###Welcome!###	

#####Welcome to History 1101#####

This document is long, but **essential reading** if you want to learn about the past (and pass this class). We are going to be doing history, digital history, in ways that are both familiar and foreign to you. As a course in 2015, we can take advantage of new ways of doing history. Much of the basics of history  haven’t changed: we still look at sources from the past, draw relationships between those sources, and then make arguments about why things happened to different people at specific times. 

What has changed is our way of getting at the past, our toolbox of history. Before we had books, and museum objects, and pictures, and letters and all sorts of other physical stuff. And all that stuff was in museums and archives. Now, we have all that, and new digital tools that give use greater access to the stuff we had before, and new ways of understanding it. For example, go [here](http://orbis.stanford.edu/#mapping). 10 years ago we simply couldn’t do this type of analysis. Now you can read a letter from a ruler to his wife in which he says it took him 15 days to go from Constantinople to Rome and you can ask "was the noblemen telling the truth?" We can ask different questions with different tools. 

So, we are going to use a bunch of new digital tools this semester. One advantage of this approach is that everything I want you to use is: free, web-based, and user-friendly. As long as you can use a web-browser, you can use this semester’s digital tools. I assume you can successfully navigate a web browser: that's it. 

#####Introduction#####

Our course begins officially today. I'll walk you through the course design below and encourage you to poke around on D2L and get comfortable with the layout. You can also start posting to our opening introductory discussion board. You can not see the entire course yet, and that’s by design. I have one month available now, and once I get some feedback from the class, I will roll out the next two months.

By way of introduction, my legal name is David, but everyone calls my Jack. If you feel the need, you can address me as professor, but I'm not terribly formal. I'll address you by your first names, unless otherwise directed and, most importantly, I’ll always address you respectfully.

So, I'm Jack Norton, and I've been teaching at Normandale since 2009.  I taught at the "U" while getting my Ph.D. in history, and have since taught on the south side of Chicago for two years before returning to MN to settle down. On that note, I'm a dad of a four-year old son and one-year old daughter. 

#####Course Design#####
The syllabus and grade schema have been posted. Please read them and then take your first quizzes, the scavenger hunt to familiarize you with the syllabus and get to know you quizzes. You can take the quiz as many times as you need to: your best score counts for the syllabus scavenger hunt. As long as you complete the get-to-know you quizzes, you’ll receive full credit. 

As a general road map of the class, our class is divided into modules. Each model is two weeks long. They are: 
 
1.	History bootcamp (Weeks 1 & 2) 
2.	Time (Weeks 3 & 4) 
3.	Images (Weeks 5 & 6) 
4.	Maps (Weeks 7 & 8) 
5.	Words (Weeks 9 & 10) 
6.	Numbers (Weeks 11 & 12) 
7.	Conversations (Weeks 13 & 14) 
8.	Exhibits (Weeks 15 & 16) 
 
We will address these modules in the above order. For all but History Bootcamp, the modules include readings, quizzes (due Sunday nights), and projects. A typical module takes place over two weeks and includes the following components:

1. Readings: there is no textbook, all our readings are from the web and can be downloaded and printed. 
2. Quiz 
3. Lesson plan: Instructions for how to read and how to use the website for the assignment.  
4. Assignment: The digital history project for the week
5. Discussion

I'll open the reading quizzes on Thursday at noon and it will close on Sunday night at 8 p.m. The quizzes will be timed with 90 seconds a question, and it will tell you how much time you have left on a timer. I use quizzes to ensure you’ve read, not to ensure you're a master of this week's readings. If you can remember the main themes of the reading, you’ll be great. Looking up the answers to questions during the quiz will not allow you enough time to complete all the answers. Your lowest two quizzes will be dropped from total quiz grade. I add one question from the week before to each subsequent week. So, Week 3's quiz will have one question from Week 2's quiz. Week 4's quiz will have one question from Week 2 and one question from Week 3's quizzes. 

I design the first week of a module to introduce you to history and get you comfortable with the materials with which we’re working. I want to give students lots of room to play and fail without it affecting their grade the first week, so you can do the project until you get it right. The second week of a module will be more rigorous in terms of critical thinking and skill, and I’ll give you clear guidelines for your projects.  

#####Discussions#####

In addition, we'll generally have around one to two discussions a week on the Discussions boards. Your discussions will be graded (more on this later), mostly based on the thoughtfulness of your contributions. The discussion boards replace what would normally be class time, so be sure to read them as I'll drop helpful advice along the way that will be useful for your projects. 

Discussions will sometimes be in response to a reading or a video we'll watch. I use youtube and pbs.org quite frequently, which is why you'll need access to high-speed internet. I'll discuss discussions more in a later post. 

#####A note on technology:#####

You need to have some type of word processing program that can save documents in pdf format. Some of you may work with Microsoft Works which does not do this. You get a free copy of [Microsoft Office](http://www.normandale.edu/advising-and-services/technology-services/microsoft-office-365) for being a Normandale Student. You can also use a free software group called [Libre Office] (https://www.libreoffice.org/). You can also use Google Documents if you have a Gmail account. D2L does not recognize Word Perfect, Works, or some Mac word processing formats (like Pages).  

In addition, you’ll need to sign up for accounts with a number of web pages, such as google, to complete work for this course. I’ll give you a list of the accounts you need to create, and train you how to do so well in advance. All the web services we’ll be using are free, such as google, twitter, or wordpress. I assume you know nothing about any website we’re using, and will train you accordingly. 

For the content of the course, we are going to cover from around prehistory to around 1400. I assume you've had no college history and no world history, so this is a true introduction to both subjects. All readings and films will be in English, although you are welcome to use other language skills if you have them. I designed the course to prevent any single grade from ruining a final grade. My experience is that students who stay up on the readings, participate in discussions, and turn their work in on time have few problems in my courses. Those students who check out for even a short period struggle. I cannot emphasize this enough: you must submit regular work and check in regularly in this class or you will likely fail. Please see here if you are unsure if online education is for you.  

#####First assignments:#####
1. Introduce yourself in the opening discussion,
2. Complete the introductory quizzes that help me learn more you.
3. Read the syllabus and grades and assignments sheets (Materials- Content) and take the Scavenger Hunt Quiz. 
4. Read the History Bootcamp document and work through its activities and readings in the first two weeks. 

For your opening discussion introducing yourself and in all future discussions please:
1. Write in complete sentences.
2. Use your fellow classmates names when responding to a post, or posting a new thought. 
3. Read others' posts - even if you've already posted for the week. This is particularly important if we want to have a conversation rather than a collection of people with blogs to which I respond.
For discussions, this week is just practice.  Starting next week, I'll grade posts.  More later this week on the rubric I'll be using to grade discussion.

It would be useful to me if you could **load a picture of yourself,** or an avatar into D2L so that we can all get to know you.  

Finally, please recognize the weekly schedule is a guide, not sacred text.  The lack of lectures means discussions need to be robust and centered on interesting material.  For weeks that don't have a chapter to read, you can expect I'll ask you to read a short primary source selection or watch a video and then discuss.  Most of those are in the syllabus, but some aren't.  I'll give you plenty of time to prepare for your discussions.  

Looking forward to meeting y'all.