Welcome to the Digital Past

About this class

Welcome to the Digital Past! In this class, you will to learn to do history using digital tools. The course—which satisfies the university’s IT requirement—teaches the fundamentals of information technology by applying them to practical problems in history.

We’ll explore these technologies, including maps, data sets, and visualizations, within the context of an upper-division history course focusing on the Supernatural, although no background in history is required. We’ll discuss how to find and use digital information for research and learn how to question it, analyze it, summarize it, and interpret it. You’ll learn how to present visual and textual sources online, and you will learn how to write and publish effectively online. We will also explore issues of ethics, copyright, and information security, and experiment with a variety of online tools and technologies. Additionally, we’ll cover advanced search methods, and how to pull together disparate pieces of a research project into a coherent whole. Through learning by doing, you will gain both digital skills and the skills of a historian. Skills which will be useful to you throughout your university career and in your future work. Over the course of the semester, students will use these technologies to create and publish an individual project (of their choosing) concerning the Supernatural.

Your research for your final project and many of your assignments along the way will focus on an aspect of the Supernatural whether is be a city or a style. More on this in class. You will make something each week in class that builds towards a final exhibit that showcases your work throughout the semester.

What each class meeting will be like:

We will meet twice per week. The classes will build on one another, so your attendance at each class is vital. Bring a laptop and its power cord to every class. Before class each week, you will read about both history and digital technology. You may also be asked to gather data or do historical research. During class, we will begin by discussing the readings. Then we will have a hands-on session to learn how to use some digital technology as a historian. Then you will work in small groups to master the same skill. We will wrap up class with a discussion of what we learned. The day after class, you will write a blog post where you share what you created in class and reflect on what you have learned.

How to do well in this class:

First and foremost, please ask me for help for any reason, whether you are stuck, or whether you want to learn more about what we’re doing in class. Second, be persistent. Be willing to experiment, and be willing to make mistakes. Some of your best blog posts might be about what you learned by making a mistake. Third, remember that your goal is not to learn tools, but concepts. Look for the skills and ideas underlying the specific technologies we will work with. Fourth, keep up by coming to class having done the reading and any other preliminary assignments, then reflect on what you learned the next day. If you miss class, you’ll have a hard time keeping up.