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December 15, 2005
More interesting sites
Here's a couple more UK sites. (I had another UK visitor this week)
The first is from my friends at the Science Museum
and the second is site on Winston Churchill
Debbie
Posted by dschaef1 at 12:14 PM
December 14, 2005
Mitch Kapor on Wikipedia
Here's a link to a talk given by Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development Corporation, at Berkeley on the Wikipedia. These days, Kapor is the President of the Open Source Applications Foundation.
Posted by mills at 07:42 PM
December 12, 2005
An "enthusiast" site worth visiting
Hi all:
Here's a website I'll be using next semester in my Western Civ class: Casebook: Jack the Ripper. This is an "enthusiast" site founded by a guy named Stephen Ryder who, by his own admission, began this project just because he was interested in the Jack the Ripper case and wanted to start collecting resources online. The site has mushroomed into a huge project with thousands of primary sources, a message board with something like 70,000 posts on it, etc., etc. For our purposes, it also has a "then and now" page that shows you the look of four prior versions of the site's homepage.
If you can get past the incredibly annoying flashing ad in the left hand margin, it is quite the resource. And it is an example of how a digital history project can take on a life of its own.
See you in a bit.
Mills
Posted by mills at 06:17 PM | Comments (1)
Debbie's Quilt Redesign is up
Hi class
My final project- A redesign of the NMAH Quilts, Counterpanes and Throws uploaded. I ran out of time in replacing unPhotoshoped images and l still want to add those and pretty the links up plus there are 2 internal documents which Professor Kelly said weren't needed for the presentation but I will need to include for work. Anyway I'm good to go for tonight-everything works but later in the week if I can leave one day early, I'll pay another visit to my friends at the Star Lab get it a little fancier.
Direct link is to Debbie's Web Project
See you all later!
Posted by dschaef1 at 05:56 PM | Comments (2)
Nightmareweaver
Well, I made one little change to the template and next thing I know, half the site is screwed up. But it's all right now.
Check it here.
Posted by kalbers at 04:51 PM | Comments (1)
Tai's Final Project
Let the good times roll???
Thomas McKenney Visits the Western Tribes
Posted by tgerhart at 11:20 AM | Comments (1)
FINAL PROJECT POSTED: ACHTUNG, BABY!
Hello all:
My final project has been linked on my bio page and can be found at http://mason.gmu.edu/~avonargy/womenoftheweimarrepublic.htm
Next semester I intend to expand the site reviews in number and in scope, as well as flesh out the bibliography section and create a complete (as close as time and materials will allow) English source/ reference list on the topic. I'll also have a good deal of work to do in the future with regard to images, graphics, and cool upgrades. I am eager to learn how to do all that stuff in Dr. Petrik's course next semester. Maybe then I can compete with some of you web designing gurus!
See you all tonight.
Posted by avonargy at 11:15 AM | Comments (2)
CNN Wikipedia story.
CNN has a story about the guy that wrote the fake bio. I thought this bit was interesting.
"Chase said he didn't know the free Internet encyclopedia called Wikipedia was used as a serious reference tool."
It certainly doesn't inspire much confidence regardless of the other article we read examining its accuracy.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/11/wikipedia.ap/index.html
Kurt
Posted by kknoerl at 08:44 AM
December 11, 2005
Final project almost done
Hi Class,
My final project is almost done. I have all the pages laid out in Word and the jpg file ready to go but the Star Lab has been closed since Thursday evening so everything won't be connected to my website until Monday afternoon. Sorry but I just don't have enough confidence in loading with Dreamweaver on my own. Last time I ended upt with exta copies of images and had to resize my photoshop images.
It's been a pleasure being in class with you all and I hoped to take other classes with all of you. See you Monday evening!
Debbie
Posted by dschaef1 at 07:11 PM | Comments (1)
Scott's Final Project
It's up and running: GTO Proposal
I also reworked my homepage, see if you can identify the guy in the photo.
I appreciate everyones' comments and suggestions, and special thanks to Tai! (Us midwesterners have to stick together!)
Scott
Posted by sprice7 at 02:13 PM | Comments (2)
December 10, 2005
CSS for my site
Tai wanted a look at the CSS for my proposal, so here it is. Note - there are some things that are "commented out," as well as some extra code. A lot of stuff will be used next term in 697 that did not get used for the proposal, but I built the CSS for it anyway.
