This week's lab session will be an abbreviated one. I'll take a few minutes to present the lab exercise for next week. Following which we'll go over to the Student Center for the Keynote Address of the Colloquium, "Intellectual Freedom in the Middle East: Perspectives and Opportunities, by Mr. Josh Rushing. The lecture will take place in the Recreation Center. The issues to be discussed are of vital interest to historians, and I encourage everyone to make every effort to attend.
From the University Website:
A former U.S. Marine captain with 15 years of service, Mr. Rushing served as spokesperson at Central Command in Doha, Qatar, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Unbeknownst to Mr. Rushing, the 2004 independent film “Control Room” captured his efforts to communicate the American message on Al Jazeera and became a critical hit after it was released at the Sundance Film Festival.
Since resigning his commission, Mr. Rushing has become the face of Al Jazeera in America. The change of career has come with a price—his loyalty to his nation, once unquestioned as a Marine officer, has been assaulted on Internet blogs, including death threats and hate mail. Yet Mr. Rushing's mission remains unchanged. He unflinchingly believes the United States is in a protracted world war partially fueled by misperception and misunderstanding on both sides of the cultural divide—and Al Jazeera bridges this informational fracture.
Next Week's Lab, Wednesday, April 23
Working With Illustrations
Swansons Law. A Picture is worth no more than 925-950 words, Tops!
The reason why you're doing your London Paper as a web presentation is three fold:
First, so that your research adds to the general knowledge of the class. Building general knowledge is the only reason for doing historical research at all, at least to my way of thinking. Read Will Durant on this by clicking on his picture in the top left place of honor.
Second, to take advantage of media other than the written word. History is about place. History is about object, and the internet allows one to broaden the intellectual experience by including everything from facsimile papers to maps to photographs and other evidence, as well.
Third, the Internet allows one to link one's work to the greater body of work, so that readers/viewers aren't left with only what on provides them. They can pursue the work in further depth, followin your lead into the same body of materials you used in the first place.
The question remains, how does one use these resourcfes effectively? I generally feel that most illustrated histories don't use illustrations very effectively. I detest the publisher's economies which bind all the illustrations in a separtate section or sections. I also am not fond of skimpy captioning, which, more than anything leads readers to clap their hands and think "oh, good...less to read."
To my mind pictures aren't worth 1000 words. One needs to subtract the words which authors should (but often don't) use to guide a reader into analyzing the picture according to the author's intent. Illustrations are ambiguous without ths contribution on the part of the authors.
Four London Illustrations
Any of the above could serve as an illustration for a web paper on some aspect of Rutherfurd's London. Take a minute to think of what the "author" wanted you to see in each of these. Can you tell? Just to make it a bit more difficult I've not put links to all of them.
Locate one illlustration which you might use in your Web Paper.
Upload it to the blackboard place I've provided for it. (Look for Photos) in the index on the left hand side of the page.
Prepare, but to not include the text you could use to incorporate the illustration in to your project (the 50-75 words to make that picture worth 1000 words).
Be prepared to answer questions about the picture from your peers, and then to read your description.
