The Grey Ratsnake: Brock Ogilvie Project Proposal Critique (insert clever snake joke here)

Ok so time to tear apart a fellow student’s project proposal.  But before we start, let’s get this out of the way..

 Ok now that that’s been said I can talk about Brock’s project proposal presentation. I don’t think it is necessary for me to describe the different elements of his project or proposal in much detail as you can simply view his proposal write up at his blog at http://historydigitized.blogspot.ca/

 From my first impressions it sounds like a really interesting project. Obviously its content for me is extremely refreshing from the regular history fare I'm used to seeing throughout my undergrad. I think this project as an educational tool is really promising. I can appreciate that little information on grey rat snakes exists online besides the mentioned basic identification information. More to the point, I'm sure that many snake and reptile enthusiast would be very happy to see such a well laid out web site with thoughtful academic information rather than the more shoddy personal sites of random snake owners. Basically i see a real purpose and need for such a site and that i think in part what makes this project seem so interesting.

The idea of promoting the understanding of snakes, as animals that people generally fear, is both interesting and ultimately useful to the general public. I like how this project has a more personal feel to it rather than simply something that needed to get done for a mark and that was reflected in both the previewed website and the presentation itself.

As to the website shown in class, I was really impressed and it really made me think about how to lay out my own project. I especially like the use of drop down tabs and the visuals the menus incorporated. This site looks very professional and I wouldn't think twice about who made it had I not been in class to see the presentation. I would heavily encourage more similar visual aids to spruce up the website making it more inviting and interesting.

Alright enough of the compliments now for some critique. I would really like to see this project expand on the history of the park and the snakes themselves. I think that would really put this project on the next level.  A good historical context for viewers I think would really drive home the message of understanding and conservation.  I think that the visual component mentioned in the presentation is a key element of the site that has not yet been fully implemented. I think that good visuals in tandem with the basic information on the grey rat snake would be an ideal teaching resource for a very wide demographic. I realize that given the limit of ten minute presentation we didn't get to see all information pertaining to the history of the park and snakes but still I would personally like to see that aspect in full in the finished project, so I'm hoping it is in the works.

I found it hard to give much critique or suggestions within this post because in all honestly I think Brock has a very good grip on the information and direction he wants this project to go in and also is well on his way to implementing that into a finished product. All in all, this was a very well done presentation. Clearly Brock is well on his way to producing what could be one of the more interesting or different course projects.

Project Proposal

Over the past month I have been trying to decide what my course project will be about, and more importantly, what I want to do with that topic. After a great deal of brainstorming and consultation with the professor I believe I have finally come to a decision. For my course project I have decided to utilize research and work I had previously done in a research project for Rural Canadian History (HIST*4620) taught by Professor Catharine Wilson. My previous project looked at a farm diary from early 1800's Canada and focused on masculinity and the establishment of an immigrant family in Canada.  Specifically, this research project examined Benjamin Freure, an English immigrant, who traveled to Canada with three of his adult sons to the township of Eramosa in Wellington County, Upper Canada.[i] I thought I would take the story of immigration, settlement, and later life of the Freure family and create an online exhibit or website. This website would be similar to that of the Berlin Wall project made with Omeka that we looked at earlier in course readings.[ii] This project will utilize Benjamin Freure's personal diary that covers his journey from east England to Wellington County, Canada and his families activities and farming exploits. The diary covers the years  1836 to 1842 with varying degrees of detail but all six years are recorded without any major holes or missing sections.

In order to understand how this diary focused project could work, it is necessary to have a basic understanding of the different events and the value of this topic and its primary sources. Ben Freure’s diary has quite a bit of detail especially in the journey from England to Canada. This section alone gives excellent insight into the immigration process and experience of the time. The first section of the diary provides detailed descriptions of traveling to Canada via ship, the subsequent quarantine, and the quest to find additional transportation by both boat and wagon to Upper Canada. The first year of the diary alone gives great insight into the problems and difficult conditions immigrants faced and firsthand reactions to arriving in the new world, something that many may find interesting.  Additionally, this record of Canadian immigration is only a part of the first year of Benjamin Freure’s multi-year diary and the first real chapter of the Freure story as a whole. [iii]