Clicky: http://mason.gmu.edu/~mhobbs/hist696/proposal/museummain.css
Bear in mind that this WILL launch Dreamweaver if you have associated .css file extensions with that program.
Posted by mhobbs at 07:49 PM | Comments (1)
final thoughts on teaching history via the web
I don’t really like the sound of “final thoughts”, as no thought of mine has ever really been final…but just the same, it will likely be my last blog for this course so here goes…
I have learned a lot in this course; much of which (here’s a nice, ironic surprise) I did not anticipate learning, as both a student and as an instructor. I am equally excited and afraid for the future of education, specifically for the basic education of our young people in public schools. Too many classrooms are in effect run by administrators who don’t understand student’s needs or how students learn and retain information. Many primary and secondary teachers are overworked, underpaid, and ill prepared to engage youngsters and encourage them to learn to build academic skills on their own. As more multiple choice tests are given to expedite the process of testing, students are left with fewer literacy skills to support their academic careers later in life. We need to find a way to bridge the gap between rapid and effective teaching, to pay more attention to how students learn today and put aside old outdated modes of instruction. Society is dynamic; therefore education should not be static. An unexamined course of education is not worth following.
Modern technology and in particular, the use of computers, has become a double edged axe. While the web offers us a new universe of teaching possibilities, it also has rendered many students incapable of demonstrating basic skills. Ensuring the mastery of basic skills has become more treacherous with computers and calculators that have removed the need to learn mathematical skills and grammatical rules. Spell check, for example, has replaced proper phonetic and spelling lessons, resulting in a generation of people who commonly cannot spell without spell check. As Dr. Kelly reminded one of his students, although his was not an English class, one needs to have good writing skills to clearly demonstrate their knowledge in any subject.
I wonder how the English department sees the future of web based instruction; are there “grammar sites” developed to enhance and aid the learning of basic writing skills? I certainly hope so. As an educator in the field of history, I am challenged every day to find a way to help students develop the basic skills they need to succeed in life. Students need to learn to read and write before they can express their opinions of historical matters and themes. I have had to spend much more time correcting grammatical skill errors than those made regarding the historical subject at hand. There are more obtacles to teaching, however, than just basic skill instruction.
Something modern educators need to address is that information creeps in even when you don’t anticipate it; it’s not always achieved by an overt effort on the part of the professor or the student. A student can learn a lot from surfing on the internet for history sites. As Dr. Kelly reminisced, he sent students out to find primary documents and they returned with enthusiam and interest he had not seen prior to the self appointed assignment. He also gives them the freedom to choose which documents to read, allowing them to find and develop their own interests within a subject. Some professors would shrink at the challenge of keeping up with a student's individual trajectory, but I think this is one of the best ways to inspire students to learn; it builds confidence, teaches responsibility, and helps to develop research skills.
Students can also learn a good deal from other students. I see the good students have discipline and enthusiasm for their work. By reading another student’s work, I can see where I fit into the program; if I need to work harder or if I am on par. So why, I ask, does so much of early education in this country consist of memorising dates and facts, and working completely on your own? Are we really that incapable of constructing a more useful programme of study for our youths?
It appears we learn the most in the process of researching and writing, when immersed in the subject, while interacting with the factors and actors in the subject. We have never really learned anything valuable from memorising dates and facts, unless our goal is to become a Jeopardy contestant. Many professors and instructors will agree that memorisation is ineffective, but they have no choice but to test this way due to time and budget restrictions. There has to be a better way to educate and inspire our youths to continue on an academic course.
For history, I see huge potential in web based instruction, a positive step in education when used responsibly. Web sites are ever engaging and instructional, immersing the student in visual and audio experience alike. Web based instruction can be an experience, similar to a museum visit, rather than another dry text or lecture. Once immersed and interacting with a site they become engaged, and are likely to retain more information in general than if sitting in the back of the classroom listening to the professor drone on. As long as solid, foundational reading and writing skills are obtained early, web based learning should not hinder the traditional expectations of educators; it should surpass those expectations. Students aren’t reluctant to learn; they’re reluctant to be bored.
Instructors who are new to the web are in urgent need of catching up and facing the future with hope and inspiration. We could also use a mandatory course on education in our training. Perhaps if more professors became involved in web enhanced programs and updated their teaching skills we wouldn’t see so many bored, uninspired students, and bored, ineffective professors. They might even learn to enjoy teaching again.
