Syllabus

In the first semester we will meet on a weekly basis to discuss the week's readings ("Readings" in the outline) and work together on a technical or interpretative task that will be defined in advance ("Lab" in the outline). In advance of the class meeting students will (where not otherwise noted) be expected to produce written responses to the readings in the form of blog postings, and to respond to the postings of at least two other students. If at all possible, you should bring your laptop or (not as good!) tablet to class for the lab portion.

In certain weeks there are also other types of assignments; these are noted in the outline and referred to in the course requirements. In general the aim is to foster an atmosphere of collaborative and self-directed learning in which all work is focused on building the analytic resources, technical skills, and confidence to create really great projects in the second semester. Though the assignment structure is fixed, readings may change based on student interests. The semester culminates with group presentations of your proposed projects.

In the second semester it is expected that students will spend most of their time working directly on their project with the partnering organization. We will meet most weeks to discuss specific technical questions raised by the projects themselves, and will discuss additional readings as needed. Importantly, students will continue to make regular postings about their progress, and comment on each other's writing. Projects will be submitted to community partners for review in the second to last week of classes, presented to the class in the final course meeting, and handed in to the professor immediately before the beginning of finals period.

Course Requirements

In this project-based class, we have relatively few readings and instead focus on active learning through a variety of assignments, all of which are intended to help you build towards your final, collaborative group project.

The class has 5 kinds of assignments:

• 19 Weekly Blog Postings (both semesters, 20%)
• 4 "Short Technical Assignments" (STA's, first semester, 10%)
• 1 Website Review (First Semester, 5%)
• One Written Paper (7-9 pp, Jan 10, 10%)
• The Final Project (website, ongoing but due April 4, 45%)

with the balance of 10% for on- and off-line participation, which includes comments on other students' blog posts, contributions to online resources, and discussion.

Blog Postings are thoughtful pieces, 300 words or so in length, posted to the course blog by noon the day before class meets (so, noon each Monday). You will be expected to read your colleagues' postings and respond to them, both online (using the blog's comment function) and in class. In the first semester, these postings will primarily be responses to the weekly readings. In the second semester, they will instead generally take the form of progress reports in which you discuss your final projects and your interactions with partnering organizations, or of short written pieces from your project site (see below). In the event that I want you to focus on something else, I will inform you one week in advance in class. Some informality in tone is acceptable and even expected, but these are to be serious, thoughtful engagements with the course materials. Think of them as a cross between a regular blog post and a review or response paper. Citations of online sources should use hyperlinks; other material should be cited as in printed assignments (I recommend Chicago Manual of Style, but we will discuss this at greater length during the semester). You are expected to blog each week of class, with the exception of the first and last week of each semester, and the week of your website review. I will comment on individual blog posts as much as possible, but will give out marks only twice a year (approx. Nov. 29 & Apr. 3).

Short Technical Assignments (STA's) are designed to give you the technical skills you will need for your website development work in the second semester. Approximately every 3 weeks in the first semester, you will complete a short on or off-line assignment for a pass-fail grade. The lab assignments will cover basic web skills and other technical topics, which will always have been covered in the third 'lab' hour of class.

The Website Review has two parts: a written review of a historical website posted to the course website at least 24 hours before class, and a very short in-class presentation. We will have one or two website reviews each week in the first semester, except for the first and final meetings. The written portion is posted to the course website in lieu of that week's blog post and should be tagged "review" to make it easier to find (see the review assignment for more details).

The Paper is due shortly after the beginning of the second semester. Approximately 8-10 pages long, its format is that of a standard course paper: a well-researched thesis, supported by evidence garnered from primary and secondary sources. Students are expected to write on topics related to their Final Projects (see below).

The Final Project is a major collaborative effort to build a historical website in service to an organization outside the University. Students will work in groups of 3-4, collaboratively building a substantive site which balances scholarly merit with the interests of the sponsoring organization and accessibility to the general public. We have assembled a list of Partnering Organizations which have expressed interest in working with you, and you should carefully examine their proposals and discuss them with your peers. See the Project Guidelines for more detailed discussion & marking breakdown.

Blogs: blog postings are due by noon the day before class. Late blog postings will not be marked.

STA's: 5%/day late penalty for the first 4 days, after which they will not be marked.

Paper: 3%/day.

Final Project: It is essential that you complete your final project on time in order to get feedback from the sponsoring organization and organize the handoff of the project. The various deadlines for the project (see Project Guidelines) are firm. DO NOT MISS THEM.

• 09/30/14 Tue: Detailed assignment handed out with preliminary partner suggestions
• 12/02/14 Tue: Project Proposal due and presented
• 01/07/14 Tue: Paper Due
• 02/18/14 Tue: Intermediate Status Report
• 03/18/14 Tue: Submission to Community Partner
• 04/02/14 Wed: Project Open House/FINAL DUE DATE

Why we should write history, why everyone should do it, and why that means we need the Web. Hacker cultures, collaborative learning, knowledge sharing, non-expert culture.

The Web is written in a language called HTML, with some help from other lanugages called CSS and Javascript. The nonlinear and interactive properties of these languages afford new possibilities for storytelling. We explore how the Internet works, and what that means for historical narrative.

The new kinds of collaboration that the web makes possible, and the intellectual challenges they create.

A basic introduction to the questions surrounding the production of "public" history.

The ethics of working with laypeople, and the promises & pitfalls of collaborating with non-academics.

In the past, access to information was one of the historian's most fundamental challenges. today, it is more often a problem of filtering information.

One remarkable possibility opened up by the web is abundant oral history.

Ethical, Legal, and Technical Questions around Copyright

A crash course in website design

Thinking about the visual presentation of information

This is your chance to wow the class with your final proposals. Good luck!