Civic Engagement

Art Museum Images in Scholarly Publishing

Public History as Deep Play

On the march toward Monday's conversation about popular historymakers and authenticity, check out this article in today's New York Times.

Museum/Exhibit Reviews

Toward identifying a museum or exhibit to review, consider this list of regional sites culled from a recent Inquirer listing.

Popularity, part II

A lot of the fun in blogging results from discovering how diverse one's audience can be. But how do you know who's reading what you write? If you'd like to get a sense for who is visiting your blog, when they visit, and what they do while there, consider using a free web tracker. There are many of these available--Google "free web tracker" for a sample. I've had good luck with StatCounter. Most of these will provide easy instructions for setting up your tracker. Once you do, I think you'll be surprised by what you learn.

Lump of Coal

Check out this new take on Becker's "Everyman his Own Historian" fresh from the pen of AHA president and historian extraordinaire, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Does Ulrich's analysis require that we rethink last week's discussion?

For a good sum-up on THE problem facing Philadelphia public historians right now, check out Dana Dorman's recent post.

Popularity!

How quickly your blog appears in a Google search depends, in part, on how many websites link to your own. Toward building your popularity, and your peers' popularity too, try linking to one another's blogs. You're all linked on Temple's public history website and our course dashboard--try linking to those sites as well for added search hits. And, how about the Wagner? And, etc., etc., etc...

If you are trying to copy and paste your blog posts from Microsoft Word and finding that it isn't working properly, paste it into ms notepad first, then paste it into the blog.

Wagner Plan

Great discussion today! Here's a reminder of how I'd like you to proceed with the Wagner project. By September 28, each team must:

1. meet outside of class and discuss strategy for moving forward;
2. initiate a preliminary review of relevant photograph/video policies;
3. devise a work plan that identifies how your team will proceed. This should include a tentative statement of goals and a clear explanation of how each member will contribute to the project;
4. submit to me a written summary of #2 and #3.

Also, be prepared with questions for the Wagner's staff and start thinking about how virtual copyright and usage rights may bear on your project.

September 21 Readings

The link to Kim and Jamal's "Touristic Quest for Existential Authenticity" in our syllabus is broken. Click here for the pdf.

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to post here and say I've been messing with my blog for the past few hours. the formatting won't work properly but I wanted it to be up for you all to read. Trust me when I say I do write with capital letters. I'll keep trying to fix the formatting but it's up.

Best,

Javier

Hi everyone ~ I have a quick housekeeping note.  The need arose to migrate my blog.  You will find it now at http://wyndsofhistory.blogspot.com/  ~ Lyndsey

The Weeks Ahead

Thanks everyone for forwarding your blog urls. You'll notice that links to your blogs now appear on our course dashboard. Explore each other's posts, sign on as followers, and make a point of keeping up with your classmates' updates. Also, feel free to explore new blog templates as the semester progresses. How you present your thoughts can be as important as the thoughts themselves. To change your blog's layout, explore Blogger's template tab. Those of you with html background can fine-tune your blog with code. For the rest of you, tools like PsycHo provide a fun way to develop and explore new layouts.

As I mentioned at our last meeting, although we will not have a regular class meeting this week, we will be visiting the Wagner Free Institute on 9/11 to discuss our semester project. Meet me in the History Department lobby at 1:30 and we'll walk over together.

Also, as you've probably inferred, I will use our course dashboard as my primary means for communicating with the class. Check here often for updates. I also recommend subscribing to the RSS feed (see upper left portion of dashboard) to have updates appear in your preferred feed reader. Please ask me if any/all of this doesn't make sense and I'll be sure you get up to speed asap.

See you Friday!

Tech Workshops

Temple's Computer Services will be offering a number of technology workshops this semester that will not only help you think about the possibilities for new media in public history, but will also enhance your ability to develop a media-rich final presentation in conjunction with our Wagner project. You will receive one point for completing any of the sessions listed below and providing evidence that you have. This is not a required assignment, but I encourage all of you to attend as many of these sessions as possible--especially because they are free!

Point-worthy sessions include:

• Welcome to Final Cut Pro!
• Welcome to Audacity! The Audio Production Solution
• Learn How to Podcast Like a Pro in 60 Minutes!
• Utilizing Social Media: How Can Social Media Tools Work for You?
• Dreamweaver CS3 series
• The 60 Minute Graphics Series: Scan and Color Correct a Photograph

To learn more about each session, view schedules, and register, visit the TU Seminars & Workshops calendar. Search for the above sessions by entering each title in the "keyword search" field.