Author: Lila’s Digital History Blog

This week my fellow group memebers and I attended three meetings that were crucial for the future success of our project.

First, on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2016, we went to Trinkle Hall for our first meeting with Dr. Meadows. During this meeting Dr. Meadows showed us four 3D scanner options that will be available for us to use to scan the objects at the museum into our SketchFab site. He was very knowledgeable about the scanners capabilities including their accuracy, the maximum object size that can be scanned, the portability, and other specifics about each of the four devices. At the end of the meeting my group members and I concluded that a few of the 3D scanners would be sufficient for our projects needs.

Next, on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2016, my group members and I met Jarod Kearney,the curator at the James Monroe Museum, to update him on our progress with the project so far and to discuss which objects from the museum would be best to scan. After talking as a group for half an hour and looking at the physical museum objects to determine if they would be ideal to scan, we decided on five specific objects to be scanned.

Lastly, on Thursday, February 4th, 2016, we went to the DKC for a scheduled appointment with a tutor. During the appointment we searched the Omeka website to find a pug-in that would allow us to upload 3D image files to our future website and determined that there was no such option available. We were not discouraged through, because after a little bit of internet browsing, the tutor found a website called SketchFab which we will use in conjunction with Omeka to create a website that not only provides internet users and researchers with detailed information about each museum object, but that also allows them to manipulate 3D objects.

I fell like my group has been very productive and focused this week and I think we are off to a great start to our project!

1) Some creative uses of the tools we’ve learned about so far. [e.g., how might you use Zotero for something other than citation/research? What could a WordPress blog be used for other than personal reflection? What creative ways can you think of to use Omeka? How might you use these tools in combination with each other or with others you’ve used outside of class. [Be playful with your ideas here.]]

Although I have never used Zotero before, I have definitely used WordPress blog in the past. In addition to using WordPress for personal reflection purposes, I believe that a WordPress site could be used for a small/local  business or restaurant website. The WordPress blog is user friendly platform for people who are creating a website that might not have a lot of experience with digital technology. Another benefit of WordPress is that it is easy to navigate for internet users. Omeka can be used for a museum collection, a library collection, and for learning and teaching school curriculum.

2) Based on your review of the Digital History websites above: Think about what you like about these websites as a whole, and what you don’t.  What works and what doesn’t?  What elements would you want to incorporate and which do you want to avoid in your own project?

For the second part of the assignment, I looked at six Digital history websites including: Great Molasses Flood, Map Scholar University of Huston Digital History, Emile Davis Diaries, UNC and the Omeka based cite The Civil War in Art website at http://www.civilwarinart.org

• Great Molasses Flood
  • Pros: The website’s first page is a front page of a newspaper with many words, letters and titles that you can click on for more information about the historic event. The bright color of the clickable information on the first page makes the website visually appealing and it encourages internet users to interact with the website.
  • Cons:As a Mac user, the website felt unnatural and uncomfortable to navigate.The information provided on the page was not well organized  and became very cluttered if you clicked on multiple links on the home page for more information.

• Map Scholar
  • Pros: Great Resource for cartographers and geographers, easy to navigate and provides links to instructions o to create your own Map Scholar collection online. The news tab provides updated information about map collections, map news and map resources.
  • Cons: Website could be more visually appealing and creative

• University of Huston Digital History
  • Pros: Website is visually appealing, well organized and provides a link to printable versions of web pages. Has a plethora of resources including  primary and secondary sources, images, audio clips, movie trailers, links to additional information and quizzes for students.
  • Cons: Many of the links open up a new window that is not connected to the main website. Therefore, a internet user has to keep the main website page open at all times.

• Emile Davis Diaries
  • Pros:Easy to navigate. Emile’s diary entries are easy to locate on the front page and web designers allow internet users to  write comments about Emile’s daily diary entires. Visually appealing and professional.
  • Cons: Very little critical analysis or historical context is provided in addition to the diary entires.

• UNC Chapel Hill
  • Pros: Links are at the top of the page therefore, it is easy to navigate for internet users and has a very simple design.
  • Cons: Boring color scheme, unimaginative design and an overall lack of creativity.Projects under the heading “projects” are not centered around a common theme.

• #1 Omeka Based Site: The Civil War in Art
  • Pros: A search box is provided on the first page with links to social media sites.Visually appealing and creative. Includes text, primary documents (text and pictures), teaching resources and suggestions for educators, a glossary of terms for students and additional links to more information about the topic. Suggested links on sub-topic pages. Tags are used to help people find specific information.
  • Cons:Some exhibit pages only provide a few paragraphs about the specific sub-topic.

Hello internet users, welcome to my umwblogs site!

My name is Lila Spitz and I am a senior at the University of Mary Washington majoring in American Studies. I am particularly interested in Social Justice Issues, History, Museum Studies, and Education.

I also enjoy listening to Jazz, Swing, Funk, Broadway, and Classic Rock music, reading biographies and realistic-fiction, traveling within the U.S. and around the world, admiring Modern Art artwork and Art Deco architecture, and playing and watching tennis.

The purpose of this site is to document my work in HIST 428: Adventures in Digital History.

I hope you enjoy reading my posts and I encourage you to write a comment about my posts if you have a comment, question or suggestion about what I write.