Websurfing through the Archives

Posted by Mary Chaktsiris

These days, everything is going digital – even the archive.

National, provincial and municipal archives and libraries present wonderfully digitized sources, and many of the most interesting sites are community based. Building on Cynthia’s post about the “nationality” of formal archival collection, community driven projects can provide glimpses into how historical events are being remembered, interpreted and “archived” outside of institutions. Forgive me if I indulge my own interest (research and otherwise) in the Great War; these are a sampling of the sites I find myself getting lost in and distracted by.

On oral history and the presence of the past

Posted by Jennifer Bonnell

When I first moved to Toronto from British Columbia ten years ago, I took up a job with the Multicultural History Society of Ontario, coordinating an oral history project on the Scarborough community of Agincourt. Conducted in partnership with the Scarborough Historical Museum, the project took on a life of its own, interviews yielding more interviews as our network in the community expanded. In the end we conducted over 50 interviews with long-established residents and newer arrivals to the community from places as far flung as Sri Lanka, Egypt, Estonia, and Hong Kong. We transcribed every one of them (unbelievably, now, looking back). The project resulted in a travelling exhibition that toured schools, shopping malls, and civic and cultural institutions throughout Scarborough. It provided a meeting place for widely diverse experiences of a place changed almost beyond recognition, from a cross-roads farming community to a polyglot suburb, in the space of fifty years. The interviews generated a lot of nostalgia for this lost place, and, predictably, some bitterness about the changes that had occurred: the loss of rich farmland to suburban tract housing and shopping centres, the multiplicity of languages and lifeways that replaced what was familiar. They also, however, provided poignant commentary on the place that Agincourt had become: the opportunities for connection across cultures that it supported, the misunderstandings that persisted, and the experiences—some joyful, some horrific—that people carried with them to this place. Represented as they were in the exhibition through text excerpts, images and audio clips, these divergent experiences drew people in. People read, they lingered, and most of all they listened.

Building Digital Literacy and the University Curriculum

Posted by Thomas Peace

The digitization of information, and the growing technologies used to manipulate and analyze it, is rapidly changing the context of the classroom. A couple of weeks ago Ian Milligan, one of my fellow editors at ActiveHistory.ca, reported on the growing debate over the use of laptops and other technology (like cell phones) during class time.  Milligan makes a compelling argument for the importance of allowing students the use of their computers in the lecture hall. Although I agree with much of what he has written on the subject, the use of technology in history courses poses a more complicated problem than simply addressing whether it should or should not be used: Where does digital literacy fit in the university curriculum and how should it be taught?