HEADSHOT!
I'm not wasting my time at all! I'm educating myself in the pocesses of war! I believe I've logged enough hours playing FPS games to be considered an elite soldier. Because if games are educational and I play games I'm learned, right?
Eh, well I guess it's a little more complicated than that. Or so those DHers involved in playing and gaming would have me believe. Actually I don't think that those digital humanists behind gaming for education fully know what's at work, or what should be at work. Again this week the semanics of playing and gaming in the digital humanities seemed to be a hang up for those involved. Such a pedantic bunch! Disputes about serious games being an oxymoron. C'mon, I'm pretty sure you digital humanists get the jist of where your collegues are coming from and what their meaning is. The arguments about what is important in creating a truly educational game and how we can assess learning through games seem a little more pertinent than terminology.
What is an educational game? What is a persuasive game? Are they the same? I won't lie, Bogost was slightly confusing for me. Or maybe I'm just overthinking precedural rhetoric because I'm supposed to be the expert this week. I still dont know what exactly constitutes a solid educational game. But then again, maybe there is no one formula.
Maybe I AM a becoming and elite soldier because I'm learning some of the processes behind war. I know it's wise to move from cover to cover. I know that flanking makes the most sense. I know that you shouldnt enter a room in hostile territory blind. Breaking these rules gets you dead.
So many questions... I guess we could test whether I've become and elite soldier by dropping me into an actual battle but I'm not the biggest fan of this idea.
Similar parallels might be drawn between learning history through games in the classroom. I think first we have to decide what's important when teaching history. Then we have to consider what will work within the traditional institution. As things stand I would say that understanding historical processes is what's important in history. But the student doesnt really get into that until university. Until then history is content driven. While this might not be the best practice it makes sense for the design of the school system. Schools are based on testing and assessment. Can you imagine a school system that didnt rely on pitting us against one another in a competition for those oh so gratifying marks? A school where the children had fun learning? Where they showed up to class not because they were forced into it but because it's actually a better way to spend their time... Neither can I.
Saturday 29 October 2011
Wednesday 26 October 2011
Deadliest Warrior: Traditional Humanities Vs. Digital Humanities
Who IS the deadliest warrior?!
Pretty sure it's me but that's not the point.
I think this simulation business is pretty damn cool. And while I understand the draw backs (some of them have been voiced by me with regards to previous DH topics) they are meaning less and less. What is important is the new vehicles for conveying and interpreting historical data. Text is old news. A few weeks ago I probably would have been inclined to disagree. And while a part of me still does that part is getting easier and easier to silence.
I think the largest part of my enthusiasm for the digital humanities is that it is so much damn fun! This can't be work, can it? Am I even learning? Is what we're doing even constructive? How could that be when it's so enjoyable? Isn't history something that must be beaten into you? Any discussion I've ever had with a PhD candidate has led me to believe this is indeed the case. I also really enjoy the digital humanities because it speaks to such a wide audience. Again this might be because it's exciting and fun.
It speaks to a wide audience because it has applications that aren't at all limited to the ivory tower.
Take for example the simulation and the ABMs from this week. We can of course apply it to our humanities research (not just history) but I can see potential governmental applications. I mean, policy makers HAVE to use simulations in order to inform themselves, right? I don't see how they couldn't.
As of right now I'm excited for my playing and gaming seminar next week. We'll see if that changes over the course of the week though. Because ... what happens when play becomes work? Is it still play? I have a feeling I'll find out veeeery soon.
Pretty sure it's me but that's not the point.
I think this simulation business is pretty damn cool. And while I understand the draw backs (some of them have been voiced by me with regards to previous DH topics) they are meaning less and less. What is important is the new vehicles for conveying and interpreting historical data. Text is old news. A few weeks ago I probably would have been inclined to disagree. And while a part of me still does that part is getting easier and easier to silence.
