Wikipedia: How History is Meant to Work

I will be the first to admit that if I want knowledge about a particular event in history, Wikipedia is the first place I look. I often find myself looking to Wikipedia to expand on or clarify some question I may have about a historical event. I was recently watching The Perfect Storm on TV, and wanted to read a bit more about the event, and clarify a few things I saw in the movie. Wikipedia is convenient, easily accessible, and I believe most of it is accurate. In college, we are all warned about using Wikipedia, especially when writing a paper, or conducting research. I would never cite Wikipedia as a source of information 1) because it is hard to tell where exactly the information came from, and 2) I would not be 100 percent sure the information was accurate. However, if you think about it....how do we know that anything is 100 percent accurate unless we witnessed it ourselves. History is constantly changing, and being reviewed and revised by people who have discovered some new piece of the puzzle. In the Sheets article, he mentions a book titled, Telling the Truth About History. I had to read this book in a Historical Methods class at ETSU. I actually enjoyed the book, because it helped me understand a bit more about how we write about history, and how it is a collaborative effort. I think history is a story told from many different perspectives, and we have to keep that in mind we we view Wikipedia, or any other source from that matter. I believe Wikipedia can be very useful in the social studies classroom, and I think it should be used to help students understand how historians go about writing the histories that we are reading in our history classes. There are some downfalls to using Wikipedia for information, for example, Rosenzweig warns that Wikipedia is open source, and information can be added or deleted by anyone. This can be very problematic, and could provide completely false information. However, one positive aspect of this is that it becomes a collaborative effort. Many different people can come in and add or edit information to provide a more accurate telling of the story. Wikipedia allows students to easily explore an interest, and it also provides references for further exploring. It can also point students to other related events or people, and it can really help students gain a full understanding of an event. Ryle and Snowdon's article, I believe, gives Wikipedia credit for helping students understand the "how" and not just the "that". It allows students to see how historians go about compiling information, and forming their research into a coherent story. It allows the to see how they get to the "that". I think knowledge is more than just facts, I believe it is how we organize those facts to understand the deeper meaning of an event. Knowledge is the "how" that comes from the "that". Meaning knowledge is how we organize all of the information in a way that we can recall this information and apply it to different situations.

My policy on using wikipedia in the classroom will be this: only use wikipedia as a means of located other sources of information, and never directly cite wikipedia as a source in any work. I think wikipedia can serve as a good stepping stone to other, better sources of information, such as newspaper articles or government documents. However, I think that it is too dangerous to allow students to use wikipedia as a source for any paper or project. Not to mention, I think it will do them a disservice when they reach the college level and are told never to use wikipedia as a source. I do, however, think that wikipedia can be a good way to show students how collaboration in history works. Much of the history we know has been edited and added to over time. New information is discovered, theories are overturned, and facts are further supported. A creative way to use wikipedia in the classroom would be to have students work together on a paper, or project and have students proofread and edit each others work. First, I would provide the students with some background information on wikipedia and how it works, as well as give them the specifics of how I want them to collaborate on their assignment. I will specify how many times the work should be edited by other group members, and how to address areas of disagreement. I think this will be a good way to teach students to collaborate, as well as give them a taste of what other historians do everyday. I think as part of the assignment I would also have them describe their process and their feelings on collaborating, such as what was easy or what was difficult about it. I think this will really get them to think more critically about where they get information, and will cause them to look more critically at open-source information, such as wikipedia.

