Wikipedia

No books are required for this course. I will primarily assign various related articles from Wikipedia, a free, online encyclopedia using “wiki” software.

You may be surprised that I use Wikipedia, but here’s why: Textbooks are largely compendia of facts, with little analysis, just like encyclopedias. I do not teach to a textbook, therefore you can use this free resource to acquire the facts you need to engage in the historical analysis we’ll be doing this semester. Historical analysis and acquiring facts are two very different things; you certainly need facts to engage in historical analysis, but collecting facts alone is not analysis.

Be aware that anyone, anywhere, anytime can edit any entry on Wikipedia. Does this mean that the entries are unreliable? Yes and no. Because the entries change with varying frequency, you must be careful and closely read every entry. Do not accept what it says at face value. Think about what the entry says and ask yourself if you can trust it. If you are worried, check the entry’s history to see what changes have taken place. See what references, if any, the entry uses. If you find an error or vandalism on an entry, log in and fix it!

You are required to obtain a user account for Wikipedia to complete the Wikipedia Article project.

Weblog

Everyone in class is required to sign up for a weblog at WordPress.com. Please do not ask to use another service; I will only accept blog posts published through WordPress. WordPress is a reliable, easy-to-use service, and I do no have time to help troubleshoot other blogging services. You are free to cancel your blog at the end of the semester, but WordPress is a great service should you wish to continue blogging beyond this course.

Flickr

You are required to obtain a free account on the photo sharing service Flickr. We will use Flickr to complete several assignments throughout the course. If you already have a Flickr account, feel free to use that account, or create a new one for this class. I will not accept assignments using other photo-sharing services.

Newsreader

While you are not required to obtain a newsreader (also called a feedreader, or RSS aggregator), you are encouraged to do so, if only to make your life easier. Two free services available online I recommend are Google Reader and Bloglines.

There are also stand-alone applications you can install on your computer, and a few Firefox add-ons. With all of these options, the point is the same: to enable you to subscribe to your classmates blog and get instant updates, instead of visiting their sites each time a new assignment is due.