Week 5:changing scholarship
September 29, 2008 katdp3
Case Study: “Hurricane Remembrance”- I think the site dedicated to the hurricanes of Katrina and Rita is pretty awesome. Their whole philosophy is to tell the story of these two hurricanes through eyewitness accounts, blogs, photos, and podcasts. In remembrance of these two disasters, forming a strong historical record through the use of digital tools is accomplished on this site. It is a great link to use as a model of what is possible in digitizing history and through the use of collaboration. As part of their collections, they use sources from the Smithsonian, the Coast Guard, and collegial support. As with other digital sites, there are questions about credibility of stories and inaccurate accounts. The creators do their best to keep track of the contributions, every contributor provides their identity and address, so there is some accountability. The editors do their best within time limits to review and look for appropriate contributions. The site can be a great source for research, even follow up research if this was an area of interest.
“Our Cultural Commonwealth”-This long piece provides information, feedback and advocacy for the field of digital history. The article reminded me of a source that I looked at last semester advocating for “historical preservation”. The time frame for consistency of 5 to 6 years I think was a bit of a stretch considering how much is to be accomplished, but the ideas and motivations were clear and realistic. The money issue is not something that will ever go away. The funds, whether through donations, grants, or through budget revisions, are always what set the limitations for a project. Not only will collaboration be a major component for the advancement of this initiative, but acceptance and agreement especially by the “older, traditional” crowd of college boards, and foundations is NECESSARY! This will take years and years to accomplish, but first people have to jump on the bandwagon and to get that effect they have to be ready to spend the money! EEK! It was a very inspiring article with tons of great facts and information, and will definitely convince people and organizations to get aboard.
“Doing Digital Scholarship”-Lisa Spiro indicates the importance of wikis in research as a great source to network and collaborate. Her quote of “I’m able to see other perspectives and improve my own thinking.” I think that’s our course in a nutshell! To be honest there were alot of references like “THAT camp”, “TAPOR” and ” Wordle” that I am completely clueless to, but she used them to prove her points about the ease of comparing, and managing citations especially. She discusses the other benefits of tools like “Digital Research Tools” (DiRT), in learning about tools outside of her field and other qualitative data. Lisa did a good job describing the positives of doing digital scholarship.
“From Babel to Knowledge”-Cohen’s analysis on Syllabus finder was interesting. I would have never thought of such a tool, or the availability of such a tool. That’s helpful! Also the hints that he provided on a search engine help when distinguishing between sources. He also explained the perks of H-Bot. I am aware of this tool, but I have not used it so much in teaching, which I will definitely consider now. In just entering a couple of words in a search engine, Cohen explains how one could find data best or worst depending on the words you use!
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