Beautiful Data

I've never really thought about data being beautiful, but when I think about charts, graphs, or other representations of data I think about what aspects of these representations caught my attention and why. After reading more about what makes data beautiful, it makes sense that it is not just about the colors, its about how the information is represented. The visual must speak the "language of the eye" and the "language of the mind" simultaneously, as suggested by David McCandless. It is important to represent the data in a way that is easily understood, and provides all the necessary information. However, it should be visually appealing. As Noah Lliinsky suggests, data "must be aesthetically pleasing, yes, but it must also be novel, informative, and efficient." Beautiful data should possess all of these qualities. It should be innovative, and should attempt to convey information in a new way. He uses the periodic table and the map of the London Underground as examples of data having these components. Data should also be informative. If the data has no purpose their is not point in displaying it. And it should also be efficient, and easy to understand. A good example of beautiful data is the Geograph project underway in Great Britain and Ireland. The way the data is represented is beautiful, novel, informative, and efficient. The maps they are creating are packed with a great deal of information about the geography throughout Great Britain, and the geography can be seen and not just described. The pictures that are being collected for this project are beautiful, but they are also informative.
Matthias Shapiro believes that data should tell a story, which begins with answering a single question that you will answer through data. He informs the reader of the step by step process to creating a visualization. There have been many changes that have taken place in the field of data visualization through the years, but the purpose of organizing and representing data has always been.
Visualizations serve a great purpose: to inform. However, as we read in the Dragga and Voss essay, sometimes the viewer can be manipulated and mislead. It is important to look at data representations with a critical eye, so that we are in control of the information we absorb and are able to analyze it in a way that presents the truth.

As far a using data visualizations in the classroom, I think it is a great way to get them to think more critically about the information they take in. You can teach them to ask questions about visuals, and look at them with a critical eye. In history, it is a little harder I think to use visuals in the classroom, and since data representation is not our focus as history teachers, I think we have to be very careful how much time we spend on such a topic. I think it would be a good idea to have them analyze some visual representation in their textbook at the beginning of the semester. I think this would go well with teaching them how to use the textbook, and how to take information from it. I think you could let them choose any visual in the text book, and have them analyze it based on Lliinsky's 4 components of a good visual. I think this would be a quick assignment, but would also be very informative and engaging.

Are images invisible?

I am a very photographic learner, so seeing images helps me understand more about the written word and helps me make deeper connections to the material. At the same time, it makes sense that sometimes visuals can be invisible to the learner. The Burke article suggested that, “historians do not take the evidence of images seriously”. I thought this was strange, but when I thought about it you rarely see visuals alone to describe history. Images are usually accompanied by words that tell the story, and the images are just used as representations or depictions to support what is written. We rarely let the images tell the story themselves. Images have served important roles in telling the stories of the past since before the Renaissance. Back then images often told stories by themselves. A person could gain an understanding of a battle by looking at a series of images, but somehow images have become less important as prose has risen in prominence. “As one historian puts it, historians prefer to deal with texts or political and economic facts, not the deeper levels of experience that images probe.” Images can serve as a form of evidence to back up written word, and that is what we see now. There are many types of visuals that can tell stories of the past. Painters could also be considered historians. The history these kinds of artists usually represented was that of national history. They would paint images of war victories. A single image, to a series of images, then a strip narrative can tell the story of what did happen, or in many cases what should have happened. Many images of the past were used a propaganda. The Bayeux Tapestry is an important example of a strip narrative and explains a great deal about the Norman Conquest in England. Even still, the images must be placed in their proper context, and it is necessary to understand who created the images and where. The Werner article encourages teachers to use the images in textbooks as a way to teach their students about the past, not just to “lighten the word” or support the story.
Using images, and allowing students to draw on their own interpretations of the images enables helps achieve the goal of depth of knowledge and higher order thinking, not just the learning of facts. Students must know that they have the authority and capacity to assess the meaning of an image.In the Staley article, Edward Tufte calls images that are meant to convey information, “cognitive art.” Images in books like The Rise of the West are meant to be cognitive art. Staley believes that cognitive art and information images, such as maps, are a serious form of representation in history. Staley suggests that images can accomplish things that written prose can’t. They can depict dimensionality and structures when prose cannot always accurately describe these things.

Looking at ways to use visuals in the classroom, I think as assignment similar to one we just did would be very beneficial and a wonderful and engaging learning experience. I thought that it would be really good to do a visual assignment in a US History class when I would be teaching about the 1960's. There are so many defining images of that era, and visuals can say so much about the changing times that American's faced. I would assign a project in which my students had to find an image representing some part of the 1960's, and they would analyze the image, as well as provide contextual information, and present the image and their research to the class. I think this would be a very interesting assignment, it would be brief, but would convey a lot of information in a little bit of time. I really may keep this idea in mind when teaching about the 1960's.

On Technology and Lincoln...

