HIST 495/710
Documenting American Youth Activism,
1945-1975
Using Digital Storytelling Technologies

Th 7:10-9:40 pm
Spring 2011

Course Lecture and Assignment Schedule
 

  

Dr. Kriste Lindenmeyer
 email: lindenme@umbc.edu
  office: 703 Administration Bldg.
 phone: 410-455-2047
 office hours: Th 4:00-5:00 pm and by appointment
homepage: http://userpages.umbc.edu/~lindenme/

Dr. Bill Shewbridge
email: shewbrid@umbc.edu
office: ECS 101H
phone: 410-455-3215
office hours:
homepage: http://asp1.umbc.edu/newmedia/studio/bioindiv.cfm?ID=1

 UMBC Reference Librarian:
 Drew Alfgren alfgren@umbc.edu
Course Objectives
In this course you will learn about the general trends in U.S. History from 1945-1975 with a focus on the role of youth as actors in this pivitol period. You will also learn digital technology skills along with traditional historical writing and research skillsets in order to provide your own interpretation of the past based on evidence. You will incorporate and document the history you learn in a digital mini-documentary using digital technology skills.
You too can be "Ken Burns"---and bring history to life in a digital format.
Want to learn more about digital storytelling? Watch the first video on Kayann Short's digital storytelling class: http://milehighstories.com/
and visit UMBC's New Media Studio's Digital Storytelling website: http://www.umbc.edu/oit/newmedia/studio/digitalstories/index.html

Course Description
All readings and weekly assignments are designed to help you successfully complete the final task of creating a mini-documentary on an aspect of the history of youth activism in American History from 1945-1975. You will learn and use digital storytelling technologies to complete the documentary. About 50% of the class meeting time will be dedicated to history lectures and discussion, and 50% used to learn and apply digital storytelling technologis. Pay close attention to the published Course Lecture and Assignment Schedule for instructions about class meeting locations and assignments.

Students should plan sufficient study time each week to complete the reading assignments, post required responses to the course Blackboard website, conduct research in the library and in online resources, as well as work on the documentaries. It is essential to keep up with the weekly assignments in order to do well in the course. The standard rule is that you should spend at least 2 hours outside class for every hour in class. This is a 3 credit course so you should plan on a minimum of six hours per week for working on assignments outside of class.

Learning Outcomes

Attendance and Class Participation

Attendance is mandatory.  Attendance and class Participation is an important part of your final grade, so simply coming to class and engaging in class discussions and in-class "events" will help to boost your final grade. Let Dr. Shewbridge or Dr. Lindenmeyer know if you are unable to attend class. It will be very difficult to make up work missed in a class meeting.

Late assignments will be penalized one letter grade per day.

The Course Schedule may be found on the Blackboard Website and at http://www.research.umbc.edu/~lindenme/hist495-710/schedule11.html

Academic Integrity
We expect students enrolled in this course to uphold the UMBC Policy for Academic Integrity.
Undergraduate Academic Integrity Policy: http://www.umbc.edu/undergrad_ed/ai/documents/ACC2011.pdf
Graduate School Academic Integrity Policy: http://www.umbc.edu/gradschool/essentials/proc_misconduct.html

We are convinced that most problems with academic integrity arise from a lack of understanding about the meaning of plagiarism. We will discuss what constitutes good academic integrity and the avoidance of plagiarism. The UMBC library website includes a useful discussion of how to avoid plagiarism and maintain your academic integrity: http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/informationliteracy/plagiarism.php

Providing correctly formatted citations for the sources of your research is essential for avoiding plagiarism and successfully adhering to the historical method. Please follow MLA format for bibliographical and footnote citations. For more information see the UMBC Department of History Style Sheet
http://www.umbc.edu/history/style.html

Online Blackboard Syllabus

Again, all messages for this course will go to your UMBC email account. If you do not want to check your UMBC account, change your address in Blackboard, or have all messages to your UMBC account forwarded to your preferred email address (such as aol, hotmail, gmail, yahoo, etc.). For help with this procedure, or if you have other questions about UMBC's Office of Information Technology services visit the OIT helpsite at http://www.umbc.edu/oit/. Helpdesk personnel in the on-campus computer labs can help with most questions. The helpdesk phone number is 410-455-3838

Required Textbooks

Recommended, but not required:

Course Requirements
 FOR ALL STUDENTS:

  1. Blackboard Discussion Group Assignments (5@10 points each--50 points) Students should prepare to discuss the assigned readings during class meetings and on the online Blackboard Discussion Board (found under "Communications"). Required on-line postings (to the Blackboard Discussion Board) are due before class. Details are explained on the Course Lecture and Assignment Schedule.

  2. Class Participation and Attendance (100 points) Attendance is mandatory, but we understand that sometimes there are extenuating circumstances that keep students from attending a class. You must tell Dr. Shewbridge or Dr. Lindenmeyer in advance (at least by midnight the day of the class) if you need to miss a class meeting.

  3. Prospective Bibliography (100 points) A prospective list of books, articles, archival materials, oral histories, etc. that will serve as the major sources for your mini-documentary. This is a prospective bibliography so it is understood that you will probably not be able to actually utilize all of the materials you identify for this list. Be sure to follow the format guidelines for a bibliography spelled out handbooks such as Kate Turabian's Guide to Writing Theses and Dissertations, as well as the Department of History Style Sheet.

  4. Mini-Digital Storytelling Exercise (50 points) This project designed to help you learn the basic skills necessary for creating a digital storytelling documentary. Each student will develop a personally reflective digital story following the process detailed in Lambert's Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community. The story should reflect a theme from the class, or may originate from one of the following prompts:
    a) Tell the story of an experience that enhanced your sense of political awareness
    b) Talk about an individual whose activism inspired you

    This presentation should be about 2 minutes and no more than 4 minutes in length.

    We will use Final Cut Express for video editing during the semester. You will be oriented to video editing and will have a chance to begin working on your assignment in class. You should expect, however, to do a significant amount of work on all production assignments outside of class as well. You are responsible for backing up your files to a portable USB device or hard drive after each class session.

  5. Final Digital (mini-documentary) Project (600 total points ---see required elements below)
    a) Script Outline (50 points)
    b) 1st Draft (script) (50 points
    c) 2nd Draft (script) (100 points)
    d) Annotated Bibliography (100 points)
    d) Final Digital Documentary Project (250 points)
    Each student is responsible for producing a video feature mini-documentary. Students will be paried with an individual outside of the class as a major source for their documentary (based on the experience of the participant). Or students may choose to produce a digital story (mini-documentary) on a topic develped in consultation with the instructors (centered on a topic related to Youth Activism 1945-1975). Students will report on their progress at appointed times during the semester (including reviews of treatments, scrips and rough edits at agreed-upon points during the production process).

    Final projects must include endnotes and turn in a digital (Word Document) Annotated Bibliography.

    Undergraduate student projects should be 6-8 minutes in length. Graduate student projects should run 10-12 minutes in length.

    All students will be held to the standards of good historical documentary practices. Graduate students should expect to include a historiographical analysis as part of their annotated bibliography.     (thesis, logical quality presentation, quality of primary and secondary evidence, documentation of evidence)

  6. Midterm Examination (100 points)
    Based on class lectures and assigned texts (Patterson and Andrew)

  7. Presentation of Final Digital Project to the class (50 points)

  8. Base Points---50 (automatic)

    TOTAL 1000 points (revised)
Grading Scale        
900-1000 points       A
800-899       B
700-799       C
600-699       D
below 600       F

You may check your grade progress at anytime during the semester at the Blackboard course website.