History@Work aims to cover as wide a range of perspectives and venues in public history as possible, including:

• Annual Conference: serves as the central conference blog during our annual spring conference
• Consulting in Public History: news and discussion of interest to those working as consultants in the field
• Exhibits & Projects: announcements of new public history projects, plus critical reviews of conventional and unconventional exhibitry in our “Off the Wall” section
• Grad Students/New Professionals: issues of particular interest to those who are training to be public historians or who have just entered the field
• In the Academy: issues of interest to those who teach in public history programs and/or others in the academy whose work relates to public history
• International Perspectives: cross-cultural or comparative discussions of public history practice around the world; transnational dimensions of the field
• NCPH: a space for news and updates relating to the National Council on Public History
• Social/Environmental Issues: pulls together postings on the wide range of public history questions that touch on social justice and the environment

History@Work is also an experiment in new modes of scholarly communication, in keeping with the goals of CHNM’s PressForward project. History@Work is “lightly peer-edited”—that is, volunteer editorial teams with interests in specific sub-topics in public history invite and recruit postings, which may then be edited and revised for relevance and focus.

With its commitment to using digital technologies to foster new kinds of scholarship and with its strong roots in public history, CHNM is delighted to be a part of NCPH’s latest foray into the digital realm.

Using geospatial and thematic points of entry, Hidden Histories of America’s Front Lawn: mobile.mallhistory.us intends to make visible the rich past of the National Mall for its millions of on-site visitors through a website easily accessible by mobile phones that provides content and interpretation far superior to static guidebooks and existing mobile tours and applications.

Each year, over 25,000,000 people come to the National Mall. Many of those visitors—-parents with school-aged children, students and teachers, senior citizens, travelers from other nations—-make their visit to the green expanses wandering between the Lincoln Memorial and the US Capitol prepared to learn about the nation’s past and the many people and events commemorated within that space. Unfortunately, they are unlikely to find much in the way of interpretive content as they wander from monument to museum. If they do find content, it is basic visitor information, not stories that bring to life the hidden history of this public place. Hidden Histories will offer these visitors a portable way to explore the Mall’s rich history while they experience the physical space.

See http://metalab.harvard.edu and http://redlemona.de for more information about those projects. Should be a great event for anyone interested in experiments with publishing and technology.

Sheila Brennan, Sharon Leon, and Tom Scheinfeldt of RRCHNM co-organized the conference with fellow IMLS cooperators, the Balboa Park Online Collaborative (BPOC). They planned an intense and invigorating 3-day program that included a THATCamp-like unconference, workshop sessions on 21st Century Skills and gaming, five plenary panels, and four keynote speakers.

Following the theme of “Tradition and Innovation,” Sharon, Sheila, and Tom worked to integrate the unique contributions of history museums, public libraries, and other local organizations into panels throughout WebWise 2012.

Sharon summarized the highlights of the conference on the ProfHacker blog, published by the Chronicle for Higher Education.

Don’t be too disappointed if you missed WebWise, because IMLS recorded each session and the webcasts are now available for viewing.

RRCHNM and BPOC will be working with IMLS again next year to plan WebWise 2013.

The session featured a knowledgeable panel that included Dan Norton, founding partner and Creative Director of Filament Games (a Madison, WI, company that designs learning-based games); Jeremiah McCall, a high school history teacher at Cincinnati Country Day School and author of the book Gaming the Past: Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History and blog by the same name; and Leah Potter, Media Producer at the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning at CUNY.

The panel explored the use of games to teach and learn history, discussing how games can teach subject matter as well as critical thinking and analysis. The panelists talked about the ways in which games could be valuable tools for engaging students through simulated time travel and role playing, presenting historical concepts and scenarios, and showing the varied outcomes that historical events can have.

Games also have limitations and in addition to playing games, students and teachers can and should analyze them when used in the classroom. Panelists made the point that games may not be the best platform for showing the breath of history, for example, or for teaching about specific events.