As I was completing the reading, I couldn't help but think of just how modern of a president Lincoln was. You could compare his dedication to the war effort, and his determination to play and active role and be informed to our more recent presidents. It brought to mind the images of President Bush meeting with generals from Afghanistan and Iraq, and it also brought to mind the recent image of President Obama sitting with members of his Cabinet around a TV watching the events of Osama Bin Laden's capture and death unfold. Lincoln was definitely innovative, being the "only president to hold a patent." His experiences with the development and progress of the railroad, or "iron horse", show just how in tune he was with technology. He spent more hours in the telegraph office than anywhere else during the Civil War, and he was determined to learn the skills necessary to use it himself. Most news travelled by messengers on horseback, which delayed any action on the front lines. Once the telegraph came into play, the troops could move quickly, and the War Department could gain the necessary information to keep things working in their favor. The entire outcome of the war, as well as Lincoln's presidency was affected by the telegraph. I can't really think of a downside to having the telegraph, other than having information leak, which we learned was not a problem during its early years. Lincoln was definitely the first modern president, and one who helped bring about progress in America.

Follow up:
I think our groups instructional idea to teach how the telegraph revolutionized war, and changed how troops fought and how they moved is a great pedagogical idea. I think you can compare and contrast the Civil War to prior wars, such as the Revolutionary War, and get students to think critically about how the telegraph impacted the changes that took place. You can give examples of how the telegraph helped the president execute commands quickly, and get word to people on the field quickly. You can have the students analyze telegrams relating directly to battlefield events and discuss how the telegraph influenced the situation. You can then hold a class discussion about the impact of the telegraph and about changes in warfare. Having the students work in groups and answer questions about a particular telegram sent during the war is a good way to assess their learning of the material and to see how well they understand the changes that took place between the Civil War and previous wars.

The Duke/UNC Rivalry

Continuing with our discussion of using the senses to teach history, we were assigned a project in which we would create a soundscape, relating to some area of local interest. Of course, being the Duke fan that I am, I chose to use the Duke/UNC rivalry as the basis for my soundscape. I am attempting to inform people about the rivalry through sound alone. It was a fun project. Anyone who loves basketball knows that there are a great deal of sounds associated with the sport, and especially Duke and Carolina. These two teams have a long history and have created a very unique culture in North Carolina. I hope you all enjoy this brief history lesson, and I hope it gets you all excited for this upcoming basketball season. It did me!

Well, its not giving me and option to upload my soundscape, so until then you can just imagine what it would sound like....sorry!

The first clip is one that I found on Youtube of Bob Harris giving the play-by-play of the famous Christian Leattner shot vs. Kentucky in the regional finals of the NCAA tournament in 1992. Bob Harris is the voice of the Duke Radio network, and has become quite the historic figure himself, following the Blue Devils to all 4 NCAA titles. The second clip is one that I recorded of the Cameron Crazies doing one of their famous chants at a basketball game (You can hear me in the background!). The third clip is another clip I found on Youtube about the rivalry between Duke and UNC. This is the longest clip and you hear from players of both teams, as well as Dick Vitale, who we know gets a little too excited about the big game! This is followed by the Carolina Fight Song (I had to be fair!), and then a sound clip of my brother shooting around in our church gym. Hope you enjoy!

Historical Senses

For an assignment in one of my graduate classes at NC State, we were assigned to read several articles about the senses in relation to history. We all know the 5 senses: touching, smelling, hearing, seeing, tasting. We probably learned these many years ago in elementary school, and some of us may have even learned a song to help us remember them. I have never thought about the deeper use of the senses in history. Its just not something that was ever mentioned in any of my history courses. I guess it is just understood that we use our senses to make judgements and analyze situations. The readings were very interesting, and I would like to post several things that caught my attention while reading.

First, in James Cook's essay titled, Seeing the Visual in U.S. History, I was struck by his use of Mark Smith's quote that, "We have lost sight of other ways to understand beyond vision." Again, I have never given these ideas much thought, but he is completely right. We neglect so many of our other senses, and rely solely on our sight to make judgements, assumptions, and gain knowledge about people or places. Why is this? I guess because it is the easiest sense to put to use, and we use our sight 24/7. I guess this is one situation where being blind may give us a higher understanding of a situation, because people who are blind are forced to rely on their other senses. Ocularcentrism, vision being the primary sense, can be a problem when analyzing or describing historical events. Though vision is our primary way of taking in information, and providing information to others, we need to try to incorporate all senses into history, so that we get a more well-rounded, and full understanding of people, places, and events.