I think the largest part of my enthusiasm for the digital humanities is that it is so much damn fun! This can't be work, can it? Am I even learning? Is what we're doing even constructive? How could that be when it's so enjoyable? Isn't history something that must be beaten into you? Any discussion I've ever had with a PhD candidate has led me to believe this is indeed the case. I also really enjoy the digital humanities because it speaks to such a wide audience. Again this might be because it's exciting and fun.
It speaks to a wide audience because it has applications that aren't at all limited to the ivory tower.
Take for example the simulation and the ABMs from this week. We can of course apply it to our humanities research (not just history) but I can see potential governmental applications. I mean, policy makers HAVE to use simulations in order to inform themselves, right? I don't see how they couldn't.
As of right now I'm excited for my playing and gaming seminar next week. We'll see if that changes over the course of the week though. Because ... what happens when play becomes work? Is it still play? I have a feeling I'll find out veeeery soon.
Wednesday 19 October 2011
Evernote...
Well I'm not as thrilled about this digital method as I have been about some of the past ones. I think it's probably because I destest organization. That must be it.
I have however used it to clip some web pages and I may continue to do so. Only time will tell. I mean as far as that goes bookmarks in my browser have served me well in the past. And as far as leaving notes for myself... well when I do use notes I'm apt to forget that I've created a note in the first place. And if I forget that I've made the note ... well generally by the time it comes up again it's become obsolete.
I understand how this might be a useful tool for those of us with a more organized life but it simply doesn't jive well with how I run the show.
Although my organizational skills are something I have intended to work on. Perhaps I'll give evernote a shot and see if it can do anything for me in this regard...though I am pretty set in my ways. Getting so old. Evernote certainly hasn't had that 'WOW THIS IS FKIN AWESOME!!!!@!#@#@' impact on me that some of the other digital methods have had. It might also be because I don't have a smart phone so I can not always be connected to Evernote.
Post Seminar....
Well Professor Kee telling us that this is one of his top drawer tools certainly got me rethinking the whole thing. Perhaps I will attempt to use it on a regular basis. I'm sure that once I've accustomized myself to it I will be singing a different tune.
I can see how it is useful to just jot down a note to refer to later, in the interests of not inturrupting flow. But it seems that this is a tool more suited to people who are always connected. This for me is not the case. Nevertheless I will make an attempt to make this tool work for me! Beyond the clipping, that is.
Well I'm not as thrilled about this digital method as I have been about some of the past ones. I think it's probably because I destest organization. That must be it.
I have however used it to clip some web pages and I may continue to do so. Only time will tell. I mean as far as that goes bookmarks in my browser have served me well in the past. And as far as leaving notes for myself... well when I do use notes I'm apt to forget that I've created a note in the first place. And if I forget that I've made the note ... well generally by the time it comes up again it's become obsolete.
I understand how this might be a useful tool for those of us with a more organized life but it simply doesn't jive well with how I run the show.
Although my organizational skills are something I have intended to work on. Perhaps I'll give evernote a shot and see if it can do anything for me in this regard...though I am pretty set in my ways. Getting so old. Evernote certainly hasn't had that 'WOW THIS IS FKIN AWESOME!!!!@!#@#@' impact on me that some of the other digital methods have had. It might also be because I don't have a smart phone so I can not always be connected to Evernote.
Post Seminar....
Well Professor Kee telling us that this is one of his top drawer tools certainly got me rethinking the whole thing. Perhaps I will attempt to use it on a regular basis. I'm sure that once I've accustomized myself to it I will be singing a different tune.
I can see how it is useful to just jot down a note to refer to later, in the interests of not inturrupting flow. But it seems that this is a tool more suited to people who are always connected. This for me is not the case. Nevertheless I will make an attempt to make this tool work for me! Beyond the clipping, that is.
Saturday 15 October 2011
Digital Smells like Revolution.
This weeks readings have got me excited ... and scared. The singularity approaches. That was all I could think while doing my work for this weeks seminar. Self replicating machines? Digitizing smell? Tranduction of energy? WHOA! Let's slow down here. I'm going to be living a a computer before I know it.
