Learning Objectives

Overall Scope

In HIS 5595, we will analyze the changes that new media and technology tools are bringing to the field of history.

The “digital shift” of the last three decades has raised interesting possibilities and questions about how we can research, write, learn, and teach about the past. Participants will explore key theoretical and historical issues linked to this digital shift, examine the designed uses (and re-appropriations) for a variety of digital tools, and develop new skills that could prove useful for your work as historians. You will not only engage in class discussions, but also “do” history online through social media, storytelling, visualizations, and other digital platforms.

To this end, we will discuss how digital tools affect research, scholarship, engagement with diverse audiences, and how we deal with sources. Readings will include a broad range of topics that shows the expansive nature of digital history.

Primary Objective

To evaluate the ways in which digital tools have (or have not) transformed the field of history

Specific objectives for this course
1. Participants should be able to…assess in what ways digital tools have reshaped the history profession
2. Participants should be able to…think critically about how technology shapes our access to and interpretations of the past (incl. ethical concerns)
3. Participants should be able to…identify specific tools for rethinking how we research, teach, produce, and learn history
4. Participants should be able to…develop a sense of their own “digital” identity as historians

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