Hi6018 Digital History
Seminar Room, Tyrconnell, Tuesdays 9-11 am
This is a new option available in several of our MA programmes as a core methods course. It is running for the first time this year in this form, although much of it is based on teaching which has evolved over the past 15 years or so. The current course introduction handout is online
This course is a voyage of discovery which seeks to help students become comfortable with research, analysis and writing professional history in a collaborative, digital, networked age. It provides an opportunity to explore, get lost, make mistakes and learn from them in a safe and friendly class, in order to equip students to flourish in the new knowledge economy.
A major focus will on capturing primary sources in digital form, learning how we can effectively use electronic sources for historical analysis, and on presenting the results in a range of formats – scholarly writing, presentation and the web. A second focus will be on exploring the networked community of historical scholars, and building connections for learning and research.
It will require some IT skills, but it is not a computer science course. There will be no programming, but students interested in the option should be proficient and comfortable with technology, and willing to have fun exploring how to make use of it.
It is an area in which we had have a number of undergraduate seminars at various times since 1990, and History at UCC has been and is home to a number of projects in this area, most notably CELT
Some of my old (2002) teaching notes from a third year seminar that covered similar material are online here. There is also a powerpoint presentation with recorded narration (on which I sound very ponderous indeed!) which I did about the seminar for a conference back in 2001. These will give some idea of the ‘hands on’ work in the option in October/November. There will be new areas in the course (digital photography, scanning, Web 2.0 tools) which I will be preparing over the summer, and I hope to post outlines of those here as well. There is certainly no ‘one book’ for the course, but we will certainly read all of Cohen & Rosenwigs ‘Digital History’ which has been published online.
Assessment in the option will be based on a portfolio of work. Part of this will be primary sources, appropriately digitised and presented in a range of formats, print and digital. Initially, we will be building on our 1901 Census data. Once we’ve covered the basics with that material, we will be able to move on to looking at primary material relating to whatever thesis topic people are working on. This option will certainly be of use to anyone working on any area of history where you have access to a decent body of primary material suitable for conversion to electronic format. Other elements in the portfolio will include regular postings in a course blog, reflecting on your learning journey, online discussion of some assigned readings, and collections of work using online tools to organise and carry out research.
If you are interested in the option, email me (m dot cosgrave at ucc.ie) and we can meet for a chat about it.