Despite my terror, or maybe because of the terror, I was fascinated by this weeks readings. What really got me was when Turkel advocated that we stop thinking of digitization in terms of immateriality and to instead think of it in terms of transduction of energy. It really did make me think of the singularity. I wonder if I'll see human minds merging with computers in my lifetime?
It kinda reminded me of this clip I happened upon a few weeks ago. In it scientists are recreating mental images by scanning people's brains.
I liked the concept of playing to learn as was laid out by Turkel and Elliot. We really have become dependent on text. And while I don't necessarily think this is terrible (we all know how to interact with it and what to expect.) I don't think that our predisposition towards text should limit us. Of course this is tough in the university setting which is based around age old practices and standards, but this needs to change. And digital humanities are evidence that it IS changing. By playing with history whether it's in simulations, through recreation of artefacts, by reconstructing historical expirements and smells or by mapping, we are able to develop new questions and approach history from new perspectives. Not to mention that we are often struck with our most profound and insightful thoughts when we aren't looking for them.
For some reason I don't really have any problems with the concepts put forward this week. That seems strange to me. I think I must be missing something! As Turkel had mentioned in his blog we can't predict the future, so we don't know how this self replicating technology will play out for the humanities, or society in general... although I s'pose society in general is a concern for humanists. Hopefully something will come up in our discussions. I wouldn't want to be wholeheartedly onboard with something.
Maybe I don't have a problem with the concepts this weeks because self replicating machines allow for wealth without money and the means of production will finally rest in the hands of the everyman! Down with capitalism, save the environment! RepRaps for all!!
Despite my terror, or maybe because of the terror, I was fascinated by this weeks readings. What really got me was when Turkel advocated that we stop thinking of digitization in terms of immateriality and to instead think of it in terms of transduction of energy. It really did make me think of the singularity. I wonder if I'll see human minds merging with computers in my lifetime?
It kinda reminded me of this clip I happened upon a few weeks ago. In it scientists are recreating mental images by scanning people's brains.
I liked the concept of playing to learn as was laid out by Turkel and Elliot. We really have become dependent on text. And while I don't necessarily think this is terrible (we all know how to interact with it and what to expect.) I don't think that our predisposition towards text should limit us. Of course this is tough in the university setting which is based around age old practices and standards, but this needs to change. And digital humanities are evidence that it IS changing. By playing with history whether it's in simulations, through recreation of artefacts, by reconstructing historical expirements and smells or by mapping, we are able to develop new questions and approach history from new perspectives. Not to mention that we are often struck with our most profound and insightful thoughts when we aren't looking for them.
For some reason I don't really have any problems with the concepts put forward this week. That seems strange to me. I think I must be missing something! As Turkel had mentioned in his blog we can't predict the future, so we don't know how this self replicating technology will play out for the humanities, or society in general... although I s'pose society in general is a concern for humanists. Hopefully something will come up in our discussions. I wouldn't want to be wholeheartedly onboard with something.
Maybe I don't have a problem with the concepts this weeks because self replicating machines allow for wealth without money and the means of production will finally rest in the hands of the everyman! Down with capitalism, save the environment! RepRaps for all!!
Monday 10 October 2011
Method's and Blogs - Detractions
Adobe Acrobat Pro. Well, after uh... borrowing the program... and using it instead of the reader to view my PDF articles, I can say it's definitely a step above. Clearly I haven't seen the full potential of the program yet. The OCR stuff kinda, sorta confuses me a bit. I'll have to talk to Spencer about it. Already though I am happy that I'm able to actually interact with my PDFs. Highlighting makes life so much simpler. And being able to add my own sticky notes where ever I want is great. Of course, I'll probably end up writing it all out into a notebook but... still pretty damn cool. It'd be interesting to see some articles thrown back into circulation with people's highlighting and side notes, almost like finding those awesome doodles or jot notes in the margins of old books. Sometimes it's pure gold. Other times it just has me flipping to page 65 ... then 110, 88, and 42 for no reason at all.
