Syllabus – Weekly Schedule – Discord – Home – D2L – Assignment Files
2023-05-12, 16:30 Reflections done
I still need to catch up a couple mis-posted assignments from the semester, but the grading is substantially complete. I’ll post grades on Monday. Please read my notes on grades below before emailing.
2023-05-10, 14:16 Grading pace
I’m grading Revisions, but there are multiple academic integrity cases that require care and attention, and are not quick to resolve. Thank you for your patience.
2023-04-05, 13:20 Understanding Grades
For your final grades, I drop 4 assignments, which is 12%. Your first two weeks were worth 15% of the final grade, the middle section (12 weeks) had two week modules worth 10% each, and the final two weeks were worth 20%. I took 12% as a reasonable amount to drop, more than a regular two-week module, but less than the first or last two week modules.
To make D2L do "drop" 4 grades, I curve the total grade 12%. It looks like this. Your letter grade is accurate in D2L based on the below schema. D2L is not looking at all your grades (65 separate data items) and eliminating four of them, it’s simply treating 88% as the new 100%. So, 80% (the lowest B) of 88% is 70.4%, so the lowest B is 70.4. 61.6% is the lowest C.
Your grade on D2L is accurate. I use the language of "drop" because that is functionally what is happening with a 12% curve.
2023-05-04, 10:35
Good Citizenship grade
Good Citizenship self-grade (out of 2.5 points). Class citizenship grades are based on your participation, reflections, and respectful behavior towards others. Good citizens show up and make their communities better places. Citizenship is defined by action, what you did, not what you experienced.
In your Final Reflection for the class, please give yourself a Citizenship grade. Students who do not give themselves a grade will have my assessment of their Citizenship for their entire grade.
If you wish to explain your self grade, please tell me if there is anything about your self-grade of Good Citizenship that you’d like me to understand?
For your reference.
90% = 2.25
80% = 2
70% = 1.75
60% = 1.5
Help future students learn: two forms
This class is part of a long-term teaching project called Fresh Water Stories. We, my friend and history colleague, Celeste Tường Vy Sharpe, are using fresh water history to study how to better teach history in college. We plan to write articles on how our students learn. To use your work, we need your permission. Please fill out the form linked below if you would be willing to allow your work to be used. There are multiple levels of permission (just Normandale, just in college journals, public, anonymous, named) and you can withdraw you permission at any time.
As well, in our D2L course, there is a link to the CourseEval in the top bar. Please fill this out.
Please complete the course survey (D2L) and the Fresh Water Stories permission form.
A note on Projects
I’ve assessed all the projects. Your grade is based on whether you submitted a substantial step towards your final Revision, not based on how strong your project was. Several students turned in work that needs to be entirely revised, but it was complete. A 10/10 does not mean you have no revisions, it means you completed a draft.
A couple students wrote "This is what I’m going to do in my Revision," rather than making substantial progress towards completing the Project. I gave as much credit as I could based on what was turned in.
A note on final grades
- I own all the grades so I can change your grade anytime. That is to say, please do not call in the middle of the night fearing a grade will be permanently on your record. Once final grades are submitted I must fill out a digital form to change it, and I can change it 5 minutes, 5 weeks, or 5 years after it’s been submitted.
- Data errors are easy to fix and I welcome your emails.
- Technical errors (google ate my homework) will involve a longer discussion that goes beyond when grades are due.
- Your class citizenship grades are based on your participation, the honesty in your reflections, and respectful behavior towards everyone in this class. Good citizens show up and make their communities better places. If you did that, you will score well.
- I am willing to discuss individual assignments, but not the final course grade. Please consider your communication carefully when asking for regrading.
- Grades are a measure of your performance on a set number of tasks over the course of four months. Grades are not a measure of intelligence, effort, ability, or my afinity for you. Grades reflect what you turned in, and only that.
2023-05-3, 23:49 Project feedback
I read students with names A through M and I’ve reached though point that I fear my tiredness is not serving students. I’ll pick up R through Z early tomorrow and should have them reviewed by 10 am.
