A new module, “From the Archival to the Digital Turn”, has been added to the DARIAH-Campus platform. This module is one of the lessons that feature on the teaching platform Ranke2 – Source Criticism in the Digital Age. It was developed at the C2DH, the Centre for Contemporary and Digital History at the University of Luxembourg, with the intention of teaching both lecturers and students how the use of digital technologies has impacted the practice of applying source criticism to historical data.
In a world of ‘fake news’ and digital manipulation, how can we keep a critical eye over the sources used in research? The soft skills that humanists acquire throughout their research build on the ability to critically analyse a source, and that is no different in the case of digitised and born-digital sources. Crucial too, for this type of analysis, is a basic understanding of digital technology and computational methods.
This first module, now available via DARIAH-Campus, compares the impact on historians of the move from manuscript to digital resources, and explains how digital sources are created and published online. Through a combination of animations, quizzes, and a series of assignments with corresponding teaching aids, each module conveys knowledge about a specific topic or datatype.
The Ranke2 training platform was developed by Dr. Stefania Scagliola and lead designer Daniele Guido, with the assistance of a team of student assistants at the C2DH in Luxembourg. The concept and resource was envisioned by the director of the Centre, Prof. Andreas Fickers, himself an expert in Digital Hermeneutics. The team based the structure of the modules in order to address a concern that a new generation of historians may lack the tools to critically appraise the abundance of data now available on the Internet. The Ranke2 teaching platform specifically aims to bridge the gap between the digital humanists and classical humanities scholars and students, as well as to reach out to citizen scientists and public history audiences. The intention is that after completing one module, the basis is laid to further venture into more demanding and challenging digital history projects. The modules on the Ranke2 platform can also be used as a teaching aid in the classroom to enable students with different backgrounds the opportunity to fill any gaps in their knowledge.
The full series of modules will be available via DARIAH-Campus over the coming months. You can access the “From the Archival to the Digital Turn” module here now on DARIAH-Campus.