In Mark Smith's essay, "Getting in Touch with Slavery and Freedom" it surprised me when he states that not much is written about touch, and that many scholars see the non-visual senses as "unreliable or irrelevant." I cannot believe that people would consider touch to be unreliable. Our eyes can sometimes play tricks on us, but touch allows us to have a personal encounter with whatever it is we are seeing. Recently, my family went on a cruise to the Bahamas and I had the opportunity to go to Atlantis and swim with the dolphins (a highly recommended experience). I have never had an encounter with a dolphin before, but the thing I remember most is how soft they felt. I had imagined that they would feel like most other fish or sea life, slick or slimy, but they had the softest skin, It felt almost like velvet. This is one instance where touch became a primary sense for me. And in describing my experience, now and in the future, I will always mention how they felt. In reading Smith's essay, I had no idea the extent to which touch was used to understand slaves and slaveholders in the antebellum period. It was intriguing to read about how touch was used to evaluate character and status. It makes sense, hard labor would lead to hard, calloused skin, and many slaves were subject to hard labor and harsh living conditions. They would often have blisters after long days of work. Some historians have the opposite view, stating that Africans were genetically conditioned to withstand these kinds of conditions, but white people were the ones who ended up with the blistered hands. Slave buyers would even run their hands over the slaves at the market, to see if they were fit enough for work. This essay was very interesting to me, because touch is not one the senses I usually rely on.

The other 3 articles were interesting as well, and I had to go grab a bite to eat after reading the one on taste. It takes a special skill to write in ways that evoke taste, but there are many who apparently can! As the author suggests, understanding taste can help us understand a great deal about past generations and people groups. The same goes for Connie Chiang's essay on smell. Smell's can help the reader more fuller understand a time in history. Like the author suggests, there was a time when the smell of manure was a very common smell, or the smell of garbage or sewage in major cities. Smell helps us understand "historical change", as Chiang suggests. Even recent events, such as Hurricane Katrina can be better understood by using our sense of smell. Hearing is one sense that I can more easily relate too. I was a bluegrass minor at ETSU and took many music classes including the history of country music and American folk music. The sounds of the past, especially in music, can teach us a great deal about different eras in time and about the struggles people faced throughout history. It can also teach us a lot about how music has evolved and changed over the years, and how different cultures come together to create a unique sound, like bluegrass!

Senses can play a major role in helping us gain a deeper understanding of past and present events. Now that I am more aware of the roles my senses play, I think I will start using them a little more when attempting to understand the past.

I didn't realize until last night that there was a specific question we were to answer, so this is an edit to the original post.
I just realized we were supposed to answer a specific question for this post, so I will answer now! As far as how to study topics from the perspective the the five senses, I believe this helps the students have a better overall understand of an event, and in a way places them in the event where they can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch the pieces that make the event whole. For example, if you use images and sounds, describe the smells, and the use of touch in historical events, such as the Holocaust, the students will get a better feeling of the event, and may be able to relate with what the people experiencing the event were feeling. The senses put us in a real place in which we can not only learn about something, but experience it to an extent.

As a follow up on this post, I believe it can be quite difficult to use the senses in instruction because of the amount of material that is to be covered in a short period of time. It would really add to the classroom experience to use these creative ways to engage students in the material. Using the senses to introduce the students to a topic, and to expand their knowledge can help them retain the information. I believe it also helps them understand how others may or may not have felt in a situation. The senses can play a major role in understanding material, you just have to know when and how to use them.

It's been awhile...

Well, it has been quite some time since I have posted on here! I have been super busy, as I just graduated from ETSU in May and am now a graduate student at NC State. I feel very blessed to have this opportunity, and I cannot wait to finish in another year and finally be a teacher!! I am going to be using this blog some for school assignments. I will try to post about other events in my life, but until then...enjoy the randomness!