Recently, a New York Times technology article devoted to venture capitalists use of the younger generation for their market research remarked:
And people now in junior high and high school have spent their lives with technology. “This is the first generation for whom the computer is a native language,” said Jim Gauer, managing director of Palomar Ventures, a Los Angeles firm. “We’re all going to have to get re-educated and learn that language.”
In a similar vein, a recent video on teachertube.com, “Pay Attention,” hyped the same message with a barrage of statistics. Students will have logged x (where x is a very large integer) hours playing video games, read x number of emails, and IMed x number of messages. The message was simple: contemporary students were the digital generation, and teachers better get with program and plan a lesson around a cellphone.
Where are these students? Who has them in class? The digital generation strikes me as the most unexamined assumption in contemporary business and education culture. I teach at a metro university in a relatively affluent area of the US. One would expect that my students would be representative of the “raised-by-computers” generation. They are not. I'd estimate that over the past five years, only 15 percent, at most, of any of my classes has been computer/information literate. True, most can do word processing, manage email, download music and images, and IM—but not very well. Beyond these basics, their skill set is pretty minimal. The digital generation, with few exceptions, does not exist.
No one is born digital and only a few are raised digital. And absolutely one has “the computer as a native language.” And who do these marketers think is teaching the rest how to become digital? I'm reminded of the fundamental scientific and computing advances made during the Cold War. It was not the Sputnik generation who made them—those raised on science enriched high school programs—but the previous generation.
I've thinking for sometime about experimenting with podcasts or screeen casts. So, as I put off marking student blogs, I worked on a first podcast. For the experiment, I used Keynote, Garageband, Profcast, and a template from KeynotePro. Keynote is the Mac version of PowerPoint and, for my money, much superior. Garageband is a part of Apple’s iLife suite that concentrates on sound editing. And Profcast is an inexpensive application that allows an instructor to add voice-over to PowerPoint or Keynote presentations.
First, it seemed to me that podcasting could be applied to repetitive tasks. How many times do we repeat bits of information in class? Or answer the same question—sometimes asked within minutes? It seems that I am repeating advice or information on a fairly regular basis. Second, I don't want to get in the long format podcasting business. I don’t have the time, and I wanted the podcasts to come in bite-sized pieces to appeal to my students. Third, I wanted the presentation to combine both sound and image. Fourth, I wanted to build around a practical topic, a topic that others might find useful.
So, I set off to put together some advice and suggestions for writing a history essay. How long did it take me to put together the screencast? About a day. Anything new always takes longer, so I think that an evening will suffice in the future. Did I learn anything? Yes but nothing that a good podcasting text wouldn't advise. (Lynda.com also has a good training video for podcasting with Garageband.) First, unless you are professional radio announcer, write a script. It does help, however, to talk through the presentation as you would in class while you're recording as a dry run. Warms up your voice and furnishes a sense of timing. (I was astonished at my “ums.”) Second, use a good microphone. I used my Parrot headset from iListen. It's optimized for voice recognition and seemed to work well. Problems? Always. I've always had difficulty with sound/in and sound/out. Setting up my sound/in and sound/out for the various applications has always vexed me. I do get it right in the end, but it takes time.
I needed to put the podcast, “Writing History: Titles-Episode 1” on my main website to avoid bandwith issues—not that I'm worried about an overload of traffic at HistoryTalk—and to use some javascript and parameters that I can't seem to figure out for TypePad. Better not to be surprised by a larger bill from our TypePad friends.
Downloaded the new Photoshop CS3 beta. In addition to some wonderful new tools, one of the more interesting things for historians is the integration of Zoomify. Zoomify was dandy for large format media, such as maps, but using the stand-alone application was a bit of a hassle. Adobe has made the process much simpler and integrating large-format materials much easier.
Unfortunately, mounting the example on TypePad is not feasible. First, Typepad does not like .xml files, and Adobe's Zoom generates one. Second, TypePad does not allow FTPing files or folders, and Adobe's Zoom creates a large number of image files; loading them one by one is too tedious for words. So, you will have to go my main website to view the Hygeia Map. Finally, Adobe Zoom writes wretched code. It's easiest to open the page in your editor of choice and tidy up.
To experiment with the PS CS3 beta, you must have a current PS CS2 serial number. While I found a demonstration of Adobe's Zoom function at Macworld Video Blog, the folks at lynda.com have a comprehensive introduction to the new features of the program. The overview is free. By the by, lynda.com has some of the best tutorials for those who want to learn all sorts of applications. Unlike the Photoshop preview, the other tutorials are not free. But they are reasonably priced and highly recommended.
