Welcome to the Digital Past! In this class, you will 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. You will be introduced to the fields of Digital History (DH) and the Digital Humanities (also DH). You will learn about popular digital tools, platforms, and methodologies, and how to use these to aid in the interpretation of historical data and creation of a historical narrative in the digital space. Additionally, you will learn the concepts, ethics, and values that influence DH practice.
While this course will not have an overarching historical theme, we will discuss an array of historical topics/problems each week that correspond with provided datasets to master each tool. Our discussions and assignments throughout the semester are designed to prepare you to understand the theory and practice of DH, as well as use History to critically evaluate the digital tools you come into contact with. 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.
In this course you will:
- Explore the foundational frameworks, approaches, ethics, and debates in DH
- Focus on building digital literacy and digital skills; or understanding why, when, and how to use various digital tools and platforms
- Employ the Agile approach to project management through our weekly assignments and through development of your final project (a DH project built in the content management system Omeka)
- Develop a familiarity with a range of DH projects, as well as the ability to evaluate tools and methods involved in creating these projects
- Examine your “Digital Self” through the creation of a professional personal website, course blogs and class discussions
- Become thoughtful, critical and reflective users of DHs tools, technologies and spaces by understanding that all technologies are complex, socially situated and political tools through which humans make meaning
- Learn how to discover and analyze primary and secondary sources online by reading metadata efficiently and understanding how search engines work
- Work collaboratively with other people towards a common goal. This type of collaboration will have life-long implications as you build professional skills
