Introducing…Niebuhr's Notes!

I was about to start by saying that I completed my final project for my digital history course, but thinking about it, I'm not sure it will ever be done.  I truly hope the site I created will continue to evolve, be added to and become a resource for my future students and colleagues.

I hope you take some time to take a look at Niebuhr's Notes and let me know what you think!

Thanks!

Jessica (a.k.a. Mrs. N.)

Unit Fifteen: Tools, Tools and Tools, What Exactly Are tools?

Over the last few weeks I have loved learning about and getting to try a number of different technology tools I could use in my classroom.  For this week’s post I am taking a look at the scheduling tool Doodle.  In order to really learn about it I decided to use it.

A group of friends (5 couples) had been talking about going out for dinner together.  We exchanged a number of emails back and forth but never seemed to be able to settle on a date that worked for all of us.  I decided to give Doodle a try.

It was so simple to set up the event.  Created a name, entered my email and selected the possible dates.  Then I entered my friends email address and within minutes we scheduled a date.  So easy!

I think this tool would be useful for college students, but for academic and social uses.  Coordinating group projects meeting times, study sessions or other event dates.  There are a lot of features available with the Premium Doodle option, but I found the free version to be quick and easy and all I needed.

Another tool I recently used is Brainshark.  It allows you to create online and mobile video presentations.  I used it for another course to turn a PowerPoint slideshow into a video lecture with audio.  It was very easy to use, allowing for pauses in recording (so you don’t have to get it all right in one go).  It’s a big step up from a standard Power Point slideshow and very easy to use.  I think it could be of use to college students as well.

I posted a link to my final project in the last post.  I’ve since added my timeline, but there are still more revisions and additions to make before this weekend!

Unit Fourteen: Big Picture, User Participation Projects and Crowd-Sourcing

Preserving Digital History – When I started the readings for this week, I kept thinking about my family and the photos we take.  I come from a family of big photographers.  Not to suggest we are a particularly talented group, but we do love to take photos.

My father takes photos and has prints made and puts them into albums. I take photos, post a few on Facebook and on Shutterfly and create bound photo books.  My younger cousin takes photos almost exclusively on instagram.  What struck me is that as things are now, as our ages go up, the number of people who view our photos goes down.  Will that always be the case?  Generations from now, will they still have the capability to look at Instagram accounts and Facebook or will the albums or boxes discovered in an attic of my great, great, grandchildren be what people in the future look to when researching the past?  If we are not mindful of how we are saving our digital artifacts we run the risk of them never being seen again.

User Participation and Crowd-Sourcing – Beyond Wikipedia, I was not aware of any “user participation” history sites like the ones we discussed in this class.  I love the idea of being part of bringing history and historic artifacts to thousands of people around the world.  I imaging this could be come a favorite pastime activity!  When searching for a Crowd-Sourcing project website I came across Helping History.  It’s a work in progress, but has links to tons of sites that you can offer your services to on a variety of topics.

I think there are two huge concerns that need to be addressed: 1) with the ease of saving digital artifacts, do we run the risk of preserving "too much"? and 2) with using crowd-sourced information, do you run the rise of preserving incorrect information.  Without a few more standards and protocols in place, we are in danger of saving so much information or saving the wrong information, that we are unable to use what has been preserved effectively.  

Final Project: Here is a link to my final project.  It is not where I hoped it would be at this point, but I’ve blocked off some serious time to complete it.  I’ve added my DV word cloud project, but have not yet added my timeline.  I feel the section on the Declaration of Independence is pretty solid but I would appreciate any feedback.