I can draw on the documents when I grow bored with them. I can stamp it or underline or strike text. So much fun to be hadruining enhancing documents! I can even attach recordings to the text. This Pro business is pretty nifty!
While playing with Pro I also learned that there's a read aloud option?! Probably not great for me to use as I won't actually absorb anything useful. But robot voices do soothe me, perhaps I've found a new way to fall asleep.
How much of this was available on the Reader, I don't know. But even if it was there it was never anything I used before the upgrade.
Just as an aside from reading William Turkel's blog. the IRISpen is effin AWESOME! I think I want to play with one. I'm sure it's well out of my price range, what with being a starving student an all, but it seems like a hella cool toy!
Blogoshpere
I've just come across a treasure trove of MRP related information through a blog. What has me particularly excited is a rendition of Haig's war diaries in the National Archives. I'm sure I would have been using this source in my MRP so it's pretty cool that I've come across an audio version online. Gotta love the blogosphere! The Great War Heroes blog, although dated, has a decent amount of information that is directly related to my MRP topic so I'm pretty happy with the find.
Another one I came across, Thoughts on Military History is pretty interesting for me, not because the material is relevant to my topic but because the approach is. Apparently the author of the blog is Ross Mahoney who is doing his PhD at the University of Birmingham. He is looking at the leadership effectiveness of Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh Mallory. This is along the lines of what I want to do with Sir Douglas Haig, in attempting to understand the leader to better understand their policies while at war. Leadership theory is something I'll have to look into further. He outlines his thesis on his blog and describes what he is doing, so I thought that was pretty cool.
I can draw on the documents when I grow bored with them. I can stamp it or underline or strike text. So much fun to be had
While playing with Pro I also learned that there's a read aloud option?! Probably not great for me to use as I won't actually absorb anything useful. But robot voices do soothe me, perhaps I've found a new way to fall asleep.
How much of this was available on the Reader, I don't know. But even if it was there it was never anything I used before the upgrade.
Just as an aside from reading William Turkel's blog. the IRISpen is effin AWESOME! I think I want to play with one. I'm sure it's well out of my price range, what with being a starving student an all, but it seems like a hella cool toy!
Blogoshpere
I've just come across a treasure trove of MRP related information through a blog. What has me particularly excited is a rendition of Haig's war diaries in the National Archives. I'm sure I would have been using this source in my MRP so it's pretty cool that I've come across an audio version online. Gotta love the blogosphere! The Great War Heroes blog, although dated, has a decent amount of information that is directly related to my MRP topic so I'm pretty happy with the find.
Another one I came across, Thoughts on Military History is pretty interesting for me, not because the material is relevant to my topic but because the approach is. Apparently the author of the blog is Ross Mahoney who is doing his PhD at the University of Birmingham. He is looking at the leadership effectiveness of Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh Mallory. This is along the lines of what I want to do with Sir Douglas Haig, in attempting to understand the leader to better understand their policies while at war. Leadership theory is something I'll have to look into further. He outlines his thesis on his blog and describes what he is doing, so I thought that was pretty cool.
Sunday 9 October 2011
Place? But I'm a Historian. Give me Time.
Well, I just finished the readings and I feel like I should spit something out while my head is still reeling.
First off, I've gotta hand it to Bodenhamer in the Introduction passage for pointing out that this whole
GIS approach doesn't necessarily jive well with humanists. Inputting data, grids, coordinates, NUMBERS?!
I don't know about the rest of you humanists but part of the reason I was drawn to the humanities was to seek refuge from numbers. And don't even get me started on using the numbers. Maths are the bane of my existence.
Needless to say I found this weeks topic slightly troublesome. Especially when Novack mentioned that GIS has a steep learning curve. Text encoding. Fine. GIS, not so much.