I have heard professors complain that the web has provided students with an unlimited opportunity for plagiarism. This has frequently led to restricting student use of the web as a study aid. But if these same professors teach their students how to use the web effectively as a learning tool, they might not face the volume of plagiarism they now see. Students tend to plagiarise when they don’t understand or have not learned the material. Making learning fun and interactive by incorporating engaging web sites and projects in the lesson plan can direct students to learn the value of education on their own, build their self confidence, and improve their lives overall. Properly instructed, they will learn how to do research, read primary source documents, create archives, and assess other student material uploaded on blogs and blackboards.
I am glad to have had this exposure to the web early in my professional life as an educator and as a graduate student. It has expanded my horizons and brought me culturally closer to the students I will teach. I must stay current with technology if I am to compete on a level that will benefit both my students and my own education. I have learned much from both the instructor’s wise guidance as well as from my fellow students in this course and I thank you all for your eager participation and comments.
Happy holidays to you all.
Amanda
Posted by avonargy at 03:48 PM | Comments (1)
liz's project ... it's finished...
Redesigned, revamped ...
Keep your cursor over Doughboy for a second ... I am proud of that... I get proud over the smallest things.
Good luck, everyone!!
liz
Posted by ejonese at 08:51 AM | Comments (1)
December 09, 2005
Interview on Technology and Education
I hope you all are enjoying the snow.
Here's an interview with an English prof. on the use of technology in the classroom. I'd be interested to hear your take on this. He doesn't seem that cutting edge to me, but is a guy who gets lots of buzz.
Mills
Posted by mills at 07:04 PM | Comments (7)
Final Project - Ammon
Well, here it is, in all it's glory.
Posted by ashephe1 at 05:19 PM | Comments (3)
Danger, Will Robinson, Danger
Hi all:
Has anyone received comments on your proposals or projects from outside GMU? I noticed that I received one on my project proposal. I guess I hadn't thought through the fact that all of our comments are visible to the world. With that in mind, and since some of the sites I've reviewed for my final proposal are run by persons that I need to contact (or have attempted to contact), I might have to temper my critiques. Just something to keep in mind. Also, I have corresponded with one such person, Professor Richard Wright (I mentioned him in my presentation Monday night) and he's published an e-book. One comment from a site that has his book on-line I thought may be of interest as it regards copyright.
This site (http://www.laramie.willshireltd.com/Contents.html) notes:
“Richard A. Wright owns the copyright to West of Laramie, but it may be used in whole or in part without payment. Jenny King owns the photographs and gives permission for their use. We ask only that you let them know if you have used all or any part of the book by emailing them at Wayne State University.”
Just thought you'd be interested!
Scott
Darn it, good to know Professor. It was somewhat interesting to think that my proposal found interest outside of our class community. Oh well.
Posted by sprice7 at 02:49 PM | Comments (3)
Maureen 's Final Project
Please go to http://mason.gmu.edu/%7Emguignon/hist696/projfin.htmfor my final project.
My home page for my project is http://mason.gmu.edu/%7Emguignon/hist696/hitproject.htm
Posted by mguignon at 02:20 PM | Comments (2)
Suzanne's Final Project
Thanks to Meagan, my final project is on my website! My proposal for New Lights in Norwich can be viewed on my website at http://mason.gmu.edu/~scarson1/
I agree with Kurt's Blog that it has been a real pleasure taking Clio with you all. I've learned alot from all of you and without your help I certainly would not have made it through to the end. Best of luck to those of you taking 697 next semester, and I look forward to viewing those incredible websites you'll be creating. See you on Monday and come hungry.
Suzanne
Posted by scarson1 at 11:09 AM | Comments (4)
December 08, 2005
Tai found Teaching Goals
In our argument over the difference between 'learning' and 'entertaining' students - I asked someone who knows more than me (Bob Hawkes), and thought I'd share.
Teaching Goals
- Make good "students" out of them.
- Stimulate interest in the discipline by delving into dynamics of the topic.
- Lead the students in the direction for viable analysis of the topic.
- Relate it to the world the students' know about - if there is not a reference point, what you're teaching won't make sense.
- You want the students to argue about the topic because it means they're thinking.
Posted by tgerhart at 08:00 AM | Comments (1)
December 07, 2005
Old news perhaps but still interesting...Wikipedia
Online encyclopedia tightens rules following false article
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/12/05/state/n122345S84.DTL
Kurt
Posted by kknoerl at 03:28 PM | Comments (1)
December 06, 2005
How to build a blank room...
For Nona, and anyone else who may need this in the future...
