For this weeks assignment, I decided to use www.dailynewspix.com as my online picture archive. I don't have a lot of background with picture archives, I usually use something like google images or my own personal collection of photos for presentations or anything I need to integrate a photo into. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the cohesiveness and overall layout of the New York Daily's photo archive. The home page is easy to navigate and inviting to a digitally uneducated user. When I opened the web page it has a column streaming down the left side which has categories of photos, from crime to humor and transportation, virtually anything dealing with New York City and the photos that were published by the paper. As I scrolled farther down I was happy to see that they have a most popular stream of photo archives in which you can browse what other visitors enjoy looking at the websites most popular photos. Intrigued, I clicked the crime link and was happy to see a easy layout of various pictures that were of a reasonable size and clarity. The really cool part though was the ability to slide the mouse over each individual photos and a a small blurb about the photos caption, print date and the location that the photo was taken. I really liked the organization and cohesiveness of the website and I would definitely use it again.
In regard to the article by Claudio Fogu entitled, "Digitalizing Historical Consciousness" the topic is something we have heavily debated in class. I liked the ease in which Fogu writes, allowing someone with or without a public history background to understand his thesis and main arguments. It was really interesting to me when he described historical, "video games" of the future like Holocaust II and September 11th, the idea of these horrifying historic events, many still fresh in the minds of people today, being turned into a virtual simulation or video game is intriguing and yet a bit upsetting to me. Fogu makes relevant arguments in that the development and production of simulations like this could open a visually stimulating and educated method of teaching these events to students who have grown up in a digitized world and as a future teacher, the idea of reaching students, on any level, and transmitting historical knowledge to them is extremely enticing. However, as a person who witnessed the events of 9/11 and has visited Auschwitz, it is unsettling to me that these sobering events would be turned into some sort of game. Fogu also makes another valid point in that the digitization of history ushers in the idea that we are, " no longer interested in what happened but in what could happen." This idea totally contradicts the whole reason why I study history and the validity of history in an educated forum. I am still conflicted on the idea of digital history but I am open to more arguments and ideas on the topic and I hope that it becomes a widely discussed issue among historians and academicians.
No comments:
Post a Comment