2023-05-03, 15:45 Project feedback
I was in meetings this afternoon after teaching this morning, so feedback for your Projects will have to come tonight. FYI and apologies.
2023-05-1 Sources
For those struggling to find quality sources in the 0 to 1400 CE period, consider using this Research Guide on our Normandale Library website.
2023-05-01, 13:26 LGBTQ History Course this fall at Normandale
For those wishing to extend your history education or to learn more about LGBTQIA history in general, consider signing up for this fall’s LGBT History (HIST 2111) course with Normandale professor Robert Frame.
2023-04-28, 14:26 Prepare for Final Project
I’ve read and assessed your Prepare documents. Lots of good sources. All your sources, now, need to be high-quality, not just credible. That means sources have named authors who are experts in their fields, and cited sources.
If you need a language model for your project, use the following:
"My project will show that [insert your freshwater related person, place, object or ideas] was historically significant to [people] in [specific place] during the years [xxxx to xxxx]. My [object] was historical significanct in this (or these) specific ways."
Is that clunky writing?, yes. It’s also clear, and we need clarity before elegance in writing about the past.
I look forward to seeing your next stage, drafts for most of you, next week.
2023-04-26, 11:05 Final Project Video
I created a video explainer video that hopefully helps you understand your final project.
2023-04-25- Office hours today Office hours will be from 12:30 to 1 and 3 to 3:30 today. I am available, as usual, by phone or video conference, all morning.
2023-04-21, 14:38 Revision, Reflection, and AI use
Reflections were lovely, as usual.
The best Revisions tied clearly tied quantitative data related to fresh water to specific historical cultures and explained why that data was historically significant.
When it comes to ChatGPT and the other AI writing tools a reminder: you must cite all sources used in a history paper, including if you give ChatGPT a prompt.
There are three issues with using AI writers like ChatGPT: one, using someone else’s words as your own without citation and quotation is plagiarism and results in failure of the assignment. So, if you using ChatGPT for the final project, you’d lose 20% of your final grade.
Two, AI’s are rubbish at history. It’s like watching a middle-age man try to be cool like teenagers. We (middle-age men) are not cool, and AI history writing is mostly empty words that with hoards of historical errors. AI gets most of its information from the open web. Don’t be that guy.
Finally, **most importantly** your words and analysis are _so much better,_ nuanced, and attentive to issues that matter than an AI can produce. Often I find fantastic analysis in the middle of writing that has clear usage issues, but is still brilliant even if it’s not perfectly composed.
– Give yourself time, trust yourself, and turn in your work, even when you know it isn’t as good as you want it to be.
———————————
**2023-04-19 Black Death**
One of the most significant uses of quantitative data in the last 10 years has been in using ancient DNA (called aDNA) to study the Black Death. The article [Did the Black Death Rampage Across the World a Century Earlier Than Previously Thought?](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/did-black-death-rampage-across-world-more-century-previously-thought-180977331/) is a short summary of an article my scholar Monica Green. What she concluded about the Plague will amaze you. You can read the original scholarly article through our library databases.
**2023-04-18 Office hours online today and tomorrow**
My office hours will be on Zoom today (Tuesday) and tomorrow (Wednesday). Click [here](Join Zoom Meeting
https://minnstate.zoom.us/j/9523588911) to enter zoom room.
**2023-04-17, 15:44 – Data Projects Assessed**
Mostly strong computation on the Gross Domestic Product per capita data. One-quarter of students skipped questions I to V on age. On question V, no, you do not need to worry about dying because the mode of 1 skews the results and, as one savy student noted, average age of death is not a statistical predictor of an individuals death in the coming year. Those are two different numbers.
Looking forward to your projects on data and fresh water.
**2023-04-17, 13:50 – Source for Fresh Water History**
Two useful sources for this week’s Data Literacy Revision are [*The Journal of Water History*](https://mnpals-ndc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01MNPALS_NDC/1b7vjs2/alma9989929787004303) and the online book [_A History of Water: Water and food from hunter-gatherers to global production in Africa.](https://mnpals-ndc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01MNPALS_NDC/2nme62/alma9989933486004303)
Both the journal and the book contain sources that are credible, pre-1400 CE, and include numerical data. You can also use JSTOR and Project Muse databases if you wish.
