It begins

This is the start of my digital history blog.  I will use this space to post questions, comments, links, and ideas about history and the study of digital history.

I welcome your constructive comments.  Thank you and please stay classy.

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Unit 2 Post

Daniel Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig's Digital History: A Guide To Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting The Past On The Web is a free, digital textbook on the basics of digital history.  The Introduction chapter lays out the scope and content of the textbook, and offers some insight and reasoning into the opportunities and challenges of digital history. Items of interest: 1. Critics on both sides on the potentials of "the internet" and digital media overstated the good and the bad. 2. Digital media forces instructors and students to build PowerPoint presentations instead of paper, chalkboard, overhead, or other physical forms.  You still have to put in the work. 3. Seven opportunities: capacity, accessibility, flexibility, diversity, manipulability, interactivity, and hpertextuality.  I think accessibility and capacity are the two most important.  Large amounts of data and files are now shared to the public and remote researchers who do not need to invest in trav...
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Initial Project Proposal - Story Map of Bull Run/Manassas Battlefields

After reading the Final Project directions and possible projects, I am leaning towards creating a Story Map of the Bull Run aka Manassas Battlefields.  The National Park Service provides visitors with a map of the area, and a self-guided driving tour for the second battlefield.  I plan to research the key events, personalities, geography, etc... of the battles and will then visit the battlefields to take photos and notes.  I found US Army Staff Ride guides for both battles on the US Army Center of Military History website (www.history.army.mil).  I can lay out the story maps based upon the timelines and locations on the battlefields. There are several versions of Story Maps, and I am narrowing my research towards either a Tour or a Cascade.  The Tour seems like a logical choice as the battlefield is already organized for walking and driving tours, but with the additional media and information available, a Cascade map may allow for a more interesting product....
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Unit 15: Tool Review and Project Update

Tool Review: Storybird (https://storybird.com/) I reviewed the Storybird site to assess its usability, usefulness, and features.  Storybird offers art and reader inputs to inspire and help writers.  Artists can create accounts to submit work for use by the writers as inspiration and to populate their stories or books. Storybird plans a Promotion and Publishing feature for its popular users, and to help monetize their works. This seems like an interesting approach to create a creative community, but I am not sure if you need to sign up for art to get inspired (that could just be me).  Browsing the internet, a museum, or a gallery may have the same effect.  It also seems geared more towards children's books and poetry.  This site is interesting, but I don't think it fits my interests or goals.  That said, I do seem some users and communities that could benefit from this approach and collaborative support. Project Update No significant changes fr...
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