The core of the diary and most of the Freure family's story, however, is focused on their farming exploits.[iv] I find that the combination of Ben's diary, census data, maps, and personal accounts from historical atlases will allow me to adequately tell the story of the Freure family and their farming roots in Canada. Specifically, the Freure family has their story begin with Augustus and Felix Freure, two of Benjamin’s adult sons, working as farmhands for already established farmers in the Wellington County community. From there the Freures becomes tenant farmers renting land, eventually becoming successful landowners in Eramosa. It is from these simple beginnings that we see the Freures take on numerous jobs and roles in the community. Notably, the Freure sons are a key part of the community workforce in Eramosa, assisting in harvesting, plowing, and construction. This reputation transcends Ben's own diary as these events have been recorded in the 1906 Wellington County Atlas citing the family, especially Ben and his three sons, as being ideal settlers and outstanding pillars of the community and whose descendants inherited these traits in great degree.[v] As the diary ends, the story of the Freure family become less self-narrated and instead can be found recorded within the Women’s Institute Tweedsmuir Histories, census data, and regional histories. [vi]

I am not entirely sure where I want to end the Freure family history as there is less public documentation in the mid-20th century after R. Bruce Freure who was a member of Guelph City Council and a regional reeve in the community.[vii] Despite the lack of available documentation, when compared to that of Ben’s diary I still believe that Bruce’s life in regional politics is a good note to end on instead of ending prematurely with the conclusion of Ben’s diary. From such humble and well documented beginnings, to successful farming endeavors and even attaining public, I believe office that the story of the Freure family is one worth digitizing and sharing with a wider public. This is especially true as this story also informs the early growth of Guelph and the surrounding region from a simple settlement to a robust regional center and surrounding hinterland. Additionally, I find that this project could possibly help supplement ongoing projects by rural historians like Catharine Wilson who is trying to digitize, transcribe and make available these farm diaries and rural stories to the greater public.[viii]

Now that I have outlined a proposed topic and scope of my project, I can explain how I intend to present this information. From the various in-class presentations, readings, and lectures, I believe that an online exhibit or website would be the best way to present the Freure family story. Upon speaking with the professor, I realized that due to the lack of a large number of primary sources that would be expected of a standard exhibit, this project would not and could not be a typical online exhibit. Instead I found that the type of exhibit I will construct would be similar to that of the Berlin Wall exhibit given as an example of what possible projects and online exhibits could look like. Within this online exhibit the fall of the Berlin Wall and the events leading up to it are laid out in specific sections relating to primary sources and essays regarding specific countries in this wider narrative.[ix] This is in theory what I hope to accomplish with my project. In order to tell and depict the story of the Freure family’s journey from England to Canada and their ensuing life in Wellington County, I find that specific sections related to the different time periods or years, would be effective in organizing the content of this project. For example, all information I have relating to the Freure family before Ben and his family’s departure in 1836 would be within its own section. This section would contain maps and pictures of the area the Fruere’s came from alongside brief explanations of both England and the region they came from to give viewers a brief overview of this time and place. The organization or separation of primary sources and secondary literature or information must be made separate so that it is easy to navigate and allow readers to quickly locate items such as maps of eastern England for reference while going through the greater narrative.

The next section would be the family’s journey to Canada. It would make use of Ben’s diary and again more maps of Upper and Lower Canada so that readers can reference these visual aids while digesting the text and keeping track of Ben and his family while they immigrate. Additionally, I believe this section would expand the overall scope of the project significantly by looking more closely at interesting events of the journey such as the immigrant quarantine upon arrival.

The next section of the proposed exhibit would cover Ben and his family after they arrived in Eramosa and began farming. Again, the diary would be used as a major source of information alongside secondary sources such as historical atlas entries and secondary literature. With this section I would like to utilize the GIS tools used in the course workshop. Using these tools I would like to align old Eramosa Township maps with more modern maps in order to show exactly where the Freures were living and began to buy land.[x] This would be an excellent tool in conveying how people actually bought land and settled the regions around Guelph, something I think many people would find interesting. Additionally, this would allow readers to understand just how much time and effort was involved when Ben or any Freure descendant would travel to places like Fergus as these trips were normally made on foot. A resource such as synchronizing old and new maps brings this history to the present for a better understanding and interest.

The next and possibly final section would conclude the proposed narrative of the Freure family. It is in this section that the later success and information regarding the fate of the Freure family would be presented. This would include members of the family long after Ben’s diary, many of which lived in the twentieth century. Specifically, I hope to draw upon resources of the Women’s Institute Tweedsmuir Histories related to the extended family.[xi]

As stated above, I plan on utilizing Omeka as the primary tool in constructing this online project.[xii] It is my intention that Omeka will provide me a balanced tool kit that I can easily and effectively build a website that will fulfill its intended purpose. I have previously attempted to create simple websites from scratch using Notepad and along with the issues of debugging, I find that the basic and uninspired possibilities of my simple coding knowledge would be vastly inadequate and not something I would like to attempt. Additionally, I hope to utilize the GIS tools for this project. I believe that acquiring these skills would not only help give this project the necessary geographic context as stated above but it is also an area of knowledge and skills that I am genuinely interested in acquiring. I believe this project is not only viable, but more importantly, it is a worthwhile project to pursue both for the end result and the skills acquired in its completion.