**2023-04-12, 15:12 – STEM Scholarship**
If you will be attending Normandale next year and are interested in a STEM career consider applying for the [PRISM Scholarship.](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1llm6MCGmKZK8l4INglPSmT7LpDQ9SsXhtOi3lnETvDo) for up to $3750.
**2023-04-07, 15:49- Revision and Reflection assessed**
Very strong organization of maps, images, and text. The best paragraphs made explicit arguments for why to include your object or article in the documentary and tied that argument to the history of the object with examples.
We start data literacy next week, which is mostly how historians work with numbers. Not a lot of math, but some light counting and basic statistics.
**2023-04-06, 12:48: Links for Maps**
Below are examples of what you can do with GIS analysis. Most of these examples center on water and GIS.
[Estuary Floods Video](https://ndcproxy.mnpals.net/login?url=https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=100853&xtid=95239)
[NOAA Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Map](https://coast.noaa.gov/slr/#/layer/slr/7/-11582801.178844031/5094464.918221852/4/satellite/none/0.8/2050/interHigh/midAccretion)
[National Geographic Water Gap Map](https://worldwatermap.nationalgeographic.org/)
[Streamflow predictions: 6 days](https://www.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=259e39b329e3494e965d9286687c18c5)
[StoryMap: Coastal Flooding](https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/4faf6d052c8f41b3b9b99c506642bca5)
**2023-04-6- Office hours online today**
My office hours will be on Zoom today.
2023-04-05, 13:20 **Understanding Grades**
For your final grades, I drop 4 assignments. To make D2L do that, I curve the total grade 12%. It looks like this. Your letter grade is accurate in D2L based on the below schema. To consider you place in the class, take your current points, and add whatever the points available (which is 35 for most students.) That gives you your maximum score. For example, if you have 50 points now, adding 35, your maximum score is 85. Realistically, I encourage students to add 80% of points (28 points) for what they could realistically score by the end of the semester.
**2023-04-03, 13:39- GIS Maps**
Strong Story Maps from most students. The biggest challenge for students was pairing a secondary source with a clearly-articulated historical significance. Arranging maps, images, and text was well done.
**2023-03-30, 9:19: Prepare and Absence**
I’ve read your Prepare questions and they’re mostly well-answered. A couple folks needed to fully-articulate their thoughts- good thoughts deserve great words, and lots of them.
I’m going to be out today for medical reasons, but will check in tonight on email to answer questions.
**2023-03-27, 12:57- History Assessment**
Our official History Department Assessment is now available.
The assessment is a single picture with one question. Please login to D2L, navigate to “Assessments” in the top menu and then “Assignments,” and complete the practice assessment.
Your results will not influence your final grade and will help the History Department evaluate our teaching.
Please complete the Assessment by Thursday night at 10 pm and thank you!
**2023-03-27 GIS Video: Links to come**
2023-03-24 **AI and History**
I’ve assessed your Revision and Reflections. Wonderful thinking on the part of many students.
To answer a couple questions on AI from your assignments:
1. ChatGPT outputs words in an order it believes replicates the patterns of words it has been trained on, regardless of the accuracy of those patterns.
2. AI’s don’t care. There’s not emotional intelligence behind the output, yet many of the metaphors we use deploy human verbs, such as the AI “learns,” it “tells us,” or it “insults us.” Regardless of how human the output, there is no holistic human intelligence behind it.
3. As far as your answers and my research shows, _AI’s can’t interpret primary sources._ For example, ChatGPT can’t look at the picture of a Peruvian boat and suggest the ways in which Peruvians imagined their gods. ChatGPT outputs appear to recapitulate nothing but secondary sources. As historical analysis, this is pretty weak.
