How will digital media and/or digital tools be important to teaching my target audience one of the essential lessons I’ll be focusing on in my project? What, specifically, about the digital environment will influence what you do and why?
I intend to use the tool Cleveland Historical (https://clevelandhistorical.org/) to transform what is an expensive physical, but relatively passive historical tour of the History of Cleveland Women into a digital engagement experience.
“ Cleveland Historical is a free mobile app that puts Cleveland history at your fingertips. Developed by the Center for Public History + Digital Humanities at Cleveland State University, Cleveland Historical lets you explore the people, places, and moments that have shaped the city’s history. Learn about the region through layered, map-based, multimedia presentations, use social media to share your stories, and experience curated historical tours of Northeast Ohio.
The use of this mobile app enable will be an instantaneous window into the past. A GIS locater brings up historical stories that occurred in the immediate area of the phone.
In place of a formal group tour, use of this application will allow students to track their daily activities and recognize how they move within the city. Checking Cleveland Historical as they progress through their day will acquaint them with figures and events of the past who traveled where they travel. This aspect of the “tour” will present a ‘Hall of Fame’ and start the process of connecting past to place. It will not however, provide any sense of chronology, continuity or a deeper understanding of context & time.
These sensibilities will need to be created through other activities and engagements. Students will work collaboratively in groups to share what they have learned in their various locations and build a concept of chronology and time. Where individuals located in multiple sites across the city, what is similar within a group, what was different? Was time a factor connected to place and how?
The use of technology and the means of transportation used around the city will also facilitate a larger conversation about the technologies we use today. How does technology change daily life and opportunity? I will also ask if the students accessed other apps to find more details about a particular individual or location? Would this information have been accessible in the past? What resources are available to find out about people today? What resources do we use to find out about people of the past? This makes a lovely segue into primary sources.
This application will also demonstrate how history has been collected, remembered and built. After using the app, we will discuss the type of history that is promoted. What stories are included? Are their missing stories? What do the buildings in the areas we work, play, eat and shop, tell us about ourselves? Is there any of this evidence demonstrated in the app to develop a sense of historical context? How do we know what was presented, is true? The digital technology is a tool, but it is a very useful tool for creating opportunities to engage with the past and draw upon resources. It provides the opportunity to teach that collecting is only the first step in developing a history that involves reflection and questioning about the deeper connections and meanings of what is visible and invisible.
