The Digital Past

History 390, Fall 2018

Schedule

Week Number: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16


Week 1

Mon. Aug 27. Course Introduction. Building a Web Presence.

Reading:

After Class:

Week 2

Mon. Sept 3. Labor Day - No Class.


Week 3

Mon. September 10. What is Digital History?

Readings:

In Class:

After Class:

  • Submit the URL to your blog via the assignment submission form.
  • Blog Post #1: Write a blog post that reviews one of the Digital History projects listed below. You may wish to consult the Organization of American Historian’s guidelines for reviewing digital history projects.
    Due before the start of class September 17th. Submit a link to your blog post through the assignment submission form.

Projects for Review:


Week 4

Mon. Sept 17. Working With Primary Sources & Who Were the Progressives?

Reading:

After Class:

  • Blog Post #2: Find five (5) primary sources from at least 3 different collections. Write a blog post that cites the items (including the databases they came from) in Chicago format. Summarize each source and discuss what you learned by reading it. What did you learn about searching for and finding primary sources on the internet? Due before the start of class September 24th.

Week 5

Reading:

After Class

  • Blog Post #3: Using the resources from class find a monograph and a journal article related to some aspect of the Progressive Era. In a blog post summarize the argument for each. Be sure to include citations for each in Chicago format. Due before the start of class October 1st.

Week 6

Mon. Oct 1. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire & Omeka

Reading:

After Class:

  • Skill Assignments #1 & 2: Using the primary sources that you gathered two weeks ago to create an Omeka collection of at least 5 primary sources. Each item should have complete metadata although not every Dublin Core field needs to be filled out. Be sure to include a reference to where you found the item and a rights statement if appropriate.
  • After you’ve added the items to Omeka, create an exhibit that tells a coherent story about some aspect of Progressive Era history. Each exhibit should include 5 items with proper metadata and an image. Use prose to link these items together. Your exhibit should be between 400 and 750 words and structured/organized in a way that is suitable to the content. All secondary sources used to contextualize the items should be cited using Chicago format.
  • Due before the start of class October 9th via the assignment submission form

Week 7

Tues. Oct 9. Reform in Progressive Era America & Timelines

Fall Break is October 8th. Monday classes meet Tuesday instead. Tuesday classes do not meet this week.

Before Class:

  • Sign up for a Google account if you don’t already have one.

Readings:

After Class:

  • Skill Assignment #3: Over the course of this semester make a timeline that chronicles important developments in the Progressive Era. You should have roughly 20 events including major labor strikes, social movements, and legislative accomplishments. Events can be drawn from class lectures, readings, and research but each event’s entry must include an accurate date, a several sentence description, links to more information where relevant, and an image if possible. This assignment, unlike most skills assignments, is due December 17th by 7:30pm.

Week 8

Mon. Oct 15. The Suffrage Movement & Databases Pt I

Before Class:

Reading:

After Class:


Week 9

Mon. Oct 22. Databases Pt II & Midterm

We’ll work on our databases for the first half of class and take the midterm in the second half.

Readings:

After Class:


Week 10

Mon. Oct 29. Segregation, Urbanization & Spatial History

Reading:


Week 11

Mon. Nov 5. Jim Crow & Mapping

Reading:

After Class:


Week 12

Mon. Nov 12. Women and the City. Text Mining.

Reading:

After Class:


Week 13

Mon. Nov 19. No class.

  • Work on your Timelines due Dec 17.

Week 14

Mon. Nov 26. Immigration and Visualizations.

Reading:

Before Class:

After Class:


Week 15

Mon. Dec 3. Security, Sustainability, Ethics in the Age of Algorithms

Reading:

After Class:

  • Blog Post #5: Choose one of the two following topics and write a blog post:
    • Topic 1: How sustainable is the digital work that you have don’t in this course? What would it take to sustain the assignments you have completed? Which assignments can you export from the web services where you created them?
    • Topic 2: How secure is your digital life? Who has access to your information? What kinds of things might hackers, corporations, political parties, or states be able to figure out about you from that information? What is the significance of government surveillance? What can you do to improve your digital security?
    • Due December 17th by 7:30pm.

Week 16

Mon. Dec 17. Portfolios Due by 7pm.

  • No Final Exam.
  • Skill Assignment #8: Use your website for the course to create a portfolio of all your work in this class.
    • Your portfolio should be a page on your website that links to all of the assignments and blog posts you have completed for this class.
    • Include images of the assignments where appropriate and be sure to make the site attractive.
    • With each skill assignment include a short discussion about how the assignment contributed to your understanding of the Progressive Era and Digital History. The text on this page should be between 500 and 700 words.
    • Your portfolio is due December 17th by 7:30pm.