4. The best practice for citation, of any tool, is to increase your level of citation based on the centrality of your usage. For example, spell check and and word suggestions from AI’s don’t need citation. If you ask ChatGPT to generate a full essay for you, your “citation” should include not just the name of the AI, its version, your prompt, and the date access, you should include the original response from ChatGPT to show how you modified it. Using this model of citation (the more I use something, the more I need to show how I used it) will help you express academic integrity and avoid potential plagiarism accusations.
5. Students are mainly curious but skeptical about AI. Faculty are curious and partially terrified.
2023-03-20, 09:38 **Question about AI Revision Assignment**
A good question from your classmate Adri: do you need to enter anything into an AI for this assignment?
No.
The use of Artificial Intelligence can expose students to harm, and like all educators, I don’t want to do that. The harm can be hateful language an AI outputs (AI’s have generated insults and threatened the lives of users), or ethical harm when learning about the repercussions of using a tool that causes other damages. For example, AI’s generate significant CO2 as they need large servers (computers) to run. Asking 100 of my students to run an AI query would generate additional CO2, which is harm to our planet. As many of you have made clear, environmental issues are important to you. So, I’ve run a single search and given you the results, which you can analyze.The output from ChatGPT, the AI we are using is listed as picture below.
2023-03-17, 15:43 **Voyant Analysis Read**
Many strong analyses based on word counts. The strongest paragraphs identified their stopwords, and clearly tied word counts to possible conclusions.
Several students wrote similar paragraphs about what Voyant could do, rather than doing analysis with Voyant. I can’t tell if the instructions led you to this conclusion, or if some of you talk to each other and missed a crucial part of the instructions. Anything you can share to help me make this a better lesson next time is appreciated.
The most popular subjects were Islam, the Willow oil pipeline project, and justice issues, such as the environment or free period products. On that last note, should you even be on campus and have the need, my office door always has free tampoons and pads. The campus cupboard (Activities building) has the same, but they’re not always open.
2023-03-17, 13:51 **Revision for next week has been published**
I’m going to introduce you to Artificial Intelligence by way of ChatGPT. And you won’t believe what you’ll discover . . .
2023-03-16, 15:51 **History Practice Assessment**
As part of the Normandale History Department’s efforts to improve our teaching, we ask students to answer two short questions about historical documents. Our first practice assessment is this week and we will do a second assessment next week.
The assessment is a single picture with one question. Please login to D2L, navigate to “Assessments” in the top menu and then “Assignments,” and complete the practice assessment.
Your results will not influence your final grade and will help the History Department evaluate our teaching.
Thank you!
2023-03-16, 11:40 **Prepare on Mayan Article**
I’ve read your answers and most were strong. I am noticing an uptick in students using others’ words without quotation or citation. As a review, using someone else’s words, images, music, or ideas requires citation. For using not-your-words, you put the words in quotation marks and then indicated the source.
Using others’ words without quotation AND citation is dishonest, and we call it plagiarism, which violates the [Normandale Code of Conduct.](https://www.normandale.edu/current-students/dean-of-students/code-of-conduct.html)
Want guidance on how to practice academic integrity and avoid plagiarism? Check out this [tutorial,](https://learningcommons.dccc.edu/PlagiarismTutorial) which includes video of a college president apologizing for his plagiarism.
2023-03-13, 20:41 **Week 10 Work and Podcasts.**
Yes, I know we’re in week 9. I’m changing the week 10 work so that you have some exposure to the use of text Artificial Intelligence in history. This will mean curtailing our distant reading a bit. I’ll have the new assignment available by Friday afternoon.
The podcasts were very good in this class and made for informative listening over my spring break.
2023-02-28, 11:55 **New Podcast due date**
My reading of the podcast scripts is that students need more time to produce quality work, so I’m giving you all until Thursday at 10 to record, upload your audio file, share the file and place the shared file link in your Assignment file.
2023-02-24, 15:03 **Project Podcasts**
Some good starts, and a couple great starts. A few notes for all:
1. Britannica is a general encyclopedia. It’s great when you know nothing, like wikipedia, but college-level work requires sources from experts, such as are found at our Normandale library databases.
2. Try to cover as small a topic as possible. You write better and with with greater historical thinking when you cover less material.