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[i] http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~onwellin/pioneers/freure_benjamin.htm

[ii] Making The history of 1989: The fall of communism in Eastern Europe.  http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/

[iii] Benjamin, Freure. Personal Diary, (1835-1842) 4-23

[iv] Freure, 23-78

[v] Illustrated Historical Atlas of Wellington County, Ontario, Original Toronto: Historical

Atlas Pub., 1906; Reprint: Belleville, Ont: Mika Silk Screening, 1972. 90.

[vi] “History of the Freure Farm,” Wellington County Tweedsmuir Histories, Speedside Women’s Institute, Vol. 1, 52, accessed February 24, 2015.

[vii] “R. Bruce Freure,” Wellington County Tweedsmuir Histories, Riverside Women’s Institute, vol. 2, 85, accessed February 24, 2015.

[viii] http://www.uoguelph.ca/ruralhistory/research/wilson.html

[ix] Making the History of 1989: The fall of communism in Eastern Europe.  http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/

[x] Illustrated Historical Atlas of Wellington County, Ontario, Original Toronto: Historical

Atlas Pub., 1906; Reprint: Belleville, Ont: Mika Silk Screening, 1972. 44.

[xi] “History of the Freure Farm,” Wellington County Tweedsmuir Histories, Speedside Women’s Institute, Vol. 1, 52, accessed February 24, 2015.

[xii] http://omeka.org/

Coding or would you like to play a game?

Since there really isn't a major assignment I figured for this entry I would write about a few topics at a much shorter length. Last week’s last class was actually quite fun. As a university student I had never really thought about coding or website design of any kind, in a number of years. The last time I even attempted coding anything was in mid-high school trying to get basic html to work at home after learning in an introductory computer programming class. Despite the difference in the type of coding, I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with some basics of coding like some of the others in the class. This really made me realize just how much more work is involved between simple text based webpages and the more advanced like YouTube which has embedded video, constantly updating suggestion bar, and in video links.[i] I can’t imagine the work involved in the early days of macromedia flash based websites, when that technology was initially introduced to the marketplace. This makes me think more carefully of how to properly put together my course project and appreciate the level of work involved with creating an interesting and well thought out web page or exhibit.

On far different note, our class spurred some more interesting technology focused conversation namely the novel “Nuromancer” A key entry in science friction literature. This brief discussion made me remember the technology focused film, War Games. “War Games” was a 1980's sci-fi movie focused on a young computer genius who ends up hacking a NORAD supercomputer and challenges it to a game of thermonuclear war.[ii] This movie, although before my time, is really interesting and entertaining for both its topic or more specifically for its portrayal of technology at the time and how many people viewed computers, especially home computers, as the cutting edge of technology. This film's portrayal of hacking and coding is actually not too farfetched as it depicts simple command lines and key phrases. As with almost any movie over five to ten years old, the perception of “modern technology” is off, even when the technology is claiming to be "futuristic". I find it funny that people claim to know that this depiction of technology is wrong or outdated when the general viewing audience has no idea how new technology works.  For our society that is so dependent on technology, it seems only right that we should at least try and understand how some of it works and not make fun of Hollywood's renditions of hacking or coding.  

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[i] http://classics.mit.edu/Tacitus/annals.1.i.html A whole lot in information but very ugly.

[ii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecPeSmF_ikc

Text Analysis

Initially, before attending last Monday’s class and seeing Adam Hammond’s text analysis presentation, I was frankly skeptical about how I would use such techniques. From the first week’s readings, covering the text analysis of the Bible as the first real attempt at digitally analyzing text, I found the process to seem extremely boring and very limited in how one could use the data collected from such a practice. However, after seeing Adam Hammond’s presentation and trying out some of these newer ways of utilizing text analysis tools, I can clearly see some real value in them. I decided to try out some of the text options on random bits of text from a variety of sources and then I tried it on a text document from a 4^th year rural history seminar I took last semester. Once I chose a document, I decided to use the word cloud making tool, Wordle. The document I decided to use was the immigrant diary of Ben Freure, an English settler who traveled to the township of Eramosa in 1836 with his family. This diary covers approximately six years of Ben’s life with his three adult sons, from the time that he leaves England to when he has established his farm and home in Canada.[i] I wanted to see how accurate a word cloud would be at identifying the core ideas or subject of this text. Before doing the text analysis, I predicted that the names Augustus, Felix, and Caesar would appear with a great deal of regularity as these are the names of Ben’s adult sons and often the focus of his diary entries when he would regularly record their daily labor. I also suspected to see words relating to farm work, perhaps, plowing or logging, among others.

