The biggest take away I got from this class was how much information can accurately be deduced from a collection of primary resources. It was awesome to retell key portions of Mr. Stohr’s life with the few sources that we had access to. I was left wondering if someone could do that with what I’ve collected throughout my life. Or, if I could find similar artifacts of my grandparent’s or great-grandparent’s that could help me understand their histories better. What portions of our lives will be important enough to make it onto a site like ancestery.com to help our decedents learn who we are?
On that note, what will historians do in the future? The world is going digital and that is going to completely alter how the past is researched and explored. Online, everyone has their own opinion about everything. How do you determine which opinions/recounts are worth further study or comparison? What will be a be considered a primary source if electric documents can be altered or rewritten without indication? What features of an electronic document would be analyzed? It can’t be examined like the nuisances of a written letter or the material used to create. Will future historian give up on searching though the ancient materials in favor of the easy access of what can be found on the internet?
I have so many questions.
I did enjoy this weeks video pertaining to show and tell. It never occurred to me that this simple activity could become a competition between the haves and have-nots. I think it’s a great idea to have theme-oriented show and tell. It caps the options and it gives students, who do not know what to bring, a starting point. It’s also a good activity to help students learn to present in front of a group of people. The outline that the student’s used gave helped them to present the important information without the stories lasting forever. I remember one show and tell in particular. I believe it was 4th grade and I had just come home (Michigan) from a vacation to see me grandparents in Richmond. While in Richmond, I saw this “gianormous” bee the size of my thumb. A girl in my class disputed my claim that it was a bee, because there was no such thing as bees that size. Therefore, I was lying about all of it. Many years later, I realize we were both right. It was not a massively large bee. But, I did see something. It was a hornet and the size of my thumb, if not bigger at the time.
Jennifer, To be honest, I have wondered the same thing lately about the future of primary source analysis. I think this would be an interesting topic to unpack during class. The internet confuses things quite a bit. Mr. Stohr’s life lesson was pretty incredible. I like that you are thinking about how your life’s artifacts would look. I suggest you begin to think about it and build your own box. You could actually use this as a lesson at the beginning of the with you students as a way to get to know you without knowing it was you! I encourage you to think about designing this as one of your lesson plans due this semester.
Thank you for your thoughtful reflection. The bee story made me cringe. I was imagining a Japanese hornet and you trying to get away from it! Richmond is sure good for those critters.
Lynne
Hi Jennifer.
I love all the questions you have raised. Like Lynne, I wonder how historians in the future will do their work. Will they need to have the skills of forensic computer specialists? I’m grateful that there is still material culture to review from the 20th century, though I wonder how we will preserve it all. If we scan and digitize these resources, do they lose some of the impact of the “actual” primary source? Will images of resources hold the interests of kids? It’s hard to say.
After I created the set of documents for my father, I did exactly what Lynne suggested and created one for my life. My mother didn’t save any of my early schoolwork, which has made me think a lot about what I should save of William’s. Will he even want this stuff some day? Probably not, but those materials too might make an interesting lesson.
Thanks for this thoughtful reflection. You’ve got me thinking even more about these issues.