THIS SYLLABUS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS<\/p>\n
HIST 428: Adventures in Digital History<\/strong><\/p>\n Go to Course Schedule<\/a><\/p>\n TR, 9:30-10:45 Jeffrey McClurken SM: @jmcclurken (Twitter\/X<\/a>, Bluesky<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>) \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Course Description<\/strong><\/p>\n This seminar will focus on the process of creating digital history.\u00a0 The course readings, workshops, and discussions will be aimed at exposing students to the philosophy and practice of the field of Digital History (sometimes called Digital Humanities or Digital Liberal Arts).\u00a0 The course will be centered on four digital history projects, all of which are related to making local resources available online.\u00a0 These projects will include<\/strong>: creating a site related to Mary Washington College experiences during World War II (WW2); a digital history of UMW in the Digital Age(DA); building out a digitized collection of scrapbooks from Mary Washington students, faculty, staff, and organizations over the years(SB); and crafting of place-based stories of campus history, brought to life through a variety of archival sources and modern video and audio tools(PB). This course counts in the History Major, the American Studies Major, the Museum Studies Minor, the Communication and Digital Studies Major, as a capstone course in the Digital Studies Minor, and for the Digital Intensive General Education Requirement.<\/p>\n Departmental Learning Objectives<\/strong><\/p>\n Course\u00a0Requirements<\/strong><\/p>\n Every student and group will:<\/p>\n 1) Complete a group project based on a contract made between the group and the professor<\/p>\n 2) Post weekly progress reports on your own DoOO-based blog<\/p>\n 3) Regularly present to the class about the status of your project<\/p>\n 4) Participate in class discussions of readings, videos, and the process of creating digital history<\/p>\n 5) Participate in class workshops related to specific programs<\/p>\n 6) Create or refine a digital r\u00e9sum\u00e9 or e-portfolio for yourself.<\/p>\n 7) Make project data available in an easily downloadable form and consider accessibility throughout.<\/p>\n 8) At end of the semester, complete a brief paper\/blog post reflecting on the process and defending your project as contracted<\/p>\n 9) Make any changes to the project required by the professor after the final version is completed.<\/p>\n Students are expected to attend all classes (be they virtual or in-person), review all assigned texts\/media, and participate in class. Laptops are not required, but it will often be easier to have your own computer when in-person as you learn new skills, hear about various tools, explore particular web sites, and work on your own digital projects. [Projects are due at the start of class (9:30 AM) on the day they are due.]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A note about this semester and this class<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/u>This class is not the most important thing in your life.\u00a0 It\u2019s not the most important thing in mine. Don\u2019t get me wrong, there\u2019s much to learn here and I love and have so much fun exploring these topics with you and your classmates.\u00a0 But take care of yourself.\u00a0 Reach out to me if there are things in your life that end up taking precedence over this class.\u00a0 Let\u2019s talk about them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Discussions<\/strong><\/p>\n Students are expected to attend all classes having read the assigned material. Class participation includes\u00a0actively\u00a0<\/strong>participating in daily discussions and responding to class presentations. To that end, for each class for which there are readings\/videos, students should also prepare a list of comments on the material (parallels, problems, factual questions, reminders of past readings, connections to ideas from other classes or from \u201creal life\u201d) so that they have those points in front of them for the discussion. Although I have no current plan to collect these comments, I reserve the right to do so at some point during the semester.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Blogging<\/strong><\/p>\n Narrating the planning, research, and implementation processes via your blogs is a central part of the class and a way for me to measure your effort, your creativity, and your progress as digital scholars. Blog about your problems as well as your successes. Be sure to comment on each others\u2019 blogs and help each other out. This is a community of people going through similar efforts that you can tap into, so do so. [As you comment, follow ProfHacker’s guidelines for commenting<\/a>.]\u00a0\u00a0Weekly posts & comments are a minimum expectation of the class.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Texts<\/strong><\/p>\n Daniel J. Cohen & Roy Rosenzweig,\u00a0Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web<\/em>\u00a0(2006). Available at\u00a0http:\/\/chnm.gmu.edu\/digitalhistory\/<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n Other texts for this semester are also available on-line.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Final Grades<\/strong><\/p>\n Final grades will be determined based on class participation (including blogging, mini assignments, and regular presentations to the class) (35%), on performance on the group contract (5%) and group project (50%), and on the quality of the final formal presentations on the group projects (10%). [Unsatisfactory mid-semester reports will be reported for anyone with a grade of D or below at that time.]<\/p>\n Honor Code<\/strong><\/p>\n I believe in the Honor Code as an essential, positive component of the Mary Washington experience. You should know that if you cheat or plagiarize in this class, you will fail, and I will take you to the Honor Council, so do not do it. On the other hand, I also believe that having friends or family read and comment on your writing can be extremely helpful and falls within the bounds of the Honor Code (assuming the writing itself remains yours). If you have questions about these issues, then you should talk to me sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n Generative AI Policy<\/strong><\/p>\n Use of AI is approved and encouraged in this course<\/strong>; however, students should refer to individual course assignments for instructions regarding how to use and\/or document use of AI, if applicable to the assignment.\u00a0 Or ask me each time.\u00a0 We are all learning how these tools can, and ethically, how should be used.\u00a0 It will take us some trial and error to figure all of that out.\u00a0 But in this class that should always take place in conversation with me.<\/p>\n Although AI use is permitted in this course, you should keep the following points in mind:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Group Projects<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 See\u00a0Project Outlines<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Group Contracts<\/strong><\/p>\n Each group will create contracts with me about their projects. The contracts are due Friday, February 16 (BY NOON), though each will need to be approved by me & may need to be tweaked before that happens. Each contract must include:<\/p>\n
\nSpring 2024
\nHCC 327<\/p>\n
\nOffice Hours: By appointment. I have two offices (GW 105 and one in the History & American Studies suite in Monroe), but generally I will be in GW Hall.\u00a0 You can also contact me via Canvas message and Teams chat.<\/p>\n\n
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