I then put Ben’s diary through the Wordle program and got the following result.

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/8480259/Ben_eramosa_diary

The first thing I noticed was the program picking up the names of days and months, and displaying the extremely large word “day” in the middle of the word cloud. At first, I thought this kind of text analysis wasn’t useful because it brought up date related words but then I realized that it was actually fairly important. For example, these words make it clear to anyone that hasn’t read the text that it is a diary and focuses on listing dates. Additionally, if one is privy to the information of the diary, one can see that Sunday comes up more regularly than other days as this is when more diary entries occur, presumably because it was a day when Ben had the time to write. I also noticed that my prediction was true and Ben’s sons’ names come up with a great deal of regularity but, at the same time, neither Ben’s name nor his wife’s comes up at all. All of this information gives a first time reader a broad understanding of the diary but clearly not the specifics or much context. Regardless, it still seems to be kind of neat to use a word cloud to present a splash page of raw information to first time readers or viewers, giving them a very quick and broad understanding of a much larger text.

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[i]  http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~onwellin/pioneers/freure_benjamin.htm

A short overview of Ben Freure and his family.

Multimedia and the presentation of digital content content.

From our discussion in class last week, I began to think about multimedia as we discussed the number of ways one can provide viewers of online exhibits with information. Multimedia was also term I had noticed earlier the term from the first week of readings. [i] That week, one of the articles had caught my eye and I ended up reading it more than any of the more applicable or academic focused chapters such as archeology. Instead I was drawn to the multimedia chapter as I strongly remember when that term was widely used as a consumer buzzword back in the mid to late 90’s. Multimedia as I remember was huge and a brave new world with not just text but pictures and perhaps even some low quality audio files playing downgraded versions of fair use music. More specifically, this chapter on multimedia reminded me of Encarta 95, the electronic encyclopedia often packaged with Windows 95 OS computers.[ii] I remember thinking that an electronic encyclopedia was probably one of the most impressive things on my home computer. Still, at that point I would say that I was far from being as interested in history or anything academic but it still was really neat having what was essentially a very basic offline Wikipedia at my disposal. If I remember correctly, Encarta 95 also had built in explanations regarding navigation via in-text links a feature that was new to many pc users. Likewise, the ability to open multiple windows of information at once was also relatively new, something that when looking at the online exhibits is assumed to be common knowledge today.[iii]  Additionally, going back to the readings emphasis on multimedia and how information is presented, it is strange to think that back in elementary school it was amazing when your average computer could have decent sound and visuals for a teaching purpose.[iv] I also find it strange to think that the concept of having text and audio was revolutionary for home use when sites like Wikipedia, despite its inherent  open editing flaws, is a huge database of information including, maps, art, audio, clips and video all to presents.[v] All of this made me think about the course project and how one must present information in a meaningful way and how we all need to ensure our projects give the correct information for the appropriate audience.

Quick sidetrack to this week’s readings,

This week’s readings, however, have a different perspective. Instead of focusing on the multimedia aspect of digital humanities which is now pretty much the norm in terms of online resources like Wikipedia, we have more advanced programs looking at the raw data of texts and using special algorithms and codes.[vi] At first, I almost wince in pain thinking about mining text for data but clearly you can come up with some very interesting questions and information from such a project and those practices should definitely not be overlooked in favor of the more flashy appeal of multimedia heavy projects. Not shying away from the unsavory or boring methods of gathering and working with text based data, when the relative candy story of visual and audio aids is right around the corner, is definitely going to be a challenge for me in this course.

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[i] http://www.digitalhumanities.org/companion Part one Chapter Ten.

[ii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encarta

[iii] http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/ An online exhibit with very simple layout but no explanation as to its navigation as it is assumed to be straight forward for anyone who uses computers.       

[iv] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxNsIBJOAA8 Audio intro to Encarta ’95 which includes a mix of many audio clips contained on the CD.

