha I kid… sort of). The idea of working with the public in public historic places, such as museums, leaves me in somewhat of a confused state. I am not sure how far the public should be allowed to contribute to museums because not only will some jerk spoil things for the rest of us but also because it takes into question of the role of the museum staff or the experts. I guess I would say in terms of tagging and story sharing at museums to explain artifacts, we need a proper editor i.e the curator or the museum staff. Despite public involvement and the idea of sharing a public history, we still need someone to filter things to ensure the purpose/motive of the exhibition is discovered.

I really liked Dan Cohen’s video of his speech because it presented many of the core ideas we had been discussing as a class since the beginning of September. I think the idea of blogs as a part of scholarly work, but it depends on who is writing it and what they’re writing about. For someone like Gee, he’s an expert on his topic and therefore his blog can be seen as creditable. Even though we may not always agree with him or his bluntness about our academy, he does raise valid points based on his own experience as an educator and academic. I like the idea of people contributing to his blog by commenting because it can help his book later on to be more researched and well rounded in his concepts. The Burrito Bracket website that Cohen mentioned in his speech got me thinking in terms of technology and the idea of if this model can be applied to something academic. I don’t know if it can….I am wondering too if we applied it to a more serious topic if it would lose something because we would want to have an expert working on it and not simply presenting opinions and data without interpretations.

This also brings up the issue of crowdsourcing which in Sue Cohen’s New York Times article seems to fail because of the lack of experts contributing. The example of the Lincoln Papers proves that yes we do need experts even when the public is involved. I guess one thing that needs to be addressed is the idea that just because the public is helping does not mean that the results are going to be perfect. The Wyman and Simon articles helped me to understand how social tagging works within the museum context. It leads me to wonder though, as Grant said in class, wouldn’t a blogging or forum system work better? Tagging of artifacts may lead to too many possibilities and complicate the personal experience museum 2.0 ideas have for its users. I think that the project Heidi looked at, The Toronto Museum Project Online, is a perfect example of user friendliness and how it can work effectively in the digital world.

In all honestly, my twitter feeds this week I have been fairly dull. My usual medieval twitter accounts have been slow lately, I guess it’s just that time of year (oh wait… I am thinking of us university students). I did however check twitter this morning and found this http://medievalnews.blogspot.com/2011/11/medieval-cathedral-reconstructed-in.html which is about the reconstruction of a medieval cathedral in Iceland, exactly where I’ve been! I have an interest in medieval architecture as well so that’s why I found this blog exciting! I should mention that this was posted by medievalists on twitter. They also posted a link about a castle in Italy being up for sale… it is times like these I wish I were a millionaire, come on lottery! http://www.medievalists.net/2011/11/16/13th-century-italian-castle-for-sale/ Yesterday, medievalists also posted a story about the Lewis chessman arriving in New York for a stay at a museum, this is cool for me because I got to see some of this viking chess set when I was in Edinburgh at the National Museum!

 

For your enjoyment: (this keeps showing up on my recommended youtube feed…. I think the cyber gods are trying to tell me something, hahaha)

 

Not So Useful Digital Tools for Me

Learning how to text encode and HTML was probably the least important tool/method that I encountered in this course. Not only because I did not understand it as computer language and programing goes completely over my head, but also I do not think it will be useful for my MRP. I do not plan on encoding data into a computer or a website, the most digital thing that could be done directly with my MRP would be to put up a digital image of the James VI letter which is my MRP. Even after posting on the wiki every week, I still do not understand encoding and HTML, it just does not make sense in my brain and way of doing things. Instead of learning HTML myself I simply would copy and paste other peoples’ symbols for creating a new wiki post, which I know is an awful way to learn.

I also found that the programs devonthink and devonagent aren’t very beneficial to me at this stage in my MA because I don’t think I have a lot of data or files to organize or search through. This could also be because I haven’t consolidated my old files from my PC and the previous 5 years of my life together onto my MacBook. Maybe once I get into my research more and stop being a slacker or an “absent minded intellectual” they could be useful to me.

I feel like in terms of the Devon programs as well as dropbox, I simply do not have the information that needs to be organized (if that makes sense). Though, I do see how they are useful to people working on large scale projects or multiple projects.

