Tonna Collins

tcollins@mtsu.edu

Jan Leone

History

Discipline specific equipment

PH 221/222A

N/A

N/A

The History Department requests the equipment and software necessary to establish a mobile New Media lab to facilitate field research and provide adequate opportunity for digital photography and editing. Rapid changes in media technology have altered history education, offering new possibilities for teaching and learning history and shifting approaches to historical research and publication. Acquisition of this equipment is essential if students are to undertake projects and pursue pedagogical goals appropriate to the 21st-century educational landscape. The department has the necessary space, expertise, and technical support, but needs the equipment to produce and publish state-of-the-art documentary films, websites, and lectures. New Media technology is especially useful for experiential leaning, a longstanding approach to history education in the department's Public History program, and creation of a new PhD in Public History adds a degree of urgency to our request. Some projects utilizing digital media have already been undertaken by Dr. McWatters, as illustrated in three documentaries produced recently by historic preservation students (http://www.newmediahistory.com/nmh). These are the first of many such projects to be carried out by history undergraduate and graduate students and faculty who will be researching and publishing new knowledge in new ways to public and academic audiences alike.