museumsandtheweb.com - history

Blogging the Past: Recreating History and Creating Community with Bound for South Australia

dpeacock — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 05:10:21 +0000

MW2012

Darren Peacock, Sweet Technology with Margaret Anderson and Allison Russell, History SA, Australia

http://www.boundforsouthaustralia.net.au

Abstract

Bound for South Australia 1836 is a digital reenactment of the sea voyages made 175 years ago to establish the British Province of South Australia. Using captains’ logs, passenger diaries, letters, and other original source material, the Bound for South Australia blog retraced—through weekly real-time updates—the journeys made by nine vessels from England to Australia between February and December 1836. Over ten months, website visitors, email subscribers, and social media followers were able to relive and engage with the unfolding story of the first 500 settlers as they made their way to an unknown land across the globe. The Bound for South Australia experiment demonstrates the possibilities of history to engage and connect communities using contemporary web technologies. It explores blogging as a narrative form and shows how the retelling of historical events can create and sustain communities of interest and identity.

Program Item Reference:

CANCELLED Blogging the past: Recreating history and creating community with Bound for South Australia 1836

dpeacock — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 22:57:30 +0000

MW2012

Published Paper:

Blogging the Past: Recreating History and Creating Community with Bound for South Australia

Keywords:

blog

Keywords:

history

Keywords:

learning

Keywords:

schools

Keywords:

curriculum

Keywords:

Wordpress

Abstract:

THIS SESSION HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND THE AUTHORS' CONTROL, BUT YOU CAN STILL READ THE PAPER.

Bound for South Australia 1836 (www.boundforsouthaustralia.net.au) is a digital reenactment of the sea voyages made 175 years ago to establish the British Province of South Australia. Using captains’ logs, passenger diaries, letters and other original source material, the Bound for South Australia blog retraces -through weekly real time updates- the journeys made by nine vessels from England to Australia between February and December 1836. Over ten months in 2011, website visitors, email subscribers and social media followers were able to re-live and engage with the unfolding story of the first 500 settlers as they made their way to an unknown land across the globe. The blog platform and associated social web technologies enabled active user participation and promoted the development of diverse communities of interest which in turn inspired an associated exhibition, schools program and public events. In 2012, a supporting video conference-based program will enable schools to participate remotely as part of their use of this resource.

The project has been very successful in bringing new life and new people to traditionally inaccessible historical material. Much of this material has not been published before or made accessible online. One of the goals of the project has been to demonstrate how social web technologies can bring new life and opportunities for engagement with traditional historical source materials. The multiple perspectives of the various passengers (recast here as posthumous bloggers) create a multi-faceted narrative of life on board and of the hopes and motivations of these first settlers, as they endure the travails of a months-long sea voyage, visit exotic ports of call and finally make landfall. Once ashore, these accounts provide unique insights into early encounters with Indigenous inhabitants and the challenges of establishing a European-style settlement in unfamiliar lands. The serialised delivery of these stories in a blogging format enables a narrative approach that is more contingent, open ended – and dramatic- than traditional discursive presentations of historical events.

Bound for South Australia is also explicitly addressed to both schools-based and general users, with parallel blog posts each week. The website has been selected as the first online resource in the area of history for the new national Australian curriculum. The granular structuring of content, the use of rich media and embedded curriculum links support many forms of flexible re-use within different digital learning environments.

The website is a highly customised implementation of the Wordpress blogging platform integrating a unique set of widgets to support complex semantic linking of source material to create an enduring resource for scholars and school students alike.

This presentation explores how this project demonstrates the possibilities of history to actively engage and connect communities using contemporary web technologies. It considers blogging as a narrative form and how the retelling of historical events can create and sustain communities of interest and identity. It also examines the dynamics of online communities around historical source material. The project and the presentation point to future models of digital historical narrative and interpretive practice that are open, social and interactive.

Type:

Demonstration - show your project

MW2012 Demonstrations I

Site:

http://www.boundforsouthaustralia.net.au

Authors:

Darren Peacock

Margaret Anderson

Allison Russell

Gaming the museum

dannybirchall — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:55:53 +0000

MW2011

Martha Henson and Danny Birchall, Wellcome Collection, United Kingdom

http://www.wellcomecollection.org/

Abstract

What makes a good museum game? Credible learning outcomes, compelling gameplay, or sympathy between the two? During 2010 and 2011, Wellcome Collection have been developing a series of games. In this paper and the workshop, we present four games of very different types as examples of our work so far and attempt to outline some of the underlying principles that have guided it. In the workshop itself, we will brainstorm the ways in which a variety of game platforms and formats might, or might not, work with the themes and content of museums and archives.

