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As a history major realizing I played the very first game, Myst, to have a HyperCard royally blew my mind. Digital History is something I have lived even before I knew what it was. Art, Science, and Religion came together to add to a social academic structure that eventually developed a complicated necessity of computers and the internet. I really hope to delve more into the influence of art and the humanities on Scientific and digital developments within the 1930’s. A modern miss conception is that the humanities and the arts are unimportant in the modern age, but the influence of art and the humanities remains prominent in the digital age.
“Pox and the City, the Game”[1] is an Exhibit written by Lisa Rosner. In this Exhibition she reviews the online game called Pox and the City. She timelines the events of this history game and gives an over view of the point of the game. The game itself is based more upon the history of the small pox vaccination. However, the game doesn’t put enough stock in the history aspect for the player to really care or read documents. The reviewer, Lisa Rosner, doesn’t put much stock in the history side of it either. In fact her over all analysis of the game doesn’t make it appealing to historians or gamers. To historians the game is a poor attempt to history analogies, and to gamers it’s a boring game surrounded by unnecessary history. her use of Blog gives more people a chance to see it. Her use of pictures does give the reader a good idea of what to expect in the game. Her focus on the life lead by your choices as the virtual doctor undercuts the whole point of the game, and the whole point is to understand the history and impact of the smallpox vaccine. The post and the game don’t do the historical significance justice or the gamer world justice. If the writer wished to create a more focused post she should have done her own timeline of the history of the smallpox vaccine alongside the game’s preexisting process. Then used the social doctor aspect of it to go in-depth on the social issues that doctors faced. Its sub-par in its use of history, digital culture, and analysis. Her sources need work, her process needs work, but how she presented it was appropriate to her targeted audience of a general internet reader.[2]

[1] http://poxandthecity.blogspot.com/

[2] http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/fall-2019/dh

As classes began last week, I was able to gain a better understanding of not only what is expected of me during the class but also some basic information regarding the shift in technology (and in some ways thought) from the starting point of the New Deal 1930’s to our modern time. Overall, the discussion was centered on the shift from the New Deal culture and technology to that of future years and generations. One example of those was regarding technology during the late 20th century; it was discussed how rapidly technology changed from the simplistic style of some video games such as Myst which ran on very early framework (Hypercard) to what is running now on modern computers. This also showed the cultural shift during this time, as video games became more and more complex the subject matter of those video games grew as well. This also was seen in the development of the internet itself; the more complex the internet became from a simple idea (Hypertext) to something that users can interact with and change at their own free will. This alongside the development of graphical user interface further pushed this idea of users being able to control their computers (personal computers such as Macintosh).

It will also be interesting to see and try to understand History through modern technology. In most modern classrooms History is taught using primary sources or secondary sources. With this class (as well as with the project) it is apparent that we are now able to somewhat combine both types of sources to gain a much better understanding of what is being studied.

The project I was assigned was Digital Harlem: Everyday Life 1915-1930. This project is an interactive, virtual database of news papers and official legal records from that time and place. The project focusing on the Harlem Renaissance, due to it being such a significant moment for African American history, is able to connect what is most commonly studied in regard to its prominent cultural icons with its everyday life and people; “Unlike most studies of Harlem in the early twentieth century, this project focuses not on black artists and the black middle class, but on the lives of ordinary African New Yorkers.” As stated, this distinction allows the project to much more human while also using modern technology to investigate the past, much like this class will. Also, while it will purposely focus on the everyday lives of African Americans in Harlem it will also show prominent figures that shaped the Harlem Renaissance. This can be referenced in the Nightlife tab where music and culture of the times was on prominent display. The actual website was made to be incredibly interactive, which in turn gives the user a much greater since immersion. Giving users actual records and a sort of flow of the timeline is unique to something like this.

Sources:

Biography.org Editors “Bessie Smith Biography” (2019) The Biography.com website Retrieved: https://www.biography.com/musician/bessie-smith

Digital Harlem “Digital Harlem: 1915-1930” (2017) Australian Government|Australian Research Counsel, Sydney University Retrieved: http://digitalharlem.org/ History.com Editors “Harlem Renaissance”

HISTORY (2019) A&E Television Networks Retrieved: https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/harlem-renaissance

You will post all of your blog assignments on this WordPress site. Please make sure all blogs are written with good grammar, spelling, and organization. In each post, you are expected to write 350-500 words with at least two citations from the readings in class. Make sure to post your blog into the category for that assignment. Each assignment will have further instructors and/or criteria. ¹

Blog Posts will count for 30% of your grade. Each post will be graded on a 3-point scale based on the following criteria:

• 3 points: You have met the word count and citation requirements, engaged meaningfully with the course material, and offered your own perspective or argument on the subject matter rooted in our class discussions.
  
  
• 1.5 points: You have met the word count and citation requirements and have engaged somewhat with the course material but have not offered a strong perspective or argument.
  
  
• 0 points: You either did not meet the word count or citation requirements, did not engage with the materal or make an argument, or both.