Photoshop Elements, while probably the most unintuitive application I have ever had the displeasure to bang my head against, is more robust than people give it credit for.
1. File>New>Blank File...>Make it 1000x800 pixles for ease of building your shapes.
2. Use the Rectangular Marquee tool to draw a box floating in the middle of your blank play space.
3. Fill it with a soft, neutral color using the Paintbucket.
4. Using the Draw Shape tool, draw a rectangle coming off the right of your filled selection, aligned to the top and bottom, going to the edge of the screen.
5. Making sure your new shape is selected (it will also be on a different layer from your back wall - that's OK), use Image>Transform Shape>Skew to stretch the upper right and lower right corners up and down, respectively, to give some perspective to your right wall.
6. Edit>Copy that shape, then Edit>Paste it. Using the Shape Selection tool, drag your new copy and line the corners up with the left side of your back wall.
7. Image>Transform Shape>Free Transform. A little box with an angle to the left and a degree sign to the right will appear. Type "180" in that box, and your shape will flip over for you. Then, simply drag it over to look like a left-hand wall.
8. Use Google Images to find a picture of some carpet. I'm not kidding. Once you save the image you choose to your computer, open it in Photoshop Elements. Use the Rectangular Marquee tool to select a portion of this carpet image, then Edit>Define Pattern from Selection... Name the pattern something like "carpet," and go back to your room project.
9. On the Background layer (containing your back wall), use the Rectangular Marquee tool to select the lower portion of your image - below the wall. Then get the Paintbucket tool, switch Fill: Foreground on the upper toolbar to Fill: Pattern, select your carpet pattern, and fill in the floor. Don't worry about filling in over your right and left walls - they're still on their layer.
10. Now the fun part. Select your Background layer (it should now have the back wall and your carpet.) Go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects, and play around with the lighting tools. Once your done, you can save that particular lighting effect. Name it, apply it to your background. Now your back wall and ground is lit.
11. Select the layer with your right and left hand walls, Layer>Render>Lighting Effects, and apply the saved lighting effect from the step above. Voila, you have a blank, lit room!
Posted by mhobbs at 10:38 PM | Comments (1)
Kurt's Final Project
Last night's group did a great job. I appreciate what I've learned this semester from all of you. It has been a real pleasure.
OK so here's my crack at it. http://www.clio.keimaps.com/finalproposal.html
...My apologies to dial up users.
-Kurt
Posted by kknoerl at 08:49 PM | Comments (1)
A few comments on presentation(s):
I was really impressed by the projects presented last night and have a few final thoughts about them and my own.
An interesting study would be to compare CLIO projects over the last few years. I wondered if those of you with expert tech/building skills see a big difference. I certainly noted more incorporation of images to be read as text and that idea was something I had planned to bring up.
So, I should have looked at my notes as I wanted to point out an idea in my project that seemed to be replicated in others that were presented.
The Imaging the French Revolution site uses text and images and provides a model (for me) for combining text and images on the web. Jack Censer argues that "comparison between visual images on the web as web texts is still very underdeveloped." Yes, this is the great intersection between art history and history that I like but it also becomes a new, or at least changed,interdisciplinary approach because I think we are beginning to use web images as text in a different way than we did in the past.
We still need text to present historical background and art historians will still use Formal Analysis to understand the formal elements of the work. However, what the artist is doing with the formal elements themselves is creating text within the image to engage the viewer and to evoke a response.
The web is capable of doing the same thing for digital scholarship: it allows the reproduction of images that can be read as text when presented within the the historical context and I think it is a more accurate, and definitely, different approach than using a textbook with images. Personally, I hate looking at art in books. Perhaps, the web provides a better reality for looking at images when there is historical context as well.
I am not sure where I am going with these ideas but I seem to be working on an epiphany and will let you know what happens.
Posted by mguignon at 09:07 AM
December 05, 2005
screen resolution
I returned home and my site looked normal...
However, my screen resolution is 1600x1200. Is this why my site looked so odd in class? I'm looking at my site in both Firefox and IE here, and it looks completely normal...
and, for neato pulldown in Dreamweaver (for those interested): Insert>Form>Jump Menu. Follow directions...easy.
Posted by ejonese at 11:16 PM | Comments (1)
miles's site
www.milesandbrooklynne.com/hist696/project.htm
other resource:
http://129.171.53.1/ep/Paris/home.htm
Posted by miles at 08:32 PM | Comments (1)
liz final
Here you go...