3. Find a friend to read your podcast to and ask them to give 3 suggestions for changes.
4. One student wrote a podcast that is good enough to share (about noodles) and I’ve asked for permission to share. Stay tuned.
Have a great weekend!
**2023-02-22, 20:07**
Normandale is closed on Thursday, February 23rd for both face to face and virtual classes. I’ll be live on Discord from 1-2 pm to answer questions in the the text or voice channels related to your Podcast Projects.
2023-02-22, 17:16 **Prepare Podcasts Read**
Many possible topics. A note: writing about as small a topic as possible is often easier than writing about something big. For example, writing about one ingredient in soup is better than writing about the history of Soup. For podcasts you have a limited space to cover a topic, so smaller topics give you more space to share interesting analysis and facts. Big topics require so much summary, you often don’t get to the “so why should you care?” point.
I encourage students to use our Normandale library databases for high quality sources. Britannica was great when you were in middle school. You can now access the best scholarship in the world: game on friends.
2023-02-17 **Reflection Update**
Your section is my last this week to Read for Reflections. I’ll get them read ASAP. Have a great three-day weekend (Normandale is closed on Monday.)
2023-02-15 **Metadata Revision**
The Venn Diagrams produced were excellent and reflected strong consideration of what metadata/tags/keywords would yield productive searches. The paragraphs varied, with some closely copying my model and others improving on my basic model with specific examples of why you chose metadata and how it related to specific historical details. Many of you are skilled digital artists, which didn’t earn higher grades, but did earn my admiration.
Looking forward to your Reflections.
2023-02-13, 16:04 **Metadata and jobs**
Students sometimes ask why we do some much work learning about metadata? One, metadata shapes how we do historical research on the web. To find accurate historical information we need to understand how searches algorithims shape their outputs.
As importantly, using metadata is fundamental to 21st century job skills. There’s an entire field called search engine optimization (SEO) that relies robust use of metadata to generate website traffic. See for example the search [“seo specialist”](https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=seo+specialist&l=Minneapolis%2C+MN&from=searchOnHP&vjk=5d7d3ea7fc5a5ad6) on the job site Indeed.
So, for historical research and for enhanced employability, I make you slog through these exercises. Not to worry, podcasting is up next.
2023-02-10, 10:59 **Project metadata assessed**
Strong choices of articles, summary, and choice of metadata. NICE JOB CLASS. The strongest paragraphs clearly summarized the entire argument of the article in the student’s own words, and fully explained the metadata choices. For example, “I chose the metadata term “umami” because it relates to one of the principle flavors of SE Asia cuisine and I think anyone doing research on food history would find this flavor hard to search for” is a strong response. “I chose umami because its a good search term” is less strong.
2023-02-9, 15:50 **Project metadata advice**
As your read your chosen Jstor or Project Muse article, consider reading for content, not as your read novels. Read the following sections in this order:
– Citation: this tells you when something was published. Pre-1945 CE articles likely have racist language or do not include strong historical thinking.
-Abstract: this is a paragraph summary of the article, not all articles have this)
– Introduction: most of the time this will be the first two paragraphs or so of the paper.
– Conclusion: A drawing together of evidence and points made in the article.
– Body: Power-read or skim this. You are only looking for how the evidence is used to support the thesis, which you have already reviewed in the Intro and Conclusion.
If you read material in this order in this way, you’ll save yourself time and improve your demonstrated historical thinking.
2023-02-08, 13:57 **Prepare metadata reviewed**
Most students get structural metadata (tags that help us find sources). Many are still struggling to understand descriptive metadata, tags that tell us what is in a source. When a file was updated helps us find it. What is in a file (picture of 12th century BCE vase, Persia) is descriptive.
The project requires lots of thought and work: please give yourself enough time.
2023-02-07, 12:47 **Test your metadata skills**
If you take a look at this [graphic of how water flows](https://labs.waterdata.usgs.gov/visualizations/water-cycle/index.html#/) in the water cycle, what elements of the page are structural and what parts are descriptive metadata? The graphic will help you understand water in our historical societies, while considering the metadata will give you a real-world example of how metadata works.
