Digital Songs, Stories, and Histories – Lehigh University
Course Description:
In the fall of 2005, a new and very experimental course in "digital writing" was offered to first-year students who were exempt from English 1. The students' advanced placement signified they were capable writers and the course offered them the opportunity to explore the multi-media possibilities of "writing." English professor, Edward J. Gallagher, and Digital Library Project Coordinator, Julia Maserjian, co-taught the course.
The students worked on three multi-media projects -- electronic poetry, family or personal stories, and a research problem based on documents from the Digital Library's I Remain: A Digital Archive of Letters, Manuscripts, and Ephemera. In the first unit of the course, the students chose a poem and interpreted their selection in a PowerPoint presentation. In the second unit, they developed a script, and produced a movie based on a person, place, or activity important to them. In the third unit, the students selected documents from the I Remain site, formulated a historical question, proposed a thesis, researched, and wrote a narrative. They converted their research paper into a script, chose and scanned supporting images, and produced and edited a short history documentary.
Presented here are selections of the students' work from the third project.
Prof. Gallagher: Transcription | Research Materials | Video
Source Document: [Letter] 1905 August 14, Oyster Bay (N.Y.) [to] Cecilia Beaux, East Gloucester (Mass.) / Theodore Roosevelt
Gary Carlotta: Research Materials | Narrative
Source Document: [Letter] 1949 June 11 [to] Francis E. Walter, Washington, D.C. / C.L. Chennault.
Rachel Goldberg: Transcription | Narrative
Source Document: [Letter] [18]97 November 9 [to] [H. Buxton] Forman / William Rossetti.
Clay Reibman: Transcription
Source Document: [Letter] 1860 April 14, Fort Brown, Texas / R[obert E.] Lee
Evan Spark-Depass: Research Materials | Video
Source Documents:
[Letter] 1958 May 6, London [to] Francis E. Walter / Winston Churchill
[Letter] 1963 April 29, London [to] Francis E. Walter / Winston S. Churchill
Veronica Vros: Transcription | Research Materials | Video
Source Document: [Letter] 1881 [?] 23 [to] Dear Sir / J.E. Millais
Paul Zimbardo: Reasearch Materials | Video
Source Documents:
[Letter] 1962 October 19, Washington [to] Francis E. Walter, Washington, D.C. / Lyndon [Johnson].
[Telegram] 1962 October 23, Washington [to] Francis E. Walter, Washington, D.C. / Lyndon Johnson.
[Letter] 1962 October 24, Washington [to] Francis E. Walter, Washington, D.C. / Lyndon Johnson.
