Clio Wired (History 696)

The Deerfield site makes the best use of modern technical media advances with access to music, film clips and some pretty cool technology they call “rollover”. The illustrations of each scenario invite you to roll the mouse over the scene and read something about the subject you’re resting on as they are highlighted in red. Some subjects offer further explanation that pops up in another window and within those there is even more opportunity for links to related subjects and more illustrations. The writing is clear and easily understood though not patronising. The information seems reasonably reliable, and if covering both sides of an argument is in question; five sides are covered just to be sure. I don’t think this site was intended for children, but it does have a teaching page aimed at instructors who would like to use it in the classroom; I think eight or ninth grade would get the most out of it. I think the Deerfield site wins hands down for conveying the most info to the largest audience. It also uses new media to the best advantage and has the best interface. Gee, think I’m too firmly decided? Take a look at the competition:
The History Wired Site from Smithsonian was simply too cluttered to really gain much “history” from. The control panels don’t really help you go anywhere or do much of anything interesting like the Deerfield site does. And again there is too much information without any real overview, other than a timeline that spans so far that it is difficult to get your brain around. Perhaps repeated visits would make this interface more useful as you get used to how it is arranged and how to manipulate it, but with just an hour, it doesn’t impress me as a good history site. It certainly doesn’t tell a story like Deerfield and pull the visitor in with decent writing.
The Devices of Wonder site left me stone cold. It took forever for the initial page to load and that made me frustrated. It doesn’t convey much historic information at all, although the images are fun to play with. As a dial up user, I would have to wait until my next birthday to load the film clips, so they were of no use to me and I would imagine no use to anyone else with this service. While I’m probably not in the majority here, it still is a factor. I’m pressed to tell you what the point of this site is.
Finally, I liked the idea of the Julia Child site but it doesn’t strike me as scholarly history. It’s a fun, well designed site, and I’m a huge fan, but I don’t know if it’s history. Comments welcome.