Monday, January 27, 2014

Session 2

Pretty much since I started teaching in 1994, I have prepared for class by writing lists of questions to raise in discussion. I don't use them all in class, but they help me organize my thoughts and provide me fodder for kickstarting a group that has gotten tired. I thought I would experiment here with including my questions (though not my other notes) to see what happens.

In the first half of class tomorrow evening we will have an overview of the use of RefWorks by a librarian. In the second half of class (assuming we don't all freeze on the way from the library to our classroom) we will be discussion the introduction and chapter 1 of both Cohen and Rosenzweig's Digital History (2006) and Kelly's Teaching History in the Digital Age (2013).

General questions

  • How is the experience of reading texts for class online different from the experience of reading a printed book or article? How did you take notes? How did you access the footnotes?
  • How do we (historians, students, other people) make arguments about history? 
  • What is historical thinking?
  • Compare the visions of the two books and set them in their historical moment.
  • What is a meaningful scholarly historical interpretation? How can such a thing be presented on the web?

Questions specific to Kelly's writing

  • What was Kelly’s student’s argument (p. 3) in the alteration of the Nurenburg video?
  • How have you seen digital technologies used effectively in teaching history?
  • What do Kelly’s chapter titles mean?
Questions specific to Cohen and Rosenzweig's writing


  • What is XML? Opportunity to look things up on Webopedia
  • What possibilities and liabilities do DC & RR see for history on the internet?
  • pp. 10-11: why is it important to store digital records in their original form?
  • What should historians do about the problems of the web?
  • What are the implications of having digital scholarship locked behind paywalls?
  • What problems of search do DC & RR raise?
  • p. 29: how does the public “think differently about documents than librarians and archivists?
  • p. 31 what is the role of interpretation in DC & RR’s discussion? 
  • What has changed since DC & RR wrote? Sort out lasting themes from transient ideas.
  • What standards do they offer that we can use to assess historical websites?
  • What advice do they offer for readers pursuing their own DH projects?


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