Note: Introductions

1. As I already noted, you could watch my old ELI (NOVA Online) introduction video.Years ago when I was teaching distance courses, I used television programs with my own television lectures and then later audio lectures to supplement the required textbook reading in my courses. Those videos and audio clips were once available on ItunesU (I am not sure if that resources is still available.) Actually, little of that material is relevant to this course, but you might find the old introduction video interesting. (That video is also on YouTube.) But take a moment and recognize how useful a digital tool like YouTube (or ItunesU) can be to distribute content.

2. Watch my new intro video on NVCC's ItunesU, which I made with Snapz Pro. The video is also available on YouTube. Because it is easier to use, I now use YouTube for all of my videos.

3. As I note on the course home page (syllabus): "This course will explore the development of the field of digital history and examine the impact of digital media on the research, writing, teaching and presentation of history.  It also introduces students to issues in digital history such as copyright, intellectual property, information abundance, and how the web has changed the relationship between historians and their audience.  Students will also learn how digital tools and resources are enabling new methods of historical analysis and presentation." Specifically, what we try to do in this course is to use digital tools and techniques to find new approaches to understanding and interpreting the past. The entire field of digital studies aka digital humanities aka digital history is still very new and boundaries, techniques, definitions and ideas are still being worked out. For a moment consider the digital world and remember that the first websites didn't appear until the mid-1990s, the first blogs maybe the turn of the century, mp3s by 1999, YouTube and digital video in 2005, the ipad--2010. Yes, things change fast, and the task of trying to adapt these tools to the study of history has also been moving along fast.

5. So, hopefully, for everyone, this course is really a course of discovery. I am discovering things in the digital world all the time, and as you also find things, please let me know.