That being said, I will admit that there are some interesting implications to using maps. They do seem like they could be a big help in conceptualizing patterns over time. The consideration of place, especially situated in time seems so simple. But it's also something we as historians often overlook or take for granted. Yea it's something that we often to take into account but it's often cursory... And when references to place are embedded in the textual descriptions we often only formulate our conceptions of place in the broadest of terms. There's no doubt in my mind that GIS and interactive mapping will help to generate more of the questions that drive humanists in their quest for meaning. We can make concrete our conceptions of place in time, or over time. This is good, we are finally moving beyond text. In this post textual age the field needs to incorporate fresh methods. But, like I said... I don't particularly want to be the one doing the design work on the maps.
The concept of teamwork brought up in the Knowles reading is a good one. Perhaps it is time to dispel the age old image of the lone wolf historian. Perhaps this is something to think about in a graduate program. Interdisciplinary teams working together on a project. An historian working with a geographer and sociologist on an HGIS project could produce far more interesting results than teams made up of a few people from the same discipline. Although I'm sure there are bureaucratic hurdles that woulds prevent any such endeavor from being undertaken at a graduate student level.
I look forward to our discussion because like Val, this is all new to me. Our discussions certainly help me better understand some of the concepts being discussed in the readings. And I could definitely have a firmer grasp on all things GIS. Spencer's explanation of the Ngram in last weeks discussion for example made me realize that I had been placing too much scholarly weight on the tool. I should have taken it as something more akin to wikipedia than perhaps a peer reviewed journal article... to revert back to a more comfortable text based analogy. Although I still hold to true all of my rantings and ravings regarding distant reading and the proliferation of information!
First off, I've gotta hand it to Bodenhamer in the Introduction passage for pointing out that this whole
GIS approach doesn't necessarily jive well with humanists. Inputting data, grids, coordinates, NUMBERS?!
I don't know about the rest of you humanists but part of the reason I was drawn to the humanities was to seek refuge from numbers. And don't even get me started on using the numbers. Maths are the bane of my existence.
Needless to say I found this weeks topic slightly troublesome. Especially when Novack mentioned that GIS has a steep learning curve. Text encoding. Fine. GIS, not so much.
That being said, I will admit that there are some interesting implications to using maps. They do seem like they could be a big help in conceptualizing patterns over time. The consideration of place, especially situated in time seems so simple. But it's also something we as historians often overlook or take for granted. Yea it's something that we often to take into account but it's often cursory... And when references to place are embedded in the textual descriptions we often only formulate our conceptions of place in the broadest of terms. There's no doubt in my mind that GIS and interactive mapping will help to generate more of the questions that drive humanists in their quest for meaning. We can make concrete our conceptions of place in time, or over time. This is good, we are finally moving beyond text. In this post textual age the field needs to incorporate fresh methods. But, like I said... I don't particularly want to be the one doing the design work on the maps.
The concept of teamwork brought up in the Knowles reading is a good one. Perhaps it is time to dispel the age old image of the lone wolf historian. Perhaps this is something to think about in a graduate program. Interdisciplinary teams working together on a project. An historian working with a geographer and sociologist on an HGIS project could produce far more interesting results than teams made up of a few people from the same discipline. Although I'm sure there are bureaucratic hurdles that woulds prevent any such endeavor from being undertaken at a graduate student level.
I look forward to our discussion because like Val, this is all new to me. Our discussions certainly help me better understand some of the concepts being discussed in the readings. And I could definitely have a firmer grasp on all things GIS. Spencer's explanation of the Ngram in last weeks discussion for example made me realize that I had been placing too much scholarly weight on the tool. I should have taken it as something more akin to wikipedia than perhaps a peer reviewed journal article... to revert back to a more comfortable text based analogy. Although I still hold to true all of my rantings and ravings regarding distant reading and the proliferation of information!
Tuesday 4 October 2011
Method's and Blogs - Distractions.
The digital method this week included Wordle and Ngram. These tools gave us a feel for what textual analysis might entail. And while I can see how a wordle might be useful in a presentation I don't really expect to be using either of these tools all that often.
