What the sky taught me

The digital history Sky exhibit has long since ended but a summary post is definitely necessary! Overall, I think the exhibit was a success. We had quite a few visitors throughout the day including faculty, library staff, and some students and from what I could tell, they all seemed to enjoy our digital creations!

As a member of the Stonehenge team, I am not embarrassed to say that our design was a little bit disappointing. We had far too much information on display with three monitors displaying facts and tidbits of information. By observing visitors interacting with our model, it was obvious that people simply wanted to press the buttons and watch the lights, the corresponding facts seemed less important. One other problem with our design was the length of time the buttons were disabled after one was pushed. Nobody wanted to wait for the slides to cycle through before being able to push another button!

Despite the issues, the day was very rewarding. I had a great time talking to and explaining our model to visitors. I was happy that people complimented our scale model, arts and crafty as it was. I was proud of our design and it was great being able to practice public history on campus. While Stonehenge wasn't as successful as we had hoped, it certainly wasn't a failure. Visitors asked us questions about the technology/digital aspects of the model, they were interacting with our model and the information, and they were interacting with us not as students, but as public historians!

Stonehenge and the Sky taught me some very valuable lessons with regards to digital and public history.
#1: The less information the better!
#2: Talk and interact with visitors. Many of them told interesting stories about their own trips to Stonehenge.
#3: Sometimes, the simplest things are the most effective. Visitors REALLY seemed to like our model, without the digital components and the lights.
#4: The sky really is the limit! As public historians we need to know the different types of technology available to us. Digital history has taught me to think digitally when trying to promote history. There are no limits to the ways in which we can display history.

So there you go. The exhibit was a great success with lots to be learned by all. My biggest complaint? Our model didn't ever end up with neolithic sheep on it!

Geocaching and history: an adventure in waiting

My aunt is really into Geocaching - a hobby that combines adventure, caches, and a Global Positioning System. A cache is usually a logbook that contains the records of all those people who have visited the cache and can also include things like contact information, information about the city or town in which the cache is located, and even jokes. Some caches contain things like maps, books, and even jewelery. People who 'Geocache' (I think I just made up a new word) look up coordinates online and then use their GPS to find the cache. Once they've found the cache site there are a few rules that Geocachers must follow: 1) Take something from the cache, 2) Leave something in the cache, and 3) Write about it in the logbook.

I think Geocaching is an awesome tool for public historians. Museums, for example, could create walking tours that make use of a GPS and historical artifacts (replicas, of course). Similarly, historical societies could create country-wide historical adventures that lead Geocachers on a hunt for a series of artifacts that are relevant to Canadian history. With each discovery, hunters learn tidbits of history relating to the artifacst. It might look a little something like this:

In Charlottetown, a picture of the members who attended the Charlottetown Conference is located on the grounds of Government House. On the boardwalk in Halifax, hunters might discover the hasty telegram sent by dispatcher Vince Coleman that stopped a train with 700 passengers from barreling into the city at the time of the Halifax Explosion. In Quebec, Geocachers are directed to the Plains of Abraham to find a French Infantry Musket used during the fateful battle. The next stop is Toronto where the goal is to find a miniature version of William Lyon Mackenzie's printing press that was thrown into Lake Ontario. In Regina, a buried stethoscope represents Tommy Douglas and the development of Medicare. In the Nass River valley of British Columbia, hunters are guided toward an indigenous artifact belonging to the Nisga'a people. Finally, the search ends with the discovery of gold in the Klondike near Dawson City, Yukon.

Of course, searches like these can, and probably should, be limited to provinces, regions, and even cities. Geocaching has a lot of potential for public history and historians and is a great way to combine new digital technologies with traditional histories.