To illustrate their point, the panel looked at several games, including Mission US, a web-based game that features free, interactive adventures set in different eras of U.S. History. The group explored Flight to Freedom that simulates the experience of a runaway slave with decisions and consequences for each action. Other games discussed included Do I Have A Right? and several simulation games.

The panel provided new information about the use of games in the teaching of history, as well as a hands-on exploration of several games. Participants actively engaged in the conversation about the usefulness and limitations of games in the classroom and beyond.

Designed as a digital poster session and facilitated by Director of Educational Projects Kelly Schrum, participants were able (and encouraged) to wander through the room and interact with presenters. The large crowd did just that, and were treated to a plethora of new information and ideas about how to use technology in both their scholarly work and their teaching. In addition to academics, the session also attracted teachers, museum administrators, archivists, and other history-related professionals.

The attendees were treated to presentations from several CHNM staff members and affiliated scholars. CHNM Director Dan Cohen presented on the state of scholarly publishing and how new digital methods and venues might alter that landscape. In particular, Cohen discussed PressForward, an effort to aggregate the best scholarship from blogs, institutional sites, and other outlets. Fred Gibbs, Director of Digital Scholarship, spoke about text mining by dispelling myths and soothing fears about its complexity, showing simple but powerful tools for searching and reformatting data for historical research. Patrick Murray-John, Assistant Research Professor, discussed content management systems, including Omeka, and provided tips on building online research projects.

On the teaching front, Jennifer Rosenfeld, Outreach Director for Teachinghistory.org, and Research Associate Debra Kathman, demonstrated history education features and resources designed to enhance teaching at all levels. Research Associate Rwany Sibaja discussed digital storytelling, explaining how to incorporate online tools into teaching and student projects.

Jeffrey McClurken from the University of Mary Washington presented tools for teaching with social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as the benefits of blogging as a class assignment.

Additional information:

Dan Cohen, Digital Storytelling
Fred Gibbs, Text Mining
Patrick Murry-John, Content Management Systems
Jennifer Rosenfeld, Teachinghistory.org
Rwany Sibaja, Digital Storytelling
Jeff McClurken, Teaching with Social Media

The theme for the two-day WebWise conference will be “Tradition and Innovation,” as panelists and presenters investigate the use of digital technologies especially in the field of history. Recognizing that history museums, historical societies, and other history-focused institutions are poorly represented in national discussions of digital libraries and museums, WebWise 2012 will make a concerted effort to surface the challenges historical organizations have faced in doing digital work and the under-appreciated contributions they have made in this area. Prior to the conference, CHNM and BPOC will organize a day-long unconference, similar to THATCamp.

“We are pleased to be working with these two national leaders in the field of technology integration into the services of libraries, museums, archives, and living collections,” said IMLS Director Susan Hildreth. “George Mason University and Balboa Park have been at the forefront of some of the very issues that we hope to explore further during our conference.”

Since 2000, the WebWise conference has brought together representatives of museums, libraries, archives, systems science, education, and other fields interested in the future of high-quality online content for inquiry and learning. A signature initiative of IMLS, this annual conference highlights recent research and innovations in digital technology, explores their potential impacts on library and museum services, and promotes effective museum and library practices in the digital environment. It also provides recipients of technology-based grants from the Institute with an opportunity to showcase their exemplary projects.

Currently, the archive includes a growing set of collections of webpage screenshots, movement documents, and digital images. These collections were built with a combination of individual contributions and automated feed importing. Now, with the launch of the OccupyArchive.org website, individuals can contribute and geolocate their stories and files from the movement. Together, these materials will provide an historical record of the 2011 Occupy protests.

The #OccupyArchive is a result of the efforts of volunteers from CHNM and the George Mason University History and Art History Department. It build upon the experiences and techniques developed in CHNM’s previous digital archive projects, such as the September 11th Digital Archive, the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank, the Bracero History Archive, and the Papers of the War Department, 1784-1800. #OccupyArchive is proudly powered with Omeka.

For more information on the #OccupyArchive, please contact us: occupyarchive.org/contact.