Haley Stodart

Professor Genell
Digital History
17 November 2021

Final Reflection Paper

There has never been a better time for Digital History to shine than within the past

decade. These past few years—with a global pandemic restraining people to their homes and

dependent on digital tools—have really pushed this style of history to the forefront of the field.

As a result, I have been able to experience several digital platforms within this past semester that

I will continue to use as I progress in my public history career.

The first platform I engaged with was StoryMaps through ArcGIS. Easy to use and very

bold as a visual aid, this digital tool was my favorite to utilize this semester. From creating a

general history of coal mining in Pennsylvania to pursuing a more detailed analysis of the

Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902, StoryMaps has allowed me to combine the visual power of

primary source images with concise and deliberate written narratives. Additionally, it allowed

me to create my own maps, which portray a unique history and/or narrative change surrounding

the migration movement of both coal and miners across the nation and world. As a digital tool,

StoryMaps is easy to follow and can be used within a classroom, presentation, or professional

setting. Very grateful to be introduced to this platform, I look forward to using it in the future.

The second platform I used was Omeka, an online resource that allows you to create

collections and exhibits. Though an interesting organizational tool, I was not as fond of this

platform. It is not as engaging as StoryMaps, and seems to be limited predominantly to image

use. Also, since I am someone who leans more towards education than curatorial work, I just feel

it won’t be as useful to me personally.

 What will be useful to me as an educator is a podcast, which was the final digital

platform I engaged with this semester. Though I don’t listen to a lot of podcasts myself, they

have become a critical engagement piece over the past few years across the world. It was very

interesting to listen to an example and then created an outline of one for the class. What I find the

most important regarding podcast is their accessibility though, which I believe is the primary

positive factor of digital history.

Digital tools actually bring history out of the stereotype of dark museums and dusty

books. They are often less intimidating for the modern audience and can usually be found and/or

accessed more easily, since one truly just needs an internet connection for most of them. This is

especially helpful for schools and teachers, because when you are dealing with limited budgets

and resources, you have to make do with what is available; digital platforms often fit within

those limitations easier than other historical platforms. Beyond education though, they also open

up opportunities for the general public to access information in multiple formats, languages,

interpretations and more. This is essential within the public history field in general, as our

mission is to serve the public in the way they need or want.

Overall, digital tools actually help us become better public historians. I plan to use the

knowledge and resources that I learned within this class in my future academic and profession

projects. I was challenged this semester to not only reanalyze the way I present my research (aka

in a more deliberate and concise manner), but work towards bringing said research to new,

exciting, and more accessible formats, and I hope to become a better educator and public

historian as a result of such. In a post—and still continuing—pandemic world, I know that my

new skills will become not only the norm but the new expectation. I hope to meet those
expectations head on in a confident and comfortable manner through digital engagement and

understanding.