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Doing History in Public: Digital History in the Digital
HumanitiesSharon M. Leon
Director of Public ProjectsCenter for History and New Media
@sleonchnm, [email protected]
MITH Digital Dialogue (April 13, 2010)
As might be expected, many of these presentations and workshops focused on the ways in which the digital world is altering the possibilities for research and teaching. Yet one aspect of this list that stood out to me was the involvement of presenters with ties to governmental, corporate, and institutions or foundations such as the National Archives, IBM, the State Department, Shoah Foundation Institute, NEH, and the like. While MLA had some panels that featured those outside of the academy proper, a larger percentage of the AHA digital panels seemed to reach beyond the university (though a more careful study might disprove this impression). On one hand, the composition of these panels suggest a greater public face for history and its involvement in digital work, yet on the other hand, it also suggests that historians as a whole might not yet be embracing digital work in large numbers.
Eleanor Shevlin, Early Modern Bibliography
What is Public History?
Recently the NCPH Board of Directors described public history as ‘a movement, methodology, and approach that promotes the collaborative study and practice of history; its practitioners embrace a mission to make their special insights accessible and useful to the public.’
Further more, ‘public history is the conceptualization and practice of historical activities with one’s public audience foremost in mind. It generally takes place in settings beyond the traditional classroom. Its practitioners often see themselves as mediators on the one hand between the academic practice of history and non-academics and on the other between the various interests in society that seek to create historical understanding.’
Award Winning Public History Websites
• 2004 Muse Award: Bronze: Lewis and Clark: the Bicentennial Exhibition
• 2005 Best of the Web: Honorable Mention, Online Exhibit: Raid On Deerfield: The Many Stories of 1704
• 2005 Muse Award: Honorable Mention: The Price of Freedom: Americans at War
• 2006 Muse Award: Silver: Churchi# and the Great Republic
• 2007 Muse Award: Honorable Mention: Arago: People, Postage, and the Post
• 2008 Best of the Web: Honorable Mention for Online Exhibition: Digital Vaults
• 2008 NCPH Outstanding Public History Project: Slavery in New York
Some recent CHNM public history sites:
• Gulag: Many Days, Many Lives
• Martha Washington: a Life
• Bracero History Archive
How People Learn (2000)• Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about
how the world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and information that are taught, or they may learn them for purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom.
• To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must: (a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application.
• A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them.
Six Principles of Expert Knowledge
• Experts notice features and meaningful patterns of information that are not noticed by novices.
Six Principles of Expert Knowledge
• Experts notice features and meaningful patterns of information that are not noticed by novices.
• Experts have acquired a great deal of content knowledge that is organized in ways that reflect a deep understanding of their subject matter.
Six Principles of Expert Knowledge
• Experts notice features and meaningful patterns of information that are not noticed by novices.
• Experts have acquired a great deal of content knowledge that is organized in ways that reflect a deep understanding of their subject matter.
• Experts’ knowledge cannot be reduced to sets of isolated facts or propositions but, instead, reflects contexts of applicability: that is, the knowledge is “conditionalized” on a set of circumstances.
Six Principles of Expert Knowledge
• Experts notice features and meaningful patterns of information that are not noticed by novices.
• Experts have acquired a great deal of content knowledge that is organized in ways that reflect a deep understanding of their subject matter.
• Experts’ knowledge cannot be reduced to sets of isolated facts or propositions but, instead, reflects contexts of applicability: that is, the knowledge is “conditionalized” on a set of circumstances.
• Experts are able to flexibly retrieve important aspects of their knowledge with little attentional effort.
Six Principles of Expert Knowledge
• Experts notice features and meaningful patterns of information that are not noticed by novices.
• Experts have acquired a great deal of content knowledge that is organized in ways that reflect a deep understanding of their subject matter.
• Experts’ knowledge cannot be reduced to sets of isolated facts or propositions but, instead, reflects contexts of applicability: that is, the knowledge is “conditionalized” on a set of circumstances.
• Experts are able to flexibly retrieve important aspects of their knowledge with little attentional effort.
• Though experts know their disciplines thoroughly, this does not guarantee that they are able to teach others.
Six Principles of Expert Knowledge
• Experts notice features and meaningful patterns of information that are not noticed by novices.
• Experts have acquired a great deal of content knowledge that is organized in ways that reflect a deep understanding of their subject matter.
• Experts’ knowledge cannot be reduced to sets of isolated facts or propositions but, instead, reflects contexts of applicability: that is, the knowledge is “conditionalized” on a set of circumstances.
• Experts are able to flexibly retrieve important aspects of their knowledge with little attentional effort.
• Though experts know their disciplines thoroughly, this does not guarantee that they are able to teach others.
• Experts have varying levels of flexibility in their approach to new situations.
What might digital work that takes these principles into account look like?
• Historical Thinking Matters
• Object of History: Behind the Scenes with the Curators of the National Museum of American History
Examples from k-12 teaching and learning...
Doing History in Public: Digital History in the Digital
HumanitiesSharon M. Leon
Director of Public ProjectsCenter for History and New Media
@sleonchnm, [email protected]
MITH Digital Dialogue (April 13, 2010)
