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MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY

REFLECTIVE ESSAY

ON

MY EXPERIENCE WITHIN MTSU PUBLIC HISTORY PROGRAM

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the

Doctor of Philosophy Degree in

Public History

SUBMITTED TO

Dissertation Committee-

Dr. Lisa Pruitt, Chair

Dr. Ellen GarrisonDr. Brenden Martin

Dr. Dianna Rust

SUBMITTED BY

Albert C. Whittenberg

June 2011

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In January 2003, I was about to step into my first history classin nearly fifteen years.

It was a Constitutional Law course by noted Lincoln scholarPhillip Paludan. The professor

was stern and obviously use to receiving a great deal ofrespect. To say that I was slightly

intimidated was an understatement. Class was a traditionallecture style with him relishing

being the sage on the stage. When we received our first testpapers back, Dr. Paludan was

extremely critical complaining that most of us obviously havenot kept up the readings and

should take a graduate course more seriously. He said that onlyone paper was worth his time

and then handed it to me. I was a little embarrassed to besingled out, but I left class feeling

for the first time that I had made the right decision.

What was that decision? That is a story in itself and the truebasis for this reflective

essay. In late May of 1986, I was graduating high school in myhometown of Crossville,

Tennessee. My father, who had grown up during the depression andwas a veteran of the

Korean War (it was never a conflict to him), had been atraditional hands off parent like

many of his generation. I had done all the research forpotential colleges and universities

including even toying with the idea of joining the Air Force tohelp pay for it. After the

graduation ceremony, my father sat me down in those hard metalseats found in my high

school gym telling me how proud he was of me and then asking mewhat I planned on doing

next. I told him that I was interested in a career in history.He frowned slightly and then told

me firmly to forget about the past and focus on the future. Myheart sank because I was

certainly not the rebellious type. I looked up to this man andtook his guidance very seriously.

For over twenty years, I have been following his advice gettingboth a bachelors and masters

degree in technology fields and working as an instructionaltechnologist. However, a move to

a job in Illinois gave me the opportunity to pursue a secondmasters in history (instead of a

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technical field) at the University of Illinois at Springfield.Some advice from one of my UIS

mentors after graduation would lead both to another technologyjob at Middle Tennessee State

University and also applying for their public history doctoralprogram. I had honored my

fathers advice but I was finally able to make that fatefuldecision to pursue my dream that I

had left so long ago on the floor of my high school gym.

Along the way, I have had the benefit of three remarkablementors. All three have

encouraged, pushed and never been afraid to tell me if I waswrong or being foolish. The first

would come after that semester with Paludan and theConstitution. Dr. Robert McGregor was

my opposite in nearly every way. He was rebellious by nature, astrong atheist and extremely

suspicious of computers and anybody who worked with them. Inclass, he thrived on those

which were as argumentative as he was. Dr. McGregor even told methat he really did not

know what to make of me when I came to his class. Why would areligious man put up with

him complaining about organized religion? Who from the ITdepartment would put up with

his constant fussing about how the administration puts tooemphasis on online learning and

that faculty should not have to learn how to do email?Gradually, we became friends. I never

pushed my beliefs on him and always respected his opinions. Heeventually came to me for

help with technology while I was consistently asking himquestion after question about the

American Revolution (one of his specialties). I read everythinghe recommended and would

ask him to serve as chair for my masters thesis committee (evenconsidering my topic was

comparing the work of two Methodist ministers in Georgia). Healso gave me my first real

chance to teach history as a guest lecturer for his ColonialAmerica course talking about the

Great Awakening.

My other mentor also is from my time at the University ofIllinois at Springfield. The

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university did not have a true public history program, and Dr.William Siles was their only

public historian. While his background was primarily in museums,Dr. Siles taught all the

public history courses. I took every course I could from himincluding his Archival

Management course (where he was assisted by university archivistTom Woods). During the

Spring of 2005, I was able to hear from the archivists at theIllinois State Archives as well as

the recently opened Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Ican still recall the feel of

those white gloves as I got to hold letters signed by AbrahamLincoln, Theodore Roosevelt

and countless Illinois politicians from the last two centuries.Iwas introduced to Schellenburg

and countless others (especially the first State Archivist ofIllinois Margaret Cross Norton and

her influence on the profession). After graduation, I had goneto Dr. Siles and asked him

about job possibilities or seeking my doctorate. Knowing of myroots in Tennessee, he

encouraged me to look at the program at Middle Tennessee StateUniversity plus he heard

they had an opening in the Information Technology division. BothDr. Siles and McGregor

would supply me with letters of recommendation, and I wouldcreate a rough but

comprehensive portfolio to send with my application. I actuallyfound out about my job at