Keywords: games, strategy, education, archives, history, syndication

Program Item Reference:

Gaming the museum

Bringing Citizen Scientists and Historians Together

foeromeo — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:08:39 +0000

MW2011

Fiona Romeo and Lucinda Blaser, National Maritime Museum, United Kingdom

http://www.oldweather.org | http://www.solarstormwatch.com

Abstract

This paper outlines how citizen science projects Solar Stormwatch and Old Weather play to the potentially different motivations of science and history enthusiasts. It draws on informal feedback from the forums and other social channels but also references well-documented crowdsourcing projects Galaxy Zoo and the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program. It concludes with recommendations for attracting both lightweight contributions and sustained collaboration in online volunteering projects.

Keywords: citizen science, crowdsourcing, digitisation, communities, science, history

Program Item Reference:

Bringing citizen scientists and historians together

DocsTeach

SIsaacs — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:21:14 +0000

MW2011

Keywords:

education

Keywords:

education

Keywords:

history

Keywords:

lessons

Keywords:

educational interactives

Abstract:

The U.S. National Archives’ new website DocsTeach.org invites teachers to bring history to life for their students and gives them a powerful set of tools that they can use to create rich, interactive online learning activities. From the home page, teachers can search for activities ready to use in the classroom, begin to explore the more than 3,500+ documents featured from the holdings of the National Archives, or even create their own fun and engaging activities.

Type:

Demonstration - show your project

Demonstrations II

Site:

http://docsteach.org

Authors:

Suzanne Isaacs

Stephanie Greenhut

Bringing citizen scientists and historians together

foeromeo — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 00:54:14 +0000

MW2011

Published Paper:

Bringing Citizen Scientists and Historians Together

Keywords:

citizen science

Keywords:

crowdsourcing

Keywords:

motivations

Keywords:

history

Keywords:

science

Keywords:

transcription

Abstract:

The National Maritime Museum invited the Naval-History.net community to join the Zooniverse citizen science platform to help extract meteorological data from historic ship logs. The data generated via the Old Weather website will be used by scientists at the Met Office to build better climate models. The project will also deliver a reusable infrastructure for distributed transcription.

The motivations of volunteers in established astronomy projects, such as Galaxy Zoo, are well understood and described in a comprehensive study (Galaxy Zoo: Exploring the Motivations of Citizen Science Volunteers). This paper will explore the – potentially – different motivations of the Naval-History.net community, paying particular attention to informal interactions between science and history enthusiasts on the forums.

It will be written in collaboration with community leaders from both Naval-History.net and the Zooniverse, and with reference to other distributed transcription projects, such as the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program and Transcribe Bentham.

Sites to be discussed:

Type:

Paper - in formal session

User-Generated Community

Site:

http://www.oldweather.org

Authors:

Fiona Romeo

Lucinda Blaser

19th Century Whaling Through a Child's Eyes: an Interactive Exhibit

ncole — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 13:44:20 +0000

MW2011

Keywords:

whaling

Keywords:

history

Keywords:

journal

Keywords:

children

Keywords:

families

Abstract:

In 1868, a young girl from Edgartown Massachusetts embarked on a 3 year whaling voyage with her father, the Captain, mother, and brother. While on board, she kept a journal as part of her schooling. The journal remains and provides a unique perspective on the 19th century American whaling industry. This website showcases the journal to draw children and families into a wider context of historical information. Featured in an interactive and engaging way with audio, transcriptions, links and other features, the journal leads the visitor deep into the history of whaling. Using both primary sources and interpretation, broader historical and scientific context provides a backdrop to the personal narrative of young Laura Jernegan. Additional interactive features, including a ship, maps, and whales, as well as biographies, illustrations, artifacts and more provide many ways to explore the subject.

Type:

Demonstration - show your project

Demonstrations II

Site:

http://www.girlonawhaleship.org/

Authors:

Nancy Cole

Juliet Jacobson

Leveling the Playing Field: Empowering Learners with Primary Sources

jtrant — Wed, 02 May 2007 00:57:39 +0000

Copeland, C., Shah R., Bojkov P., Ellis D., & Foster G. L. (2005). Leveling the Playing Field: Empowering Learners with Primary Sources. (Trant, Jennifer, David Bearman, Ed.).Museums and the Web 2005: Proceedings.