Historians are happiest with printed documents, so I've been honing my print stylesheet CSS in the process of revising the endnote/footnote mini-site. Part of the project has been to work out how print stylesheets behave. One of my major insights is that the <sup> elements are crucial for the correct printing of scholarly citation. Last summer, I developed a quick and dirty footnote system for blogs; Jeremy Boggs at ClioWeb improved and simplified the technique, rendering it much more elegant. And so matters rested until the print stylesheet work.
Any given browser will also interpret a print stylesheet in a slightly different fashion, and printer devices will give their own spin to (X)HTML elements. One of the elements that printers apparently understand is the <sup> element and act accordingly. Printers normally make the font slightly smaller and raise its baseline. This is not entirely what a reader needs. Reducing the font size is beneficial since it keeps the numbers from bumping into the line above and creating small, distracting spots in the text. Raising the baseline is not beneficial, however. It disturbs the line leading, undermining both readability and legibility. Happily, the baseline issues can be resolved by setting the line-height to 0 in the style sheet. But both the browser and printer will not reduce the size of the font unless the reference mark is enclosed in <sup> elements. So, to create a screen stylesheet for a footnote reference mark would look like this:
Without the <sup> element, the printed reference marks will inherit the basic text size with unpleasant results; without the line height property set to 0, the line spacing will squeeze open and shut like an accordion.
Add the print stylesheet insight to the fact that I've managed to include a logo illustration in the print sheet using absolute positioning, and t's been a great day in the neighborhood.
Update: The same effect can be achieved by setting the vertical-height to super and then setting the line-height to zero (0). A designer retains more control over the design in this fashion but at the expense of semantic exactness. And forget the absolute positioning gambit. Opera can't handle it, so it is a certainty that IE 6 will break. Thierry Replacement Technique and a hi-res image seem to be the best route.
I’ve noticed that several academic bloggers have expressed an interest in using footnotes in their posts and wondered about a plug-in. I’m not aware of any plug-ins (and wouldn’t have a clue how to write one), but an endnote/footnote can be done with CSS.
Scroll down to the end of the post to see an example of endnote or footnotes that are supescripted.
My blog application of choice is TypePad, but this will work in any self-respecting blog application that allow file uploading. I’ve tried to make this as easy as possible; to be sure, there are a dozen ways to tart up this technique. Be aware, however, that the background color serves a “usability” purpose. By using a background color and giving it a little padding, the mouse “strike zone” becomes larger and easier for users to access; the rollover and visited states are also easier to perceive. If you want more variations, see Scholarship on the Web: Managing & Presenting Footnotes & Endnotes; for a good color picker, see WellStyled. Note that a more subtle color choice than the ones in the example would be more effective. The eye is distracted by bright colors in a run of text. I am using a color that is a bit too bright for the purposes of illustration.
The Code
In a plain vanilla editor (avoid MS Word for this) or a lite html editor, copy and paste the code appearing in the bottom of this section, the bits in a different typeface. These lines of gobbedy-gook are CSS class styles that can be used anywhere in the your blog posts that you want a endnote/footnote; the resulting file is a CSS stylesheet. Save the file locally on your computer as blog.css. Note that the file must have three-letter—.css—file extension. The text between the asterisks are comments, showing where you might want to make changes or alter color choices. If your line leading is too tight (in other words, you don’t have much space between the lines of your post text), you may find it more effective to place your reference mark on the text baseline. The comments indicate the lines to be deleted to move the reference mark to the baseline. It’s so very 90s, but it works and is moderately attractive. Finally, beware of making your font-size too small; Firefox tends to make superscripted text much smaller than normal; I've found .7em to be a good compromise.
.refbox a:link
{
vertical-align:super; /* Delete this line to put the reference mark on the text baseline */
line-height:0; /* Delete this line ALSO to put the reference mark on the text baseline */
font-weight: bold;
color: #346784; /* Change the color of the REFERENCE MARK TEXT by changing the number */
background-color:#99FF99; /* Change the color of the REFERENCE MARK BKGD by changing the number */
margin-right:0.1em;
margin-left:0.1em;
padding: 0.1em 0.3em 0.1em 0.3em;
font-size:0.5em; /* You may need to play with the size to get a good proportion */
text-decoration: none;
border:none;
}
.refbox a:visited
{
background-color: #cccccc; /* Change the VISITED color by changing the number */
}
.refbox a:hover
{
background-color: #99CC66; /* Change the ROLLOVER color by changing the number */
}
Uploading the File
Upload the file to your blog area. This process will vary from blog application to blog application. In TypePad, choose Control Panel and then choose Files. In the Upload File dialog box, browse to blog.css, the file that you saved previously, choose it, and click upload.