Click here to see scope page. The site is not yet complete, so it will (I hope) look better ...
I like everyone's project...
Posted by ejonese at 05:47 PM | Comments (4)
nona's final project
here goes...
Posted by nmartina at 01:51 PM | Comments (4)
December 04, 2005
Digital Project is a go... I say again, we have a go
I, too, have my webpages up and ready to go.
You can read the proposal by clicking on the logo:
To see a sample room from the virtual museum I will be constructing, you can click on the thumbnail below:
Click on Chagall's painting Rabbiner, the yellow portrait of a rabbi, to see a sample information page that I will be preparing for each work.
Posted by mhobbs at 11:02 PM | Comments (4)
Maureen's Final Project
My final project web page is up for my presentation tomorrow evening. My secondary links are still under construction.
Please go to:http://mason.gmu.edu/~mguignon/hist696/index.html
References to secondary links:
Modern:
http://www.moma.org.collection/printable_view.php?object_id=78426
Traditional:
http://www.third-reich-books.com/pt-810-bauernfamilie-01-75dpi.jpg
Posted by mguignon at 09:48 PM | Comments (1)
Amy's Project Proposal
Here is the link for my digital project proposal. The subject is the History of Internet Digital History.
It's not glamorous (I used anchor links), but it works and I was able to get everything in the right place.
Let me know if something is broken and I’ll try to fix it!
See everyone tomorrow, Amy
Posted by alechne1 at 08:46 PM | Comments (3)
December 02, 2005
My Project is a Fish
K, figured out the IE bug (if anyone cared) and my final proposal is up and ready to go... if you're bored and perusing, please let me know if you find any typos or anything stupid-looking.
Thanks!
Meagan
Posted by mhess3 at 01:59 PM | Comments (7)
A long strange trip...
And another blow struck for free content on the web.
For those of you old enough to remember, throughout their touring career the Grateful Dead allowed fans to record their concerts and encouraged them to swap tapes of those concerts with one another. It was a business model that flew in the face of the standard recording industry model of controlling all content--recorded or performed--but one that worked for them (as long as they were touring).
The Internet made it oh so easy to trade those recordings and, with the death of their leader Jerry Garcia, the band stopped touring, vowing that the Grateful Dead would never tour again. Well, sort of. Now they tour sans Garcia as "The Dead." But, as Reuters reporter Michael Kahn reported on today's wire (okay, Reuters used to be a "wire service"), the band failed in its attempts to limit the sharing of fan-made concert recordings online:
-
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 1 -- Facing a revolt by its famously faithful fans, the Grateful Dead backed away on Thursday from a move to block "Deadheads" from downloading the jam band's concert recordings free of charge.
The San Francisco Bay-based band had asked an independently run Web site to stop making thousands of the group's recordings available as free downloads. But the founder and director of the Web site (http://www.archive.org), Brewster Kahle, said in an online posting Thursday that free bootleg audience copies of the band's concerts had been restored.
Fans had reacted angrily to reports of the halt in free downloads, since the band had always encouraged fans to tape its concerts and then trade the tapes without charge. Some also threatened to stop buying merchandise in an online petition that quickly garnered more than 5,000 signatures.
"It appears doing the right things for the fans has given way to greed," the fan petition said.
...
"There was a consensus to address this issue and it got addressed," said band spokesman Dennis McNally. "We are confronting an entirely new set of circumstances with moving new music around."
In other words, their fans had grown far too accustomed to sharing these files, starting back when the files were audio tapes, and to block that sharing now turned out to be a breach of trust in the eyes of their fans.
Could this be a lesson for others who let people have content for free for years and then start trying to charge?
Posted by mills at 09:25 AM | Comments (1)
Another review of the Google presentations
Hi:
Here's a review of the Monday evening program from Rebecca Tushnet, who is married to Zach Schrag (in our department) and is an attorney who specializes in these sorts of things.
Also, I just created a new category, "copyright", and have gone back and recategorized some of our postings that deal with this issue so you can search back through the blog on this topic later on.
Mills
Posted by mills at 09:12 AM
December 01, 2005
Blah
Is anyone familiar enough with CSS to give me the hack to make Internet Explorer recognize my floats on my proposal? It looks fine in Safari, Netscape, and Firefox but stupid IE sucks.
Internet Explorer Doesn't Like Me
Help!
Meagan
Posted by mhess3 at 06:18 PM
Wikipedia is no good.... says he.
Posted by ashephe1 at 10:07 AM