2023-02-03, 15:45 **Reflection read**
Best part of my week are the Reflections. Your effort, personality, and curiosity are on full display. To those of you experiencing life-altering hardship, I see you and tried to offer resources that Normandale has that might help. Thank you for your honesty. Llegamos juntos, o no llegamos allí en absoluto. (We arrive together or we don’t get there at all.)
2023-02-02, 12:23 **Revisions Reviewed**
Some fun, creative, and engaging art synthetic pieces. The strongest paragraphs clearly tied your suggested art explicitly to historical societies. The best analysis tied in your art with specific mentions, either quotations or information, in the sources for the week.
If you cannot touch type on a physical keyboard (not a screen), I recommend you consider learning this semester (if disabilities allow that). My in-class students are using typingclub.com for five minutes. Typing faster doesn’t give you better ideas, but it lets you produce work in less time, which gives you more time to edit. Everyone’s first draft is terrible: that’s well studied by our English faculty. Finding a way to get to a first draft and then improving the draft is key.
Five minutes a day of learning touch typing for two weeks and you’ll produce better work for your lifetime. In terms of return on investment, it’s one of the highest simple skills you can develop.
Looking forward to your Reflections.
2023-02-01, 15:41 **Update**
As you may have seen from the Normandale website, we were closed yesterday for training. So, I’m getting back into reading your work today and tomorrow.
2023-01-30, 14:54 **Art Projects Reviewed**
Well-answered analysis of difficult art objects. The best answers explicitly tied one of our sources for the week (2 articles, 1 video) to their primary source analysis.
Note: tomorrow is a training day at Normandale, so I’ll be away from communication most of the day. I was ill today, but took a “sick day” just to catch up on work, hence this post.
2023-01-25, 16:21 **Prepare Reviewed**
Well-answered by most students. Oddly, many did not include the Indus River as in their answer to important Indian rivers. Good luck with your projects.
2023-01-25, 13:20 **Money, Transfer Credits, and Hair as Art**
Normandale has [many scholarships](https://normandale.scholarships.ngwebsolutions.com/Scholarships/Search) available and this is the season to apply for next fall. In addition, there are two scholarships named after David B Jones that are open right now only until February 1st. One is for Native Americans (remember, for you or tell a friend) and another for low-income, students of color, or first generation students.
Students that transfer to other colleges often wonder if how their credits will be accepted. The website [Transferology](https://transferology.com/index.htm) lets you input your courses and then add potential colleges to see how they transfer.
Finally, with historical art, consider how art can serve as an assertion of personhood. Functionally, people say “I’m here” in their art. This is especially the case with hair, which is everyday, but also used to express identity, and often policed by others. Consider this week’s source in which a woman wears a crown over her long hair, or this [Egyptian piece](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544225?when=2000-1000+B.C.&ft=hair&offset=40&rpp=40&pos=51) in which one woman does another woman’s hair. Judging people by their hair is not new.
2023-01-23 **Art Analysis**
Thinking about art in history requires us to reflect on what art means to us today. Why do you make art? Why do you use it?
Consider the **Seated Figured of Çatalhöyük** of around 7000 BCE.
This sculpture is one of the earliest sculptures in existence, but we know very little of the [society that produced it.](https://smarthistory.org/catalhoyuk/) Was this a religious figure, art of domestic contemplation, a governmental figure?
As you consider historical art, be sure to apply the question in the Historical Thinking Chart in this week’s readings.
2023-01-20, 16:05 **Grades and Next Week**
Note that I only give a zero for work that I cannot see. If you’ve written anything, including “I’m so tired I couldn’t do this work,” I’ll give you some points. A zero tells you I looked at your Assignment file and did not see the required work for the week.
We begin our study of the past, not just historical thinking skills.
My expectation is that you will take notes on readings and videos. The form is up to you (notebook, digital, post it, scroll, carved steele). I will ask to see your notes this semester to check in on your learning.