Notes in the Post
For this part of the process, you’ll need to access your blog from a browser or application that allows you to work with the HTML. There are a lot of different applications that can accomplish this process, but probably the most accessible is Firefox for TypePad users. (Safari does not have a separate HTML window. Although you can put the HTML right in the window, it’s a bit confusing.) Enter the text of your post as usual. Switch to the HTML window. At the very beginning of your post, enter the following—caret marks and all:
Note that you must replace “nameofblog” with the name of your blog.
OK, now we’re cooking. Time to put in the reference marks for the endnotes/footnotes as well as the anchors in the text of the post. Copy the following:
Place your cursor where you want your first reference mark in the text and paste. Save your post and publish. To view your work, click View Weblog. Looking at it in preview will not give you an accurate idea of your reference mark.
To insert the the second reference, place your cursor at the second location and paste again. This time, however, go back and change all the number 1s to 2s. Your code should look like this:
To place the endnote/footnote reference marks in the note text, place your cursor at the beginning of your first endnote/footnote and paste. Again, to view your work, click View Weblog. Looking at it in Preview will not give you an accurate idea of your reference mark or its operation. To test the anchor, make sure that your endnote/footnote text is not visible and click the reference mark in the text of your post; the bowser window should hop down to the note. Click the endnote/footnote mark in front of the first note; the browser window should pop up to the line of text containing the first note.
To insert the the second reference, place your cursor at the second location and paste again. This time, however, go back and change all the number 1s to 2s. Your code should look like this:
You can go on like this ad infinitum, but it is always best to check your work after a note or two to be sure that you haven’t made any errors. Troubleshooting the code is extraordinarily tedious.
Recap
That’s it. There are essentially five steps: 1) create the CSS stylesheet file; 2) upload the CSS stylesheet to your blog area; 3) reference the CSS stylesheet in the first line of your blog via an HTML window; 4) insert the endnote/footnote reference marks in the text of your post by copying, pasting, and editing the numbers; and 5) insert the endnote/reference marks before the individual endnote/footnotes by copying, pasting, and editing the numbers. Once you get the CSS stylesheet file completed and uploaded, it’s matter of referencing the stylesheet and copying and pasting. So, very elegant!
Prototype Paragraph
By the mid-nineteenth century in the US, most parents and domestic advisors agreed that a “good toy” was educational. By educational, they generally agreed that the toy should impart some intellectual skill (concentration or manual dexterity) or factual knowledge (biographical facts of famous people’s lives, the identification of plants and birds, European capitals, and so forth) conducive to children’s upward or forward progress. In addition to applauding educational toys, parents and observes advocated safe, durable toys and preferred toys that children made themselves to commercial products. While dolls and doll accessories apparently solved the problem of toys for girls, locating toys for boys was a different and difficult matter, and advisors puzzled over the problem of boys and toys. “[T]here seems to be,” one writer baldly wrote, “a paucity of toys suitable for, or rather interesting to, boys.”1 Although authors like Maria Edgeworth and Theodore Dwight suggested the standard, useful remedies—field trips, building models, gardening and carpentry—boys’ toys continued to perplex writers, contradicting their thinking about toys as engendering skills for adult life.2 But as they refined their illustrations and opinions, Dwight and company conceded that toys which promoted mechanic skills no longer applied to the sons of the middle class. In the end, they retreated to advocating manual skills as a hedge against financial misfortune or as an engaging hobby for later life.3
1Mother’s Journal, May 1846, 142; see also Mother’s Monthly Journal, April 1839, 56.
2E. Landells, The Boys’ Own Toymaker: A Practical Illustrated Guide to the Useful Employment of Leisure Hours (London: Griffith and Farran, 1860), vii.
3Paula Petrik, “The Paraphernalia of Childhood: Advice on Toys” from “Playthings for the Republic’s Children: American Culture, Toys, and the Business of Play,” unpublished manuscript.
So, the sabbatical is coming to an end. "Parading as Millionaires" was accepted by Enterprise & Society, and the "Bank Examiner's Tale" is at a journal. The Montana half of the research for Erastus D. Edgerton is complete and with it my Bradley Fellowship. What remains is the National Archives and New York.
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