Alex Kelly Nov. 20 Democratizing History

The readings today focus on the question of what the level of viewer involvement should be in historical presentation. The first reading talks about how modern technologies such as facial recognition software and large databases are being used to identify Australian citizens. I believe that this is a good thing because it allows for information to be more easily accessed by professional historians and lay people alike. The second reading talks about the concept of “Radical Trust.” This is the question of whether or not lay people’s opinions should be taken seriously in the study of history. Modern technologies such as databases and social media outlets have given a voice to people who otherwise wouldn’t have had one. I believe this is a good thing because history can be seen through the lens of all people not just the authoritative historians who traditionally have held the monopoly on what constitutes history. Black Confederate soldiers are a very divisive topic historically. The third reading discuses how many different people have different things to say when it comes to Black Confederate soldiers. It is hard to determine exactly what role African Americans played in the civil war on the Confederate side. Much of what people post about this issue is strictly opinion. Because of this, lay and professional historians have to be careful when they analyze what they read on modern day historical forums such as blogs. The fourth reading discusses different methods for involving regular people in historical projects. The co-creation model is the most effective way of doing this because viewer participation is the key to a full understanding of history. The contributory and collaborative models are ok too but they do not involve nearly as much participation by the viewers who are the consumers of history. For this reason the co-creation model is the most effective way of doing historical research in modern times. The last reading is an example of how first person accounts can be used to give us a broader historical understanding. The website asks for feedback from people who were impacted by the Boston Marathon bombings. This is an excellent way to use the technologies available to us today. Knowing what average people experienced and how they feel with respect to the bombings is beneficial to modern historians. I believe that this is an excellent way to use the Internet for the historical discipline. Firsthand accounts are an essential part of understanding history.

Alex Kelly Nov. 6 Public History

Today’s reading was focused on public history. It was interesting to me how there are two sides to many stories that comprise mankind’s history. I think that the Internet and technology can help public historians communicate their ideas more thoroughly and effectively. The websites like the 9/11 memorial are and excellent example of how technology can help advance the historical understanding of such an event. There does need to be someone maintaining these websites because people can put ridiculous content if they are not prevented from doing so. On the whole, technology is great from a public historians perspective. I agree with the article that historians have a moral obligation to present historical events as they actually happened. A historian has to be critical and be aware of the context of the events they are speaking on, but they still need to attempt to be unbiased and do their duty to explain the history in a matter of fact way.

Alex Kelly Oct. 30 Social Media

The first reading today focused on social media and how its uses and prevalence in today’s society is rapidly growing. Millions of people use twitter to communicate and it is quite possibly the most widely used form of communication online today. The article discusses how teachers can use twitter to communicate with their students and provides some basic guidelines on the dos and don’ts of doing it. I believe that twitter is an effective tool for communication between teachers and students and efforts should by made on both ends to use it.

The second article discuses how social media can be used to further the goals of public historians. Museums are quickly growing their use of social media outlets such as Facebook and twitter. I believe that these social mediums can help to expand the audience of these institutions. Because of their popularity today they can help bring public history to a much wider audience.

The third article talks about how sifting through all of the information that people put on social media websites. It is a difficult task because there are millions of tweets and Facebook posts everyday. They can however be used to understand what people at the time are thinking and how they respond to the events of their time. In this way they are a very useful historical resource. Charts and graphs can add a visual component to this research. I believe that chronicling everyone’s social media posts has many benefits to the discipline of history.

The final reading talks about how Clemson University has established a social media listening center with help from Dell. I think this was a great move for the university because social media is the future of communication. It was an excellent idea for Clemson to do so because it will help the university remain relevant in the field of social media. Chronicling people’s social media posts will almost undoubtedly prove to be historically useful sometime in the near future.

Alex Kelly Oct. 23 Digital Presentation and Communication

The first reading is stresses the importance of knowing the content of what is going to be on your website before you put it online. It is very easy for someone to misinterpret what you say if you do not clearly explain what you mean. This is why it would be important to outline a plan for the development of your website before its construction. If you can put together a decent road map of what you are hoping to put into your website then you will be able to produce a much more effective end result. It is also detrimental to your website to put false information on it because it detracts from your credibility. Plagiarism online is also a fairly sticky subject because it is a totally different world with digital information as opposed to traditionally published books. The standards for using others work do still apply in the digital world but are not necessarily as clearly defined as in the book publishing one. Additionally, email is a very effective digital communication tool. It is one of the most popular forms of communication today and it will continue to expand its reach, as the world gets more digitized.

            The second reading talks about how the digital tools available to us today make it much easier to accomplish what would have previously been next to impossible to do. The article mentions how in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina tools such as Google Earth were able to clearly highlight the devastating effects brought by the storm in a way that would have previously necessitated many before and after aerial photographs. This would fall into the collecting content area of website development. Other critical aspects of a good website would be dealing with technical issues and attracting viewers to your website. These are simple concepts that if taken seriously when building a website can greatly increase the chances of that website’s success.

            I was unable to locate the third reading on the assigned website.

Alex Kelly Oct. 16 Project Blog

I am blogging today to update you on the progress that I have made with my digital history project. Over fall break I was able to make a trip to historic downtown Roswell and did learn a little about the construction of GA 400. The project’s development began in the 1950s and was completely approximately 20 years later. The growth that was brought on by its completion was substantial and a great deal of industrial and residential development was the outgrowth of the completion of this new highway. I am still trying to decide how I want to visually demonstrate the changes that this road brought to the north metro Atlanta area. I want to show how the areas serviced by the road expanded in population after its completion and I am still contemplating the best way of achieving this end.