1. Doing History in Public:
Digital History in the Digital
Humanities
Sharon M. Leon
Director of Public Projects
Center for History and New Media
@sleonchnm, sleon@gmu.edu
MITH Digital Dialogue (April 13, 2010)

2. As might be expected, many of these presentations and
workshops focused on the ways in which the digital world is
altering the possibilities for research and teaching. Yet one
aspect of this list that stood out to me was the involvement of
presenters with ties to governmental, corporate, and
institutions or foundations such as the National Archives, IBM,
the State Department, Shoah Foundation Institute, NEH, and
the like. While MLA had some panels that featured those
outside of the academy proper, a larger percentage of the AHA
digital panels seemed to reach beyond the university (though a
more careful study might disprove this impression). On one
hand, the composition of these panels suggest a greater public
face for history and its involvement in digital work, yet on the
other hand, it also suggests that historians as a whole might not
yet be embracing digital work in large numbers.
Eleanor Shevlin, Early Modern Bibliography

3. What is Public History?
Recently the NCPH Board of Directors described public history as ‘a
movement, methodology, and approach that promotes the
collaborative study and practice of history; its practitioners embrace a
mission to make their special insights accessible and useful to the
public.’
Further more, ‘public history is the conceptualization and practice of
historical activities with one’s public audience foremost in mind. It
generally takes place in settings beyond the traditional classroom. Its
practitioners often see themselves as mediators on the one hand
between the academic practice of history and non-academics and on
the other between the various interests in society that seek to create
historical understanding.’

12. Award Winning Public History Websites
• 2004 Muse Award: Bronze: Lewis and Clark: the
Bicentennial Exhibition
• 2005 Best of the Web: Honorable Mention,
Online Exhibit: Raid On Deerfield: The Many Stories
of 1704
• 2005 Muse Award: Honorable Mention: The Price
of Freedom: Americans at War

13. • 2006 Muse Award: Silver: Churchi# and the Great
Republic
• 2007 Muse Award: Honorable Mention: Arago:
People, Postage, and the Post
• 2008 Best of the Web: Honorable Mention for
Online Exhibition: Digital Vaults
• 2008 NCPH Outstanding Public History Project:
Slavery in New York

14. Some recent CHNM public history sites:
• Gulag: Many Days, Many Lives
• Martha Washington: a Life
• Bracero History Archive

15. How People Learn (2000)
• Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about
how the world works. If their initial understanding is not
engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and
information that are taught, or they may learn them for
purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside
the classroom.
• To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must:
(a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b)
understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual
framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that
facilitate retrieval and application.
• A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help
students learn to take control of their own learning by
defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in
achieving them.

16. Six Principles of Expert Knowledge
• Experts notice features and meaningful patterns of
information that are not noticed by novices.

17. Six Principles of Expert Knowledge
• Experts notice features and meaningful patterns of information
that are not noticed by novices.
• Experts have acquired a great deal of content knowledge
that is organized in ways that reflect a deep understanding
of their subject matter.

18. Six Principles of Expert Knowledge
• Experts notice features and meaningful patterns of information
that are not noticed by novices.
• Experts have acquired a great deal of content knowledge that is
organized in ways that reflect a deep understanding of their
subject matter.
• Experts’ knowledge cannot be reduced to sets of isolated
facts or propositions but, instead, reflects contexts of
applicability: that is, the knowledge is “conditionalized”
on a set of circumstances.

19. Six Principles of Expert Knowledge
• Experts notice features and meaningful patterns of information
that are not noticed by novices.
• Experts have acquired a great deal of content knowledge that is
organized in ways that reflect a deep understanding of their
subject matter.
• Experts’ knowledge cannot be reduced to sets of isolated facts or
propositions but, instead, reflects contexts of applicability: that is,
the knowledge is “conditionalized” on a set of circumstances.
• Experts are able to flexibly retrieve important aspects of
their knowledge with little attentional effort.

20. Six Principles of Expert Knowledge
• Experts notice features and meaningful patterns of information
that are not noticed by novices.
• Experts have acquired a great deal of content knowledge that is
organized in ways that reflect a deep understanding of their
subject matter.
• Experts’ knowledge cannot be reduced to sets of isolated facts or
propositions but, instead, reflects contexts of applicability: that is,
the knowledge is “conditionalized” on a set of circumstances.
• Experts are able to flexibly retrieve important aspects of their
knowledge with little attentional effort.
• Though experts know their disciplines thoroughly, this
does not guarantee that they are able to teach others.

21. Six Principles of Expert Knowledge
• Experts notice features and meaningful patterns of information
that are not noticed by novices.
• Experts have acquired a great deal of content knowledge that is
organized in ways that reflect a deep understanding of their
subject matter.
• Experts’ knowledge cannot be reduced to sets of isolated facts or
propositions but, instead, reflects contexts of applicability: that is,
the knowledge is “conditionalized” on a set of circumstances.
• Experts are able to flexibly retrieve important aspects of their
knowledge with little attentional effort.
• Though experts know their disciplines thoroughly, this does not
guarantee that they are able to teach others.
• Experts have varying levels of flexibility in their approach
to new situations.

22. What might digital work that takes
these principles into account look like?
Examples from k-12 teaching and learning...
• Historical Thinking Matters
• Object of History: Behind the Scenes with the Curators
of the National Museum of American History

23. Doing History in Public:
Digital History in the Digital
Humanities
Sharon M. Leon
Director of Public Projects
Center for History and New Media
@sleonchnm, sleon@gmu.edu
MITH Digital Dialogue (April 13, 2010)