I also did not like wordle because I have MindNode which I think for me is a much better program. MindNode allows me to enter fuller ideas, more words as I like to expand my ideas. Therefore I felt like Wordle limited my thinking and crazy idea process for papers or presentations.

Despite not all the digital tools being applicable to my own MRP or me finding them useful, I do understand how these can help simplify our research process and open our minds to new ways of thinking about how much the digital world can do for us, whether we’re all academics or not.

Digital Tools and Methods That Have Saved My Live Thus Far in Grad School

The two digital methods that seem to be the most beneficial for me in terms of my own research as well as in my life as a grad student are Zotero and Adobe Acrobat Pro. Both have simplified my life a lot in terms of organizing research. Zotero has helped because I have been able to create bibliographies much earlier in the course of my research for papers for this semester. It also helped greatly to have all the readings for our DH class on Zotero so that we did not have to spend tons of time looking for our readings! Thanks Kevin and Spencer! I also like how on my own Zotero libraries I can create different folders for my multiple projects such as I have one for my MRP research as well as one for my Empires paper and then one for personal interest. I also love the click and drag feature of Zotero so I don’t have to spend hours formatting my bibliographies of essays! I wish I had of known about this program sooner!

Adobe Acrobat Pro has surprisingly also made my life easier in terms of being a student. I was a little skeptical about getting this program because I had regular adobe but I had never really utilized it to its fullest potential. The Pro version has allowed me to explore features such as being able to combine files, especially research notes together into one pdf. I also love the highlighting feature, its really cut down on my printing and paper consumption, yay for being eco-friendly too! I have yet to create a pdf from a screen shot from a website but I think that may be useful once I get digging for primary source material for my MRP.

Evernote has pretty much been a lifesaver for me because its like having sticky notes all over my desk but they’re organized and all in one spot! I like it much better than OMNI Focus for also creating my weekly and daily “to do” lists! Like Evernote, Scrivener has also been a good organizational tool but specifically for organizing my papers. Although, I’ve yet to use it to write a larger paper (my end of term papers will definitely utilize this program!) it has been useful for my smaller assignments. Recently I used it for my featured Research project paper and it helped to organize my ideas and notes as well as the flow of my writing. I love the fact that I can create notes, then ideas, and then format it all together to make a coherent (I hope!) essay.

In the chaos that is my life as a grad student, its nice to have these programs to help organize my work as well as readings. I have even started preaching to the first year students that I TA about how many awesome digital tools there are to help organize and simplify their lives a bit!

In terms of my last digital tool or method for the semester, I chose a very basic but useful tool, MindNode. It was first introduced to me by Dave a few weeks ago and it has really helped me to organize essay ideas and have them all in one specific place! MindNode is a simple mindmapping program that allows you to create a map for ideas that you can connect to one another. It also can be quite visually appealing when you change around the fonts and colours! I have since told as many of my fellow mac users as possible about it and most people seem to find it a useful and beneficial tool!

I am also glad that I switched over to the Mac world this semester because I feel despite my stress and anxiety about work and getting everything done, my Macbook has simplified a tiny part of my life! GO MACS!