The Ngram Viewer was fun and it could be a great tool for seeking out trends... but how far is it to be trusted? When I clicked a certain set of years for a topic it turns back some of the results from Google Books. Depending on how refined or narrow your search is this could potentially turn back millions of results. What I'm curious about is why the first 10 results that pop up are the first 10 results? It can't really be relevance, especially in a broad search for the trends of certain terminology, as any result turning up that term should be just as relevant as the next. Unfortunately the Ngram info page didn't really shed any light on this for me.
Some Blogs and Twitter
I have continued combing through the World History Blog's old posts.. hundreds, scratch that, thousands- dating back to 2007, though the blog dates back as far as 2003. It is a great general history blog and touches on virtually every aspect relating to history. From the history of certain countries (Laos for example) to the programming on the hisory channel, to the horse, to digital humanities. This blog really does provide a broad range of material for anyone interested in the field of history in a more general sense.
I also checked out Professor Kee's page which I linked to through twitter. I reluctantly admit that I wasn't subscribed before this. I am now though. I promise!
I thought the post about the PhD track being aimed at becoming a tenured Professor was an interesting thing to turn up, as it was actually something I was thinking about over this past weekend. I wasn't thinking about it because I plan to do my PhD in history but rather, because I am not. This thought came about because of a TA workshop I had attended on Saturday morning. It seemed to me that the workshop was speaking to the TAs, many of whom are doing their masters, as if it was a given that everyone there would be interested in pursuing a PhD and becoming a Professor. I'm sorry but this just isn't the case. It's almost as if by pursuing a post grad (especially in history) you are simply taking workplace training, this isn't necessarily something I agree with. As was evident in Professor Kee's quoting of Grafton and Grosman they seemed to be indicating that this direct track to the ivory tower might even be limiting should the candidate decide they do not want to become a history Professor. There are other things you can do with history outside the ivory tower. And the skill set developed through the study of history is extremely adaptable and desirable in the wider world beyond the campus.Perhaps this fact should get more recognition within the department.
Not exactly the most 'on topic' entry but that's the beauty of blogs, ain't it?
The Ngram Viewer was fun and it could be a great tool for seeking out trends... but how far is it to be trusted? When I clicked a certain set of years for a topic it turns back some of the results from Google Books. Depending on how refined or narrow your search is this could potentially turn back millions of results. What I'm curious about is why the first 10 results that pop up are the first 10 results? It can't really be relevance, especially in a broad search for the trends of certain terminology, as any result turning up that term should be just as relevant as the next. Unfortunately the Ngram info page didn't really shed any light on this for me.
Some Blogs and Twitter
I have continued combing through the World History Blog's old posts.. hundreds, scratch that, thousands- dating back to 2007, though the blog dates back as far as 2003. It is a great general history blog and touches on virtually every aspect relating to history. From the history of certain countries (Laos for example) to the programming on the hisory channel, to the horse, to digital humanities. This blog really does provide a broad range of material for anyone interested in the field of history in a more general sense.
I also checked out Professor Kee's page which I linked to through twitter. I reluctantly admit that I wasn't subscribed before this. I am now though. I promise!
I thought the post about the PhD track being aimed at becoming a tenured Professor was an interesting thing to turn up, as it was actually something I was thinking about over this past weekend. I wasn't thinking about it because I plan to do my PhD in history but rather, because I am not. This thought came about because of a TA workshop I had attended on Saturday morning. It seemed to me that the workshop was speaking to the TAs, many of whom are doing their masters, as if it was a given that everyone there would be interested in pursuing a PhD and becoming a Professor. I'm sorry but this just isn't the case. It's almost as if by pursuing a post grad (especially in history) you are simply taking workplace training, this isn't necessarily something I agree with. As was evident in Professor Kee's quoting of Grafton and Grosman they seemed to be indicating that this direct track to the ivory tower might even be limiting should the candidate decide they do not want to become a history Professor. There are other things you can do with history outside the ivory tower. And the skill set developed through the study of history is extremely adaptable and desirable in the wider world beyond the campus.Perhaps this fact should get more recognition within the department.
Not exactly the most 'on topic' entry but that's the beauty of blogs, ain't it?
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