Massively Open Online Conservatism? Conservapedia mixes MOOCs and ideology
I’ve written about Conservapedia, the self described “trustworthy encyclopedia,” before. For those unfamiliar with the site, Conservapedia is a neo-conservative answer to Wikipedia, describing itself as follows: “Conservapedia is a clean and concise resource for those seeking the truth. We do not allow liberal bias to deceive and distort here. Founded initially in November 2006 as a way to educate advanced, college-bound homeschoolers, … Read more
ivrytwr Roadtrip 2012 – Gyeong-ju Burial Mounds
Today on the ivrytwr Summer Roadtrip 2012 we visit the burial mounds of historic Gyeong-ju. If you ever find yourself in Korea, I highly recommend visiting Gyeong-ju. This historic city was once the capital of the Silla Dynasty and is home to its many treasures. Gyeong-ju has undergone extensive archaeological research for the past several … Read more
Mapping the Middle Ages – creating a collaborative database of Middle English Romance
Sometimes the easiest projects turn out to be the hardest. Last summer I decided to learn more about Omeka and Neatline. For those unfamiliar with these tools, Omeka is a web-publishing platform that allows anyone to create a website to display historical content, museum exhibitions, maps, or really anything the user can think of. Omeka … Read more
The History of Starcraft – using video games to engage ESL students in digital humanities
Starcraft launched on March 31, 1998. Nearly one month later I was given the game as a 12th birthday present by my parents. At the time I had no idea that 13 years later I would be using Starcraft to teach Korean ESL students (many of whom are 12 years old themselves) about both English and the … Read more
Links of the week – crowd sourcing history
Looking back on 2012, I feel like it’s going to be remembered as the ‘Year of the Crowd.’ From the huge success of Kickstarter, to numerous high-profile academic projects, crowd-sourcing has had an huge impact of the way the internet is used. This edition of ‘Links of the Week’ will look at five different ways … Read more
The war on critical thought – why historians matter in our society
One of my favourite professors always used to say, “A degree in history doesn’t disqualify you from anything.” While true, this begs the question, what exactly does history qualify you for? I’ve always struggled with justifying, to myself and often to others, my decision to study history. I’m sure nearly everyone in the humanities has … Read more
Links of the week – my summer digital humanities project
My apologies for the lack of content on the site last week. Last week my ESL summer camp on digital literacy devoured the majority of my free time and motivation. On the whole I feel that my summer camp was a success. If I were to do it again, I’d rethink a lot of what I … Read more
Histrionic Historians – Four things historians can learn from Don Draper
I started watching Mad Men shortly after the first season aired. After making it through most of the first season I realized that I didn’t like a single character on the show. It’s protagonist, the hard-drinking, womanizing, Don Draper is not the most relatable character for a monogamous teetotaler like me. And most of the other characters on … Read more
My Summer Digital Humanities Project – Mapping Middle English Romance
One of the perks of working at a public school in Korea is the generous paid vacation time. During the winter break (which marks the end of the school year like the summer does in North America) teachers are given three weeks of paid vacation. During the summer break (which starts at the beginning of … Read more
Links – five great digital humanities blogs
July is here. I’ve been looking forward to this month for two reason. First, I’ll be teaching a summer camp of my own devising for Korean ESL students ages 8-12. I hope to build this camp around the theme of digital literacy and participating in online communities. The second reason I’m looking forward to July … Read more
