History 203L

Dimensions of History Lab

5:00 - 7:50 W (Lab)

CAS 128

Spring Semester, 2008

Roger Williams University

Lab Schedule

Generally speaking, I intend to split lab sessions into two parts, separated by a short break.  In the first, I'll give a demonstration and start you working on the project for the evening, or I'll give you a chance to demonstrate what you've learned prior to class and discuss it.

This evening, our first together, I'm going to solicit some information from you regarding your familiarity with and comfort with the internet and using it for historical research.  I don't want to waste your time and mine trying to teach you things you already know.

I will want to know something about how you use a computer, and I'll conduct a survey asking you the following questions.

• Do you own a computer?
  

• If so, is it a laptop or a desk top?
  

• Is the platform PC or MAC
  

• Do you have WIFI (the ability to connect to the internet wirelessly)
  

• Which browser(s) do you have on your computer?  i.e.   Internet explorer (which version?) Firefox (Which version?) Netscape Navigator (which version?) Opera (which version?) Other?
  

• How comfortable are you finding free software on the Internet and downloading it on to your computer.
  

We'll then proceed to take two tutorials on the machines in the lab.  The first of these is the Internet Detective:  a general tutorial covering a wide range of internet issues from assessing the reliability of internet information to documenting and citing the informaiton you find.  The second is a more specific tutorial, The Internet for Historians. This particular tutorial allows you to create an account online and save the results of your searching to a "links basket".

Finally, I'll start to discuss with you a number of different ways to make your bookmarks portable, beginning with the one I've used the longest,  MURL (My Internet Resource Locator)

You'll sign up for accounts at The Internet for Historians and at MURL

MURL is free, run by a private citizen.  He accepts donations, and if you find the resource useful, I urge you to send him a token contribution to encourage him to keep the service up and running.

Michael R. H. Swanson Ph. D.

Office:  CAS 110, Ext. 3230

Hrs:  M. F.  1:00-2:00

T, 11:00-12:30,  W 2:00-3:00

E-mail:     History 203L@msn.com