MTSU before knowing if I would be accepted into the PublicHistory program. My family

and I took the chance (we wanted to get away from Illinoiswinters anyway) and moved back

to Tennessee. I had actually applied too late for entry in fallsemester 2006 but got in for

spring 2007. I was on my way thanks to the help of these twogood men.

Last (but certainly not least) is Dr. Ellen Garrison. When Ifirst came to Middle

Tennessee State University, I encountered this wonderfulhistorian and archivist at CampIT,

an annual two week training program that Information Technologyoffers every year free to

all faculty. She was, by far, the most vocal and curious of thesmall group of around twenty

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professors. When I told her of my background, she immediatelyasked me if I would like to

teach for them as an adjunct. By next semester, I was teachingthe Survey of American

History (HIST 2010) course online. Eventually, I would teach theHIST 2020 course as well

and usually average two sections a semester. I had taught beforeas an adjunct for Roane

State Community College, the University of Tennessee-Knoxvilleand the University of

Illinois at Springfield but always courses in either ComputerScience or Management

Information Systems. For this chance, I would already owe Dr.Garrison a great deal, but her

help did not stop there. For the next four years, nobody wouldpush me more. She introduced

me to the countless folks working in archives in this area likeDr. Lisa Pruitt, Jim Havron,

John Lodl and Lucinda co*ckrell. She also sent out introductionsfor me to archivists outside

of Tennessee such as the exceptional faculty in the ArchivalEducation Collaborative (AEC)

program: Philip Bantin of Indiana University, Amy Cooper Cary ofUniversity of Wisconsin-

Milwaukee and Dr. Elizabeth Dow of Louisiana State University.Besides introductions, she

would become my primary advisor introducing me to the fairly newfield of digital curation as

well as encouraging me to attend the premiere conference,DigCCurr, at the University of

North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

I attended DigCCurr II on April 1st

through the 3rd

in 2009 (the first DigCCurr had

been held two years earlier). The title for the program wasDigital Curation: Practice,

Promise and Prospects focusing on what professionals arecurrently doing in the field while

also taking a look towards the future. While the first DigCCurrhad been small and mainly

been focused about defining this new field, the second had overa hundred presenters from

different fields, institutions and countries. Just selectingwhat to attend was overwhelming.

In a session on digital curation tools, I would finally get tomeet face-to-face Dr. Richard

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Pearce-Moses (formerly of the University of Arizona) whom Dr.Garrison had introduced to

me through email and over the phone as a pioneer not only indigital curation but online

education of archives. There was a track of sessions gearedtowards educational challenges

for bringing digital curation programs into a university whichproved very informative and

fascinating. I also got to speak briefly to Dr. Helen Tibbo, whonot only organized the event

but was one of the leaders in bringing a digital curationcurriculum to UNC. It was an

exciting three days crammed with meeting leading archivists thatlooked to technology as not

a hindrance but an event that needed to be prepared for andtaught to future archivists.

Along with studying this new field in public history, Dr.Garrison also recommended

to me to take Phil Bantins Electronic Records course through theAEC. Building on my own

background in databases, Professor Bantin encouraged me in thestudy of data warehousing

and specifically the new recordkeeping systems being developedfor archives and other

institutions. Bantin not only had me research MTSUs own emailsystem to its strengths and

weaknesses in terms of archives but also the popular DSpacedigital asset system created and

used by MIT. DSpace was built for MITs faculty but did not stopthere. According to the

official DSpace Wiki, there are 334 organizations currentlyusing DSpace in 56

countries.1The Wiki further states that DSpace captures, stores,indexes, preserves and

redistributes an organization's research material in digitalformats and that research

institutions worldwide use DSpace for a variety of digitalarchiving needs.2

Why look at

these vastly different systems? Bantin felt very strongly thatany digital recordkeeping system

1DSPace Wiki, DSpace Instances (as of 01/12/2009),http://wiki.dspace.org/index.php/DSpaceInstances

(accessed April 2011).

