finding the project

I was initially having some difficulty with how I would go about a small project involving my interactions with a historical site. I did a lot of research into different avenues to explore, different angles or arguments of historical narrative I could pursue, but I was not satisfied with any of them. I felt as though they had already been done, or that I did not have the resources to dive deep enough into the historical narratives of my subject to speak, or write confidently about it. 

I went back to some of the theoretical readings about history as a discipline and how it has evolved (Osbourne, 2003) and some of the current thinking about history and how educators should think about it as a teaching subject (Levesque, 2010; Seixas, n.d.), as well as some of cautions and pitfalls of historical narratives and teaching (Cutrara, 2009). The notes I had written about these articles reminded me of the process of historical narrative and history. Dodd's, (2009) article about historicity and the historical process of making memorable history, of making official history and ways of remembering and commemorating the past, reminded me that history is again not just the ‘facts’ of the past, but the meaning we (as individuals, as citizens of Canada, as people of the world) make of the past.  It is through narrative; narrative in a textbook, on a plaque, or in a roundtable conference (as in the case of  Sexias, 2009), more specifically a narrative of meaning making of the past. Levesque's (2010) words about the way historians must think of history come back to me in this instance:

"Instead of naively asking 'What is the best story to know?' historians face the complexity of the past with such fundamental questions as 'How do we know about the past?'" (Levesque, 2010, p. 43)

In light of this, I have decided to make my own narrative of the process of my own historical meaning making; how I know, and come to know about the past of this historical place. I wish to flesh out and lay bare how I have gone through the process of creating a historical consciousness of place. Not only this, as the influence of the Internet in teaching and knowledge production are important to my larger research goals, I have chosen to create my narrative in the form of an interactive blog to investigate the potential of meaning making online in regards to historical places, people and events. Through a self-reflexive narrative of my own process of meaning making in a subject area that I am not at all familiar, I can grasp at some of the methods and procedures of historical meaning making online as well as some of the potential strengths, cautions and weaknesses this mode of knowledge production can have for others. This blog becomes a way of using my present, to engage the past for the goal of creating a framework for using the Internet as more than a bank of knowledge, but an interactive web of knowledges for others’ historical meanings in the future.

"What sort of past do we carry around and for what uses in the present and for what vision for the future?" (Seixas, 2009.)

map of the internet

To do so, I asked myself some general opening questions: What sorts of knowledge and narratives are ‘out there’ on the Internet on historical places? How do I get at them? What do they show? What is potentially missing? How do these elements effect my understanding of that history? How does knowledge of the ‘history’ of a site change its meaning, my understanding of it? 
"Instead of naively asking 'What is the best story to know?' historians face the complexity of the past with such fundamental questions as 'How do we know about the past?'" (Levesque, 2010)

References:
Cutrara, S. (2009). To placate or provoke? A critical review of the disciplines approach to History
curriculum. Journal of the Canadian Association of Curriculum Studies, 7(2), 86-109. Retrieved from: https://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/jcacs/article/view/22717

Dodd, D. (2009). Canadian historic sites and plaques: Heroines, trailblazers, the famous five. CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship, 6(2), 29-66. Retrieved from: http://crmjournal.cr.nps.gov/04_article_sub.cfm?issue=Volume%206%20Number%202%20Summer%202009&page=1&seq=1

Levesque, S. (2010). On historical literacy: Learning to think like historians. Canadian Issues, 42-46. 

Osbourne, K. (2003). Teaching history in schools: A Canadian debate. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 35(5), 585-626. doi: 10.1080/0022027032000063544

Seixas, P. (Presenter/Author) (2009). Introduction to historical thinking. In Association for Canadian Studies Conference, Panel Presentation/Communication: “What is the Shape and Place of Historical Thinking in High Schools?” [video file]. Available from http://thenhier.ca/en/content/panel-presentationcommunication-%E2%80%9Cwhat-shape-and-place-historical-thinking-high-schools%E2%80%9D-0