2023-01-17, 18:53
How is your SIFT process? Ready for a self-test? Answer this question: should we save the [Northwest Pacific Tree Octopus?](https://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/)
2023-01-12, 12:45 **BCE and CE**
I post updates on this page almost every work day. Today I’d like you to note that the dating system we use previously BC for before year 0 and AD for after the year 0. Today we use BCE and CE for Before the Common Era and Common Era. The change in terms is to reflect multiple issues, one of which is that the historical Jesus figure we now know was born around 4 CE, not 0.
##### Welcome to World History 1101 – Section 10 (T-Th) #####
Below you will find essential information for our course. Enjoy this [four-minute video introduction](https://mediaspace.minnstate.edu/media/Introduction+to+World+History+1101+-+Spring+2023+/1_7wrqwonm) to our course.
The knowledge and skills of world history are invaluable elements in your college and work careers. This course assumes you have no previous college history and no specialized digital skills.
We face two primary challenges.
**1. Students have widely divergent [digital literacies](https://literacy.ala.org/digital-literacy/)**, yet we need everyone to be digitally literate to be successful in college. The first two weeks of our course is to level up all students, ensuring you have the tools you need to succeed in this course and in college.
**2. There is more inaccurate history available than accurate history.** The internet, especially social media, spreads historical lies quickly and widely. Previously, students worked hard to find any information about a historical subject, say a book on the Tang dynasty. Now, students can find information about the Tang easily, but sorting credible from non-credible information presents significant challenges.
All tools and websites we use are **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 #####
By way of introduction, my legal name is David, but everyone calls me Jack. You can address me as Professor Norton if that feels more comfortable. Any salutation offered in respect is welcome. I’ll address you by your first names, unless otherwise directed and, most importantly, I’ll always address you respectfully.
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. I’m a dad of two kids. My specialties are Spanish women’s history and digital history pedagogy.
##### Course Design #####
The syllabus and schedule posted to our [course page.](https://jacknorton.org/courses/) Grades will be recorded in [D2L](https://normandale.learn.minnstate.edu/) because the Family Education Rights Privacy Act [(FERPA)](http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html) requires we keep student data secure and private.
I am hosting our course on my own server. Doing so allows you open access to our material beyond the two years Normandale supports on D2L. Putting our course on the open web also lets me design a web site that includes only that which is useful for learning.
All your work will be in your own single file, that you control, in either Office 365 or Google docs. You will share that file with me (jacknorton at normandale.edu or jackhistorynorton at google.com depending on which platform you use). I will read your work and give feedback in your file.
**Instructions for setting up your own Assignment file**
[Office 365](https://jacknorton.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/setting_up_your_single_word_page_for_all_assignments__.html)
[Google](https://jacknorton.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/creating_an_assignment_page_with_google_docs.html)
##### First week to do list #####
[ ] Read the [user manual for this course (AKA “the syllabus)](https://jacknorton.org/1-current_courses/world-history-1-1101-01-online-spring-2023/)
[ ] Complete the Week 1 Prepare and Project assignments as listed in the [Weekly Schedule](https://jacknorton.org/1-current_courses/world-history-1-1101-01-online-spring-2023/online-world-history-1-schedule/)
[ ] Set up your [Discord account.](https://jacknorton.org/courses/1-world-history-1-1101-fall-2022/directions-for-how-to-setup-discord/)
[ ] Log in to your email account. [Normandale email account](https://login.microsoftonline.com)
[ ] Log in and review your Normandale [Office 365 account](https://login.microsoftonline.com/)
[ ] Log in to [D2L](https://normandale.learn.minnstate.edu/d2l/login), navigate to our class, and find the gradebook under “Assessments”
**Avatar:** It would be useful to me if you could **load a picture of yourself,** or an avatar into D2L and Discord so that we can all get to know you. Please do not post pictures of multiple people, just you. Your picture will be visible to other students. You can use https://getavataaars.com/ for a wide range of people or another avatar creator. Click on your name in the upper right corner of [D2L](https://normandale.learn.minnstate.edu/) to access your profile.
Most importantly, talking with students is the best part of being a professor. My door (real and digital) is open your presence is valued and welcomed.