2DSpace Wiki, What is DSpace,http://wiki.dspace.org/index.php/EndUserFaq#What_is_DSpace.3F(accessed

April 2011).

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must have the samecharacteristics as a physical/paper-orientedsystem as well as the

following requirements identified in his bookUnderstanding Dataand Information Systems

for Recordkeeping:

1. Capture records,2. Support classification scheme(s),3.Capture record metadata,4. Support audit control,5. Ensure recordsare usable,6. Manage security and control,7. Schedule records fordisposition, and8. Preserve records3

Both through the more traditional classes taught by Dr. Garrisonand now this course, I was

learning that the new electronic systems had to meet the sameneeds as the more classic

systems of paper. By such looking at the classical texts onarchives along with modern

trends, Dr. Siles, Dr. Garrison and now Professor Bantin werehelping me to truly link modern

technology (my current career) to the noble field of archives(hopefully my future career).

With Dr. Garrisons retirement, my primary concern of how to havea professional

residency while keeping my day job (which paid all the bills)was solved. With this gap, the

department needed a representative for the AEC as well assomeone to teach both the History

of Archives AEC course (HIST 6620) in the fall and the ArchivalManagementcourse (HIST

6615) in the spring. It would take some creative paperwork if adoctoral student wanted to

take either class, but the department was willing to give me ashot at jumping from teaching

undergraduate to graduate. Along with this, I would also supporttheir experiment this year

with the Elluminate software product to allow students in otherstates to attend remotely to

3Philip C. Bantin, Understanding Data and Information Systemsfor Recordkeeping (New York: Neal-Schuman

Publishers, 2008), 35-36.

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traditional onsite classes. This was part of an initiative byHistory Chair, Amy Sayward, and

also the Ad Hoc Distance Education Committee (whom I also servedas a member during the

2010-2011 academic year). Although I could not hope to fill Dr.Garrisons shoes, I was

grateful for the opportunity to teach graduate students as wellas assist the department while

they tried to fill this open position.

My residency mentor was Dr. Dianna Z. Rust, who assisted me withrelooking at the

design and structure of the courses especially in terms ofclassical teaching models as well as

distance learning. With the limited amount of time for researchand the fall semester coming

quickly, I was unable to redesign the HIST 6620 course. Insteadwith the generous offer of

her materials and lecture notes, I relied heavily on how Dr.Garrison taught the course as well

as my personal memories from taking it from her. My primaryadditions were weekly

PowerPoint slides, some audio-visual downloads and using someresearch I had done before

at UIS on the problems with replacing paper with technology.

Also, I would be remiss in not mentioning the other assistancethat Dr. Garrison gave

me for my fall course. She allowed me to view her personalnotes/files plus gave me around

twenty books to browse through as possible textbooks for thecourse. In the end, I selected

five that I was very familiar with and had used in her coursebefore (listed in the order used in

class):

1. Rosalind Thomas, Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece2.M.T. Clanchy, Memory to Written Record: England 1066-13073. DanielR. Headrick, When Information Came of Age4. JoAnne Yates, ControlThrough Communication: The Rise of System in American

Management

5. Abigail J. Sellen& Richard H. R. Harper, TheMyth of thePaperless Office

I used the other fifteen or so books to supplement my lectures.Besides the books, I also had

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the student read a host of articles that I had also read duringmy several classes in the

program: Examples include focusing on the development ofarchival theory outside of North

America with such respected works as Maynard Brichfords TheOrigins of Modern

European Archival Theory, Nancy Bartletts Respect des Fonds: TheOrigins of the Modern

ArchivalPrinciple of Provenance and Michel duch*eins The Historyof European Archives

and the Development of the Archival Profession in Europe. Dr.Garrison reviewed my work

in D2L and gave me the go ahead to proceed. Little did I knowthat the content of the course

would be the least of my troubles.

