Teaching and Learning History in a Digital Age (It Begins)

So for my next class exploring digital history, I’m taking a class on digital pedagogical techniques. New class means new introduction post, so here’s a little bit about me:

I’m Cecilia Ward. (That’s me, but the picture is almost a year old now, I really need a better headshot)

My Research Interests include: Public History, Digital History, Accessibility, and topics that include anything macabre. I like to think of myself as a buffet historian, I want to try dishes from all areas on earth and try a handful of eras while I’m at it. In the past, I’ve researched ancient Greek funerary pottery, heresy, and fundamental Mormonism. Nowadays, I just pick whatever sounds fun at the time to research, which included Eco-Friendly Body Disposition and Funeral Customs, Feminist Tudor History, Plague Deaths, and more.

I don’t really like to brag about my skills, it makes me feel weird. I guess I would say my skills include being a quick learner when it comes to things on Windows computers (I was raised in front of a PC, by 2 computer scientists), so while I’m not the strongest programmer, I know my way around troubleshooting my problems or being comfortable describing my problem while getting help. I would also say I know the basics of media creation, making info-graphics, as well as some audio and video editing. When it comes to specific digital history type skills, I have a good amount of experience transcribing and entering data from historical documents (from working on both the Bills of Mortality project and the Mason Family Account Book project). I’ve also got experience in a handful of programs, and built my original projects for digital history in Omeka, Tropy, and a timeline software called Tiki-Toki.

I would love to learn more about accessibility. I’ve got so many ideas for improving accessibility, but I feel like it’s something that I haven’t gotten as much experience in as I would want. I would hate to feel like projects I’ve made are not accessible to my audience, and I fear they might be.

I also really love the idea of interactive learning and educational video games. I previously mentioned being raised in front of a computer, but a lot of that time was playing educational games like games on iCivics, the Nancy Drew PC games, Zeus Master of Olympus 2000, and more recently games like Sid Meier’s Civilization VI. (I’ve probably played more, but this is a good sample). I would love to focus this semester on prototyping a “proof of concept” educational video game, playing as one of the wives of Henry VIII, trying to make decisions that would avoid being divorced or beheaded. I know it’s ambitious, but I also realize my project might just include a tutorial, or worse case scenario, some in depth story-boarding to show how the game would work if there was enough funding or time to program it for real.

For my ideal learning environment, I want to work on museum education. While I wouldn’t be against learning other types of pedagogy, museums are where I fantasize about working and I want to be prepared for the field. I think it would be helpful to get more experience in creating K-12 museum experiences, however, as it seems to be one of the primary audiences for education departments, and I could use a bit more practice.

Well, I guess that’s me (at least in an educational sense).