Month: September 2018

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Preparing for Week 4

This week we are looking at Github and the implications of creating an Open Notebook on the World Wide Web!  Here are some questions/ideas to consider when looking at this week’s readings.

1) What barriers are there to an open source notebook? Consider a collogue or academic that does not want their work to be shared? What implications does this have? Consider Ian Milligan’s article and this idea of, “it’s our data, we collected it, and if somebody else wants the data, they should collect it themselves.”. What about the articles from WIRED and how do they relate to the creation of barriers?

2) In a world such as ours with the explosion of social media and online presence, how must we consider moving forward with online collaboration? Much like the idea that we cannot live without Facebook, Twitter or Instagram will we eventually not be able to live in an academic world without online collaboration?

3) Is this view by Caleb McDaniel too optimistic, “The truth is that we often don’t realize the value of what we have until someone else sees it. By inviting others to see our work in progress, we also open new avenues of interpretation, uncover new linkages between things we would otherwise have persisted in seeing as unconnected, and create new opportunities for collaboration with fellow travelers. These things might still happen through the sharing of our notebooks after publication, but imagine how our publications might be enriched and improved if we lifted our gems to the sunlight before we decided which ones to set and which ones to discard?” Do you think that others (in the academic sphere) have similar views? If not, why do you think this is?

4) These articles ask us to imagine Github used in a wide spread context amongst the world of Education. Considering the challenges that we have faced in class (and during our own time), do you think that Github will become wide spread? What are some tools that could assist the push of Digitizing History?

Final Food for Thought!

Digitizing history can add many values to our work as historians but consider the previous power outage. What will happen to our work if something happens to the internet? Further more, what will happen to our pre-existing institutions, if we move towards total internet collaboration and hosting (i.e the library and archives)?

Happy Reading!

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About Me: Jessica Huang

Hello, readers! My name is Jessica, and I am an undergraduate student in HIST4006: Digitizing Medieval Manuscripts. I’m looking forward to uncovering what these mysterious folios have to offer us over the next few months.

My academic and professional interests are wide-ranging, but primarily centre on queer history, public history, collections management, and heritage conservation. I am invested in finding creative, meaningful ways to foster engagement with history and connecting communities with the past, whether that’s in a formal or informal learning environment.

My hobbies include reading, listening to podcasts, and playing games (tabletop and video), and I have an immense soft spot for speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror, etc). I love, particularly, games and fiction that play with expectations and do interesting things with the established tropes of their genres.

On weekends, I can typically be found holed up underground with my fellow mole people at the Diefenbunker, Canada’s Cold War Museum, in Carp, ON. If you would like to connect with me, I can also be found on twitter at @idigmanuscripts.

 

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Hi Everybody!

I moved to Ottawa from Aylmer, Ontario four years ago to pursue a History B.A. Honours at Carleton University. My areas of interest are quite wide-ranging as my previous courses include discussions on the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Vikings’ arrival in Britain, France after 1871 and a thorough history of Russia. I prefer to engage with various areas, periods and approaches to history because this helps to broaden my view on the world. I found it fascinating to take two courses on late nineteenth/early twentieth century Ireland at the same time as I learned about similar events from a male-centred narrative alongside a neglected, less traditional female viewpoint.

I centred my fourth year on two seminars entitled American Madness and Digitizing Medieval Manuscripts. Though these classes sound incredibly different from each other their relationship to the present (along with my interest) links them together. Given mental illness’ awareness in our society I want to investigate exactly how people treated and understood mental illness in the past. The course’s specific focus in America feels suitable, as U.S. history—from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement—has been a reoccurring subject throughout my undergraduate degree.

Digitizing Medieval Manuscripts stood out due to the rising growth in digital history and my own personal aspirations for a graduate degree in Library Sciences. Through this course I hope to explore a new technological world and develop important skills to carry on after graduation. Additionally, my interest in the medieval significantly increased during my year in the United Kingdom where I investigated popular accounts of ‘ghost stories’ and religious vs. societal ideas around sanctity.

Finally, as an avid reader I love uncovering the ‘story’ within historical documents, events and people. I hope to one-day work in an environment (whether that is a library, a museum or an archive) in which I can surround myself daily with documents and artefacts that make history come alive.

 

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Getting to know Trina

Trina Etmanskie

Aspiring teacher, current student.

My name is Trina and I am one of the students currently working on digitizing Medieval Manuscripts! This semester I have found myself discovering what lies behind the words in this manuscript. 

I am working towards finishing my undergraduate degree with hopes in starting a Bachelor of Education in September 2019. I am interested in learning new skills and techniques that I could apply to a classroom setting. My goal is to become an elementary school teacher in Ontario. My hope is that I can apply new, technological ways of research into the classroom even for those at a young age.

My academic interests are public history, understanding digital history as a tool for storytelling and introducing technology into the history classroom. My goal is to gain a knowledge base that will allow me to further my interest in education reform as well as utilize tools of digital history to inform and teach new, young learners. History is not of the past but of the present! With the correct tools, the young minds of tomorrow can truly grasp and understand the past in new lights.

My main area of study in my academics lays in the sphere of public history. It is interesting to begin to understand how we have displayed history in the public eyes. Although we can all view history (as it happens around us every moment) there are few moments that are preserved. Why do we choose these moments? And how do we preserve them? Further more, what does the way in which we preserve these moments say about us as a society?

I have knowledge using:

Twine

Github

Languages such as Markdown and basic Javascript

“There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.”

– Jiddu Krishnamurti

Follow me along this academic journey as I work towards the task of discovering what medieval folio I have stumbled upon! I will be posting on Twitter and my blog with up to date information along this digital journey.

Twitter: @TEtmanskie

Here’s me!
Follow our Twitter to stay up to date with our journey: https://twitter.com/MdvlBook

 

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About Me: Paige Bryenton

Hello, my name is Paige Bryenton and I am a 4th year History major with a minor in Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Carleton University. My educational interests surround  relationships and sexuality in the medieval era. I am also interested in the Roman Empire and 18th century Britain.

In my fourth year, I am trying to narrow down what I would like to study and I would like to specialize in after my undergrad. I have narrowed my scope to the medieval era, specifically relationships and sexuality. I am taking a course called Digitizing Medieval Manuscripts which I think will help build my knowledge of this field and the possible careers that could be in store for someone with a History degree.

Some hobbies I have include playing board games. Some favourites include Settlers of Catan, Lords of Waterdeep, and Mysterium. I also play Dungeons & Dragons and enjoy the fantasy culture surrounding that which ties into my love of history quite well.