The History of Archives course is one of two courses that MTSUregularly teaches for

the AEC. Since students register at their respective schools,the instructor frequently does not

know how many students he or she will have sometimes until thefirst class session (or how

many schools will be connecting in). I had three from MTSU, fourfrom Indiana and one

from LSU. The students ranged from just starting their programto this being their last class

besides thesis hours. The problems started the very first classperiod in trying to get all three

campuses to be engaged. The MTSU students were easy but theother two schools were a

challenge. They wanted to keep quiet and watch class I assumelike it was a television show

or class video popped into a DVD player or VCR. When I calledtheir name, they responded

but rarely at first without my prompting. Ill admit I was notused to this. In all the graduate

courses I had attended before (including some through the AEC),it was often hard for the

professor to get everyone to stop discussing so he could move tothe next point. Silence was

deadly to me because I thought no one was learning then. Istarted to ask more questions and

lecture less. I emailed students frequently on points they hadbrought up complimenting them

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on their thoughts and comments. Slowly, the walls started tobreak down until unfortunately

the technology in the room decided to fail me.

First, I consider myself somewhat an expert on these two-wayvideo rooms like the

one used in Peck Hall. When I worked at Roane State CommunityCollege in the 1990s, I

supported six of these classrooms (called IDEA rooms). Theschool had at least one in each

of their five campuses plus a secondary one on the main campus.These rooms ran close to 12

hours a day six days a week (including Saturday courses). When Imoved to Illinois, I

supported two of these rooms primarily for meetings between thethree University of Illinois

campuses and occasionally a course or two a semester. I hadworked with the three main

vendors: VTEL, Polycom and Tandberg. I honestly did not findthis equipment intimidating

and felt I was a strong advocate for teaching with technology inthese types of rooms. In the

middle of the semester, I came early to class to get load myfiles on the instructor PC, and the

lights went out. For the next two hours, the power was outacross campus. I scrambled to call

support at the other two universities and eventually goteveryone on speaker phone. At one

point, I was talking to the Indiana students through one of thestudents speaker phone options

on their cell phone. It was a horrible night, but all of us gotthrough it. That would have been

bad enough but the next class period we had an equipment failurewhich required the vendor

that installed the equipment originally to have to make aservice call. Again, I ran class

mainly through speaker phone. The following week, I ran checkson the room several times

through another video conferencing room on campus to ensure thateverything would be

working for the next class. To their credit, no studentscomplained and were very supportive.

The only other technical hiccup was towards the end of thesemester when LSUs connection

would mysteriously disconnect around 5:45 or 6:00. It would comeback up in a couple of

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minutes, but they never did figure out what exactly washappening to my knowledge. It is just

so ironic that as soon as the students started warming up to methat the equipment then

decided to fail me.

That semester was frustrating, but it was also exciting. Dr. Dowhad warned me about

her lone student from LSU. He has been someone that had squeakedby, and his first papers

to me proved it. I tried to be supportive and complimentary whenI could. I gave suggestions

with each paper and was pleased when he would follow my advicewith each new submission.

He had been completely quiet unless I called on him (and thenhis answers were very short)

for most of the semester, but slowly that started to change. Hebegan to ask questions

regularly in class and also would email me directly. Indiscussion postings in D2L, he seemed

very comfortable giving his opinion. I would often bring upstudent postings in class and

frequently brought up his to hopefully draw him more out of hisshell. In the end, he got a

solid A- (which made me feel extraordinary considering most ofhis early papers were in

the B- range). Dr. Dow was certainly surprised when she heardthe news.

It was also during the fall semester that I had the opportunityto represent MTSU at the

AEC annual meeting at Baton Rouge from October 8th

to the 10th. Those attending were Jeff

Jakeman (Auburn), Elizabeth Dow (LSU), Amy Cooper Cary (UWM),Reagan Grimsley

(Auburn), Phil Bantin (IU) and myself. A number of topics werediscussed including

marketing the program, scheduling courses through springsemester 2015, reviewing

enrollment numbers and creating an AEC-specific facultyevaluation form. Looking back,

there was a great deal of work packed into those two and a halfdays with everyone eager to

make the program a continued success. Even though I was not thepermanent replacement for

MTSU and still a student, all these archivists treated me as oneof their own and respected my

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opinions and comments. I tried to represent MTSU to the best ofmy ability and also felt I

had made some valuable new colleagues for the future.

One of the tasks that we worked on at the meeting was a reviewof what the team

called Archives 101 objectives. All AEC courses require you tohave completed the first

essential class in archives. At MTSU, that course is ArchivalManagement (HIST 6615)

which I was to teach in the spring. This gave me the opportunityto add a few items that had

not been covered when I took the 6615 class as a student such asoral histories (I wish I had

invited the departments expert Dr. Martha Norkunas to the springclass to present though

instead of talking about it myself, but I was happy to discussconcerns over various audio-

visual formats). Several of the AEC representatives offered tosend me copies of their

syllabus for review as well. Using these 101 guidelines andsyllabi were also useful in

creating my planning document for Dr. Rust as well.