Teaching History Through the Use of the Digital World

This week’s discussion really got me thinking about my own education both in public school, through middle school through high school and even through my undergraduate degree. I started to analyze how exactly I had learned for 17 years and even now into my 18th year as a student. I wondered which parts of my education really stuck out? Was it the many texts that I had encountered or the different approaches my many teachers had taken in order to produce me, the educated product I am today. I then began to wonder if I would be a different type of student if I had been given the opportunity to produce final projects outside of the traditional essay or written work. I really like the fact that in this class we have a wiki where we can respond to one another and get a chance to think about our contributions longer within the context of the discussion. What I mean is that since the wiki is ongoing we can contribute in response to one another at our own pace. For me this works well because in class I am not always one to quick to respond in discussion because I really like to hear what everyone else has to say about a topic! Anyways, I should get on to discussing the readings this week!
I really liked the concept of online/computer based learning in both Sue Cohen’s article as well as Mills Kelly’s hoax article. First of all, the class discussed in Cohen’s article was extremely interested because it demonstrated how the students were able to see/put together a Shakespeare play based on what it would have been like in the 16th century Globe Theatre, without the production technology (lighting, sound etc.) like we have today. It is one thing to read one of Shakespeare’s plays (which were meant to be performed) but to experience to the best we are able to, gives the play a new interpretation and experience for the learner. Kelly’s hoax with his undergraduate class was also interesting to consider because he got his students thinking like historians even though there wasn’t a true history to be found. I wonder if a study of how for example his students learned the “method” of being a historians versus us who have learned the tradition way of reading and then writing would produce the same learning outcomes? Bass and Enyon’s article also surprised me due to its large scale nature and classes/universities surveyed. It really hit on the idea that the Digital Humanities is much larger of a field than I had thought before entering this class as well as how much Digital Humanists are willing to collaborate with one another in terms of teaching. This article also gives the students more of a say in their own learning which may be extremely foreign territory for most, but arguably is required for students to get the most out of their own education. The Coding Theory article, which was written about University of Alberta digital classes, also offered interesting insight into this topic. It discussed how certain tools and approaches had worked well or not so well in the classroom and then proposed how to change them. I think an evaluation like this is beneficial to learning regardless of if its with new media or not. Finally the Kee and Darbyson article, really got my brain thinking about history and how its taught as well as learned by students. Does the method really matter if the learning outcome is the same? Does using viritual environments enhance learning? Why can’t teachers or educators be creative in their methods? Is it harmful if we shift to new methods of teaching if students are still learning the same information and skills? I think not. I say why not use the classroom to experiment with new technologies because chances are many students are going to respond better simply because its different.

This week, I started to follow HistoryChannel on twitter because it is literally my favourite time of year to watch this television channel due to their Days of Remembrance (I am watching a special on the last few days of WWII as I type)! Despite being labelled a Medievalist I find the history of the First and Second World Wars to be absolutely fascinating! Their website, http://www.history.com has many awesome videos as well as it offers a variety of topics! Alas, none of the blogs I follow seem to focus on the later Medieval years which is what my MRP focuses on, however the Medieval News blog http://medievalnews.blogspot.com/ has had some interesting articles this week, especially about book launches, new projects that have recently received funding, and other topics in the press. Their twitter feed also offers links to articles as well as upcoming conferences. welovehistory, Historic Scotland’s twitter feed is my constant reminder that I am extremely jealous that there are so many cool events going on at medieval sites in Scotland and I am stuck here in Canada.

As for this week’s digital method, once again I opted not to download devonthink or devonagent because I feel like I don’t need anymore organizational tools as I have yet to actually organize and transfer files onto my Mac. With that said, I think it does offer some cool tools that can help one stay organized especially with pdf storage! I played around with google search and realized that I can make my searches for things online much easier and applicable to what exactly I’m looking for. I think its a great filter! Well there’s more work I should be getting down…. folks its that time of year again…. the dreaded end of term where all our papers and final projects are due!

Time to Play!!!

I really really wish I was a gamer! Having an older brother who didn’t like to share made me a reader instead! I am however very tempted to buy one of the Civilization games off of the App Store, maybe once I get some assignments out of the way! Unlike some of my classmates, I am on the fence about using games (by which I mean Computer or Video Games) in the classroom as educational tools. I feel like there are certain games that would work, such as the one Robert used in his presentation Viking Quest, but games like Call of Duty or those that are meant to be for entertainment purposes would not. I enjoyed our discussion yesterday, but in a sense I found it irrelevant to me personally because it focused more on teaching methods and not research methods. I do not feel a game at the level in which my classmates and I are at would be beneficial for the level of understanding we require in history. I agree that there are good games out there that can help students to learn but I feel like they are the ones specifically designed for the purpose of education, such as the Tecumseh Lies Here game. Although Compeau and MacDougall make a valid argument in their article, I feel the game they are discussing is in fact meant to be a fun and educational game. Like Melanie and Dave mentioned in class, I too would become frustrated playing this game because it requires the input and contributions of other people and I don’t always play well with others due to my lack of patience! I think that Tecumseh Lies Here would work best in a classroom or with members of a class at home and for marks. I found the discussion between Rockwell and Kee to be very interesting because I had never really thought about the design of games in relation to their purpose. I understand Kee’s main point that games can be used for education but like I said only if they are designed for that purpose. I guess this leads us to wonder once again if games can be both fun and educational. Who then do we get to design these?
I really did not like Peters article entitled World of Borecraft because I feel like he simply had not done his research on gaming theory as well as education. I also wondered how much time he had spent in a classroom (regardless of the level of education) in the last 5 years because he would see how influential games are to students both in and out of the classroom. As for Bogost, I have no idea what he was trying to say in the chapter we read from Persuasive Gaming, I sort of understood that he was trying to define gaming but seemed to butcher what games are and the notion of gaming.
This week’s digital tool, Devonthink looks like a fairly useful tool, however I declined to download it because in a sense I feel like I simply have too many organizational tools at the current moment. Maybe once I actually transfer all my old files onto my Mac and decide to clean/organize my mess of a MacBook it will be useful for me to use!
I’ve decided I really love Twitter and updating random tweets, not that I feel anyone actually reads/takes my tweets seriously however its just a nice way to briefly socially connect with people. I was really surprised that there are as many medievalists and organizations on it! As I mentioned in my last blog post, MedievalArchive offers today in history tweets but I think it would be awesome if they tweeted about late Medieval too! I also just found out about a digital conference on historical fiction at the end of November that might be neat to partake in! Check it out here: http://ihrconference.wordpress.com/

