With different abilities, comes different ways of learning. Some people can easily learn by reading a lot books (in a significantly short amount of time). However, others just like myself, rely on sound tracks,(recorded audios), documentaries and movies. Especially with the influence of the New Media, more and more people are learning from a TV screen or Computer monitor more than ever. Just to throw some statistics out there; according to CNN, the average American television viewer is watching more than 151 hours of television per month -- an "all-time". (http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/24/us.video.nielsen/ ) and if we wanna find out the number of hour that the average American spends online; I don't think the number will even close to be accurate.
Nevertheless, here below I will present you a personal review of two historical websites. The opinion expressed in those reviews, are solely personal and are not in any way intended to harm nor to promote the reputation of those websites.
First, as a documentaries fanatic thought that the Public Broadcasting Service web site (www.pbs.org/), was a great historical source for materials such as Primary documents of documentaries, interviews, classical music as well as movies, timeline of events, and a glossary of photos, maps...And its interface is very stimulating in term of pushing the visitor to go further in learning the content of the website. The down side that I have noticed about this web site is the when it comes to books, newspaper articles...The amount of results were very limited or none at all.
Second and finally, I have also visited this historical website called: archive.org/. When it comes to the content, this website is that it has over 150 Billion web pages, close to 2 Million historical text documents, and over a million audio and Video files in its archives. However, in term of functionality, the for every search, you get a load of videos, books, articles, pictures which is good by the way. Only If the programmer could keep them separate or ask the user what kind of document he/she is looking for , that would be better. . In addition to that, while searching into the archives, the user will need to know exactly what he/she is looking for, other wise, the result will not show up. Its interface looks really simple and some how as an archive website ought to be.
Sinclair Allen
Posts
PBS is a fabulous souce of thought provoking entertainment. Is it info-tainment though? I have found that some of the programs on PBS that come off sounding factual are often made with an agenda. I guess that that is the perils of making a historical program of any kind. There is always another story from the same incident. Archive.org is a massive assault on the senses. So much coming at you at once.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't really thought of PBS as an institution that promotes historical education. Thank you for reminding me of that fact, especially when one considers that their Civil War documentary remains one of the most popular documentaries dedicated to the subject.
ReplyDeleteI agree that certain archives do not take particular artifacts into account. I am certainly believe, for examples, that comics and the graphic novels represent an untapped resource for the historian in some ways. The problem is how to read these documents for a better understanding of the past. Furthermore, there still is a certain level of cultural elitism in the historian's selection of viable sources. It has taken historians a considerable amount of time to accept cinema as an acceptable source and I assume it will be no different for the comic.
I like archive.org very much and, while you are right that it can provide results that cannot be easily sorted, that may simply be the nature of the beast. After all, that website archives a significant body of webpages from the 1990s onward. There may be simply too much material for an effective search.
Do you think that sites like PBS play a different sort of role that a bricks and mortar museum cannot? Is this possibly an example of a Museum 2.0? The same could be said of Archive.org - the internet archive is an amazing collection documenting the history of the web. Do you think that there will come a time when the amount of information gathered here will be so great as to make the site useless? What steps might Archive.org take to make sure that it remains relevant?
ReplyDeleteArchive.org is an impressive website. I particularly enjoy the live music archive they provide to users. The PBS site is also interesting as they provide the user with many documentaries and other forms of information all of no charge to the user. I also agree with Jon, it almost is like an online museum.
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