[v] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

[vi] http://www.csee.umbc.edu/~hillol/NGDM07/abstracts/talks/MKirschenbaum.pdf

Online Exhibits

Upon reviewing one of the recommended online exhibits, I realized that this was another example of how digital tools are changing the way information is both presented and shared. One major advantage I see with these exhibits is how information is organized, specifically, how the exhibit is structured into specialized sections focusing on certain themes, topics or content.[i] These sections allow for viewers to quickly and effectively find the specific information they wish to view without having to page through an entire book, paper, or article in order to find the sought after information. Despite this advantage it is not flawless and I found the essay sections on the Cold War exhibit disjointed and flowed poorly when read back to back. This complaint is completely subjective but because of the independent nature of these sections, the actual content does not read as well as your average journal article or monograph.

Another advantage to these online exhibits is the use of multimedia. I found that the use of movies, pictures and audio files. These additional media resources really make these online exhibits standout from traditional academic sources of a single medium. Obviously, multiple forms of media is not only useful for teaching history, it is also more entertaining for viewers, mixing in interesting visual and audio resources.  For example, I found the addition of political posters from eastern European countries during the build up to the fall of the communist bloc, were very interesting to examine alongside the main text.[ii] Sources such as these give viewers another dimension in which to learn and interact with the historic content.  Unfortunately, I have discovered that there is an inherent flaw with using such sources. While looking through the Cold War exhibit I found that one of the additional video sources linked within one of the sections was no longer available as the video was hosted on YouTube but has since been taken down.[iii] There is an issue with an exhibit that boasts the availability of videos depicting important historical events and then fails to provide that extra experience.   This issue, however, can be fixed through using video not hosted on secondary sites or by ensuring that online exhibits are curated or maintained with some degree of regularity as any other online database would be, making sure that viewers are able to access all of the intended information. Without this constant maintenance, the advantage of being online is nearly rendered useless as the exhibit, as a whole, is incomplete. Personally, I am in favor of these kinds of online resources but only if there is a certain level of quality control that will prevent them from degrading from their original published form. Simply put, I see online exhibits as having great potential in being effective teaching or learning tools but until some of the bugs are worked out, they occasionally fall short in the very area that make them unique and effective.

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[i]  Making the history of 1989: online exhibit. http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/exhibits/intro/1989revolutions essay section with different sub sections on particular countries.

[ii] http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/552 political posters.

[iii] http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/696 YouTube video comes up as removed.

Digital tools and the Future.

I find that, without question, the accessibility and growing collection of online data bases is the digital tool that has had the largest impact on my studies and more than likely will continue to do so, well into the future. I know it’s not the most original answer given that as a history student, I am expected and will be expected to find a multitude of sources to support anything academic I might write. Additionally, beyond first year, the resources available through Primo and the university library are simply not adequate to more expansive and specific research projects and essays of higher level courses. Students are required to continually look to new and different databases for sources and information.[i] As a student thinking about his potential future in academia, I can only assume that my familiarity with these databases and search engines will only increase as I delve deeper into research topics and papers. The uses of these online databases are not just limited to a student’s research but have also become an invaluable tool for professors.  In the 2014 fall semester, I enrolled in the 4th year rural Canadian history class taught by Professor Catharine Wilson. This class had numerous assigned reading articles from many different digital databases including a couple of Professors Wilson’s own articles, one of which was hosted on Project Muse, a data base I was not overly familiar with.[ii] It was this particular reading that made me realize how vital such digital databases had become to teaching as they were now allowing professors to provide students with a multitude of resources without burdening students with the cost of additional physical texts. I don’t think I am alone in believing that this trend will continue well into my future either as a student in graduate studies or teachers college where physical texts are becoming more and more costly when compared to the digital alternative. I also think this trend will follow me to the potential career in teaching high school where access to databases provide teachers with far more resources than a traditional set of textbooks.  An additional benefit of digital texts is the automated citation tools they provide. These automated citations are ever evolving, streamlining the citation process by allowing users to customize the citation in whatever style they desire.[iii]  Such a convenient resource is an obvious asset in any future academic endeavor. There are so many other ways that digital tools have and will influence my academic career that I can’t possibly address them all in one post but suffice it to say the flexibility and growing availability of academic information is a key way digital tools are changing our learning and teaching practices.

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[i] http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/ The University of Guelph library’s main page and the first of many databases available to Guelph students.

[ii] Catharine Anne Wilson. "A Manly Art: Plowing, Plowing Matches, and Rural Masculinity in Ontario, 1800–1930." The Canadian Historical Review 95, no. 2 (2014): 157-186. http://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed January 11, 2015).

[iii]  Data bases such as Project Muse and JSTOR allow for users to request the citation in a particular style. See the side bar of the above listed text on project muse for an example.