After taking History 451: digital public History, and just about every other history class that is offered at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, I now have a well rounded perspective on everything. I came into this class feeling like I was borderline, computer illiterate. That has been confirmed. I am but a bushwhacking , gun packing, rooting, tooting, two finger typing, military vet, outdoors man that probably had no business in the class. But there is a sociological construct called “education”, that my aunt who I love more than any living thing in this world outside of my sons, spent her life savings on me going to school, because she believes in education, with her double bachelors and double masters. (no PhD) So that is the short story of how a caveman ended up in web design class.
Now, for the reflection on the class itself. I found the class to be highly informative, especially for someone like me who doesn’t now very much about the web outside of Pandora radio, and Moodle. Maybe, Just maybe, one day I may take all this knowledge I have obtained, and I will take on some sort of digital undertaking. I may take the basic skills I learned and make a website of a non-historical nature. But then again according to the introductory readings, History is in everything. I tweeted about pearl harbor yesterday, but got no replies or likes, I guess I had never tweeted before for a reason. Blogging on the other hand was fun, particularly this one because I am hoping that this is the last time I will ever do a school assignment until I die. I am not a grad student, or a public historian, so it was easy for me to see that I didn’t fit in with my peers in the class. I just treat it like a social experiment, one can learn a lot about others and even more about himself sitting around with a group of people who you have nothing in common with. That alone was a great learning experience. All classmates were cool.
One major take away for me from the class was just how much stuff is out there on the internet. From all the design tools to research projects and blogs, oh and how could I forget social media. There are so many applications for web design, think I might create a digital cookbook. Oh, as for the History part of the class, pretty much every research project site that I visited was exceptional, some people just have gifts of digital creativity. I can draw just about anything but when it comes to typing I am not very good.
The Conceptual side of the class I enjoyed as well, the whole Idea of the physical vs. the digital presentation of history. Even a woodsman like me knows that digital platforms are the future of everything including history. It is Just best if it is left to those with the zeal and understanding of the digital world to lead us to the next generation of Historical scholarship. By that time I will probably still be reading about war and genocide.
Overall this was a really good class with many practical applications that will especially come in handy for those who work in offices at a desk, or enjoy the hobby of researching and unlocking the secrets to history.
On a final note I must commend all of my classmates on their awesome projects, everyone else was great, meanwhile I’m still trying to figure out why my images are super small. If anyone is looking, I hope you have a magnifying glass.
And last but most certainly not least, I must recognize Dr. B. First I must commend you on coming to Louisiana, from up North, I don’t know where you were but it was probably better than here. And for accepting my blogs, especially this one which is more of a delirious rant. I’ve been awake for basically 37 hours. On that note I will retire, if anyone needs to reach me you can via twitter alexanderdoucet@axd9976, if I don’t reply I probably deleted my account. Good luck grad students, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.
Alexander Doucet Sr. HiST 451 