Digital History: First Impressions

I've spent the last few days reading articles and essays about what digital history is, how it has evolved, and where it might take us in the future. I typically place what I consume as a student in the context of three things:

1. Education - how does this content affect educators and students, and as a sideline item, what aspects of it might affect what I do as an academic advisor?
2. Genealogy - are there ways that I can apply this thinking, or technology, to family history?
3. History - as my academic discipline, how do I incorporate what I'm learning into my historical research; are there new directions and connections I am making?

Each of the websites we reviewed -  the Center for History and New Media, Digital History: University of Houston, the Virginia Center for Digital History, and Digital History - University of Nebraska - all include some element of what it means to teach and learn about history in the digital age. These web projects include numerous resources for educators and students, but even more exciting is the approach to understanding digital history in its own right and commentary on where it's taking the profession. Each of these sites also presented at least one potential resource applicable to genealogy. Of course, there's tremendous value in the content of the projects as repositories of digital history work.

To break this down a little further, here are some of the key points gleaned from the reading and review of the websites:

• technology can help students take an active role in their learning; it can be an opportunity to explore and invite participation that helps solidify content knowledge and making connections (Kelly)
• using technology can be very different than learning through technology (Kelly)
• technology does not change every dynamic of the classroom (or anything else for that matter!) (Kelly)
• when thinking about sources, digital history may have a huge impact on authenticity versus originality (Kelly)
• doing digital history requires thinking about digital history; "mastering the technology becomes the end rather than the means to a bigger end of producing innovative history." (Taylor, p. 459)
• the open web is an opportunity for anyone to contribute to our understanding of history; it can be modified and perfected over time and an avenue for exploring unexpected genres and historical experience (Cohen)

I found a couple of resources I am excited to explore related to genealogy. These include:

• the Notable Obituaries portion of the Digital History: UH project - how might I do something similar on my own digital history project?
• in the Outreach section of the Virginia Center for Digital History project, the J.F. Bell Funeral Home Records digital history project. What a wonderful resource for genealogists researching African American roots, and a great example of a digital history site I might use as a model for my own project.
• in the Research + Tools portion of the Center for History and New Media project, the Serendip-o-matic web tool. I played around just a little by pasting in an obituary I had transcribed for one of my ancestors, just to see how it worked. The results I got were very mixed, but it has a lot of potential. It's a tool I will definitely play with more.

I'm continuing to digest the content for this week and click through interesting projects and tools. It's a bit overwhelming at this point, but exciting as well. There's nothing like endless possibilities and tools and toys to play with!