Last Week’s Simulations!

Sorry apparently I forgot to post this last week but I guess it’s better late then never!!!

Last week’s seminar at Ngen in downtown was pretty much the best seminar we’ve had so far simply because we got to actually see computers, the 3d printer, and in a sense what is going on in the real world in terms of the Digital Humanities! Kevin, thank you very much for allowing us to have class there and showing us around!

Anyways onto my blog and its purpose! Simulation is still relatively new to me and its something that had not really considered much in terms of academics and history. However the readings for the week proved to really open my eyes! As I said in the Wiki, Shawn Graham’s article really helped to help me understand exactly the process of computing and simulation (essentially building the simulation at its core) and how exactly history fit into simulating with his discussion on Patronworld. Even though the actual application proved to confused the heck out of me with the graphs and the factors changing, I did understand its purpose. It really got me thinking about my MRP and creating a cool simulation of the Privy Council of Scotland during the last few decades of the sixteenth century, showing how the key political figures would interact with one another based on the turbulence of Scottish society/politics of the time. I think this would be really awesome to look at because it could offer not only a new way of thinking about my project but could offer new avenues of research to pursue. One thing that I found our readings made clear, like I have thought all along through this course, is that the field of the digital humanities is not going to be perfect or something we can solely rely on but it just offers us new ways to look at the humanities through different, more accessible formats. This is why I really like Raunch’s article this week, he suggested that agent based simulations allow for multiple scenarios because of what I thought was fairly obvious, there are artificial societies, meaning they are created by someone based on certain motivations. I really want to learn how to model and simulate, if I understood computers I would be all over this!
I would like to take a moment to comment on Dave’s presentation on the Rome simulation and model! Thanks for showing us this! It was so cool, I would love to have something like this of say a Medieval castle, or even the Palace of Versailles (which I know does not relate to my MRP at all, it just would be amazing to be able to see something like this with a few clicks of a button!) I think this goes back to my original point about models and simulations, they add to our research and don’t replace other/all sources!
I still have not found two blogs to follow religiously, but I do often check twitter feeds and click on blogs that are being tweeted about. There has been a fair amount of Viking activity lately in regards to discoveries which is pretty cool, as well as there were a few feeds about manuscripts being digitalized lately. Also Historic Scotland was tweeting about the many ghost walks still going on for Halloween, damn I wish I was there right now haha. I also am completely in love with MedievalArchive on twitter because they provide “this day in medieval history” tweets, sometimes there’s more than one which is awesome!
Our digital tool this week was Scrivener which I have started using and am currently writing my rough draft of this blog in! I have not really played around with the templates or the organizational tools because I have not done any assignments that require them but I know they will be useful over the next month! Like my fellow Mac converts I did not purchase Microsoft Word or any of their programs so I can quit it cold turkey! I’m still adjusting to the basics in Scrivener such as finding the spell check and playing around with the default fonts but I’m optimistic about using them!
Off to read blogs and tweet (probably about my kittens!)