For my spring course (HIST 6615), I had researched and selectedthe MDK (Morrison,

Ross and Kemp) instructional design model (this was requested byDr. Rust during my

comprehensive exam defense and residency proposal review). Thismodel includes nine main

steps/goals:

1. Identify instructional problems, and specify goals fordesigning an instructionalprogram.

2. Examine learner characteristics that should receive attentionduring planning.3. Identify subject content, and analyze taskcomponents related to stated goals and

purposes.

4. State instructional objectives for the learner.5. Sequencecontent within each instructional unit for logical learning.6.Design instructional strategies so that each learner can master theobjectives.7. Plan the instructional message and delivery.8.Develop evaluation instruments to assess objectives.

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9. Select resources to support instruction and learningactivities.4In December 2010, Dr. Rust reviewed my planningdocument detailing how I would handle

each step for the upcoming course (this document is attached asan appendix to this essay for

the entire committees review). She encouraged me on severalitems and asked about the

possibility of attending class for at least one night. Iencouraged her to do this plus added

both her and Dr. Garrison to my D2L site for the course (I hadalso added both of them to the

D2L 6620 course site in fall when I was teaching).

Unlike HIST 6620, the textbooks for 6615 are actually part ofSAA guidelines. They

are the very practical Gregory S HuntersDevelopingandMaintaining Practical Archives: A

How-To-Do-ItManualand the more conceptual Understanding Archives&Manuscriptsby

James M. O'Toole and Richard J. Cox. I had used Hunters book inthree classes and knew it

to be a solid introductory text. Having never taught doctoralstudents before, I once again

leaned on the best example I knew (being Dr. Garrisons thirtyyears of archival experience

and twenty years of teaching). She had supplied me with herscanned articles in a CD, and I

used them greatly. Most weeks would include one or more chaptersfrom Hunter. An

example is the week the class spent on appraisal. They had toread the chapter in Hunter on

the topic and also the classic, The Appraisal of Modern PublicRecords by T. R.

Schellenberg. We discussed how the concepts of evidential andinformational values had

changed. What were the flaws of Schellenbergs theories? Whatparts did modern archivists

still practice and what was now discarded? It was not unusualfor students to have a chapter

in Hunter and three to four solid articles to review and writeabout before each class.

4G. R. Morrison, S. M. Ross &J. E. Kemp,Designing EffectiveInstruction (4th Edition).(New York: John Wiley &

Sons, 2004), 10.

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Unlike the AEC course, all the students in HIST 6615 were fromMTSU. There were

a total of nine students (including three doctoral students),and the discussions were lively.

Two of the students worked part-time at the Albert Gore ResearchCenter, two worked at the

Center for Popular Music and one had worked for TSLA (TennesseeState Library and

Archives). This allowed me to question them on how eachinstitution handled topics like

selection, accession, arrangement, description and reference.Because no institution did

things even close to the same way, the students began tounderstand the type of day-to-day

decisions archivists make to control and manage theircollections. Decisions are not just

based on the vanilla steps offered by Hunter but a variety ofinfluences including sometimes

politics and that always disturbing dollar sign. I was also ableto partner with John Lodl at the

Rutherford County Archives to have each student process anddigitize part of three large

photo collections he had been trying to get through. Finally, Ialso invited Jim Havron to

come as a guest speaker telling about his experiences not onlyat the Gore Research Center

but also as a former President of the Society of TennesseeArchivists and archivist for the

United Methodist Church- Tennessee Conference. I had alsoplanned on asking Lucinda

co*ckrell from the Center for Popular Music to present anothernight, but scheduling never

worked out.

What went wrong? What went right? How would I do thingsdifferent if I get the

chance to teach either course again? I have already spoken tothe technology problems that

occurred in 6620 in the fall. However, I do feel that I madesome other mistakes as well. One

of the many things that I took from Dr. Garrison is using themovie Schindlers Listas an

assignment in class. All the students have to watch the movieand write a report telling every

time they see a record being used. It is a powerful movie andreally resonates with the

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students (both when I took the course and when I taught it). Ihad really struggled the first

couple of weeks to try and get the students from LSU and Indianato enter more in class

discussion.However, the week ofSchindlersListwas different.People actively talked. Dr.

