~~~~HISTORY 5644: U.S. SINCE 1920~~~~

Professor Kathleen W. Jones Department of History, Virginia Tech 421 Major Williams Hall phone: 540.231.8371 email: kjwj@vt.edu Office Hours: Monday 1-3 Fall 2002 ~Digital History Research Seminar~ COURSE DESCRIPTION Hist 5644 is a research seminar that, in Fall 2002, will introduce students to the techniques and the problems encountered when presenting history on the world wide web, and particularly when designing history pages for use in a teaching environment. The research component will be either a teaching unit website or a critical review (presented as hypertext) of five history websites. Assignments Class Schedule Projects Homepage complete syllabus, print version CAVEAT Hist 5644 is an ambitious course. Reading and research assignments are heavy. You will be expected to learn programs on your own time. And you can be sure that making webpages will take at least twice (if not ten times) as long as you think it will. Hist 5644 is also an experimental course. None of us, including the instructor, is an expert; you must regard this class as both a teaching and a learning experience. And to make that environment happen, the class must function as a team. You will be expected to share what you discover along the way, actively critique each other's work, and question the ideas of the "experts" we will use to guide us. TOPICS COVERED Web Design Students will be expected to become proficient in the use of Dreamweaver (a webpage designing program),), Adobe Photoshop (for scanning and manipulating images) and an OCR software program (for scanning text). Adobe Acrobat (for large document files) is also recommended. All programs are available for both PCs and MACs in the student computer lab (Room 408). Instructions/tutorials for these and many other programs can be accessed through www.elementk.vt.edu At times during the semester special workshops may be held in the department &endash; if so, you will be notified. The staff of New Media Center (1140 Torgersen Hall) also provides assistance. The class will be introduced to the creation and use of audio and video elements for webpages and geographic information system (GIS) software (though there is no expectation that students will use these programs) History and Theory In addition to some of the basics of historical research and web design, students will also explore theoretical issues that arise when making history available on the internet. Students will examine and critique existing history websites, including the teaching units already in use by VT faculty. You will delve into the problems and possibilities of web teaching. Much of this exploration will take place as we address some of the fundamental philosophical and epistemological issues raised by efforts to put history online: how, why, and by whom should the past be presented on the world wide web, and how does a web environment change the way we "do" history and the way we think about the past. http://www.majbill.vt.edu/history/jones/5644_f02/index.html created August 24, 2002