Note: This page was updated on 10/10/2012 (right after! class). The homework assignment has been changed. Note that different parts of the homework are due on different days, beginning on Sunday night.
Instructors: Amanda Visconti and Jen Guiliano
Topic: How can we use digital platforms to make arguments? How do we deal with scarcity or abundance of information? How are an archivist’s decisions interpretive? We’ll look at Twitter narratives, Storify, and Omeka.
Pre-class Reading:
1. Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web by Dan Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig–just the following sections (each has multiple pages–be sure to read all the pages for each chapter listed here):
- Introduction,
- Exploring the History Web,
- Getting Started,
- Collecting History Online, and
- Owning the Past? chapters
2. Bring to class five digital or physical objects related to important moments in your life (e.g. photos, a song from your first dance, small items tied to memories, newspaper clippings…). Make sure these are things you are comfortable sharing with the class. These items can be non-personal things (e.g. a game disk) that attach to strong personal memories.
Post-class Assignments (see each item for due date):
- Due Sunday 10/14 by 11:59pm EST. Read the article at this link: “How the Professor Who Fooled Wikipedia Got Caught by Reddit” by Yoni Applebaum.
- Due Sunday 10/14 by 11:59pm EST. Finish adding content to your personal Omeka.net site begun in class; you should have uploaded at least five items and given each a title, a description, and text in at least one other field.
- Also due Sunday 10/14 by 11:59pm EST. On the course blog, write and post two comments of at least 200 words each in response to items on mith.umd.edu/arguing. These comments should be counternarrative to the items’ metadata, as discussed in class.
- Due Tuesday 10/16 by 11:59pm EST. Write and post a comment of at least 200 words in response to a comment written about one of your objects. This comment should be a counternarrative that takes a significantly different view of the item than the comment you’re responding to.
- So, in summary: read the article linked in #1, add all five of your items to the Omeka archive, post two comments to the course blog (counternarratives to two Omeka objects), and post one comment on a comment,