Garrison had mentioned to me that she used to use this earlierin the semester, and I had

wished I had done this. After this class, the students fromother universities were far more

open and talkative and made me seriously consider moving it tothe first or second week if I

get the chance to teach this course again..

Another problem was with the HIST 6615 course in terms ofconverting it to a hybrid

model. An initial problem was the lack of distance learners. Ionly had one student that lived

a considerable distance away (anywhere from an hour to 90minutes away depending on

traffic). I talked to her about using Elluminate as well asworking with an archives more local

to her than the Rutherford County Archives for the hands onportion. She thought about it for

a week and then declined. She would rather be in class and wouldrather partner up with one

of the other students at Rutherford County. Towards the end ofthe semester, all students

were required to do an in-class presentation. One of thestudents was going to have to miss

due to family concerns. He was very comfortable with technologyso I offered the chance to

use Elluminate including one-on-one training by me several weeksbefore the class. Like the

first student, he also declined and made arrangements to comein. I do not feel this was

related to the technology but more that these two studentspreferred to be in class with their

fellow students and myself. They felt they were losing somethingby doing class from a

distance. I feel this will continue to be a big stumbling blockas the History Department goes

forward with Elluminate. I am hoping that my dissertationresearch will highlight how some

institutions are overcoming this.

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All students were required to do a reflective essay in 6615 astheir final paper (a very

positive experience that I had done myself in classes with Dr.Garrison, Dr. Conard and now

Dr. Martin). I asked the student to let me have it it terms ofhow the class could be better or

how I can teach it better. One, they told me to not try and do atraditional lecture and have

more discussion. Due to my lack of experience and confidencewith teaching this course, I

had lectured more in the beginning than probably needed withgraduate students. Midway

through, I loosened up and began to trust my instincts more andopened with a question and

let the class flow from there. Instead of a rigid outline stepby step of what I had to do, I had

just a list of topics I wanted to cover before the night wasover. Several students commented

on this in their essays that they really started to enjoy theclass more after this class structure

became the norm.

The second item students commented on was the need for morehands-on activities.

As I mentioned before, I had met with John Lodl before thesemester began to work on a

project where the students could work in teams and finishprocessing a collection for him. I

had even got the department to loan him an additional computerand scanner so more students

could work at the same time. The biggest problem is this projectwas mainly a digitization

activity and really needed to give students a chance to do somuch more in terms of

processing a collection. Also, most of these students workedduring the day so getting to the

archives before 4:00 PM to work on this was challenging. When Itook archival management

in Illinois, it was also at night, but our professor partneredwith the university archives to keep

it open several nights throughout the semester and had multipleprojects for us to work on. I

wish I had actively pursued this with Dr. Williams or Jim Havronat the Gore Research Center

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to see if this was possible (I had already discussed eveninghours with John Lodl but staffing

limitations prevented it).

The third and final item that came up was in terms of thereadings. As I mentioned

before about my lack of confidence, I had never taught graduatestudents before this academic

year, and I also had PhD students in the spring. Not wanting tomess things up, I leaned

heavily on the materials that Dr. Garrison had provided for me.I hesitated to experiment

much and trusted her many years of experience. The big mistakeis I am not her. I do not

have over 30 years working in archives so I really should haveorganized the class and the

materials to fit me (and my lack of experience more). An exampleis what several students

commented on. Several of the readings that I had used from Dr.Garrison gave theories,

experiments or policies that had been created but without theraw data justifying the changes

or new way of thinking. Because of her extensive knowledge andresearch, Dr. Garrison can

easily give example after example. I could not. Instead, I woundup going back several times

to my desk researching the item more and then returning to thetopic the next class for further

explanation and discussion (or sometimes send additionalreadings through email that

strengthened my case). If given the opportunity again, I canhopefully change this. I am

grateful for the learning opportunity it gave me though to bothimprove my knowledge and

hopefully teaching ability.

In retrospect, I would declare my residency a success. I hadbeen able to use what I

had learned in my many classes and pass that knowledge onto anew group of students.

Although I did not always feel it, I had passed from studentonto to a respectable semi-

professional (I would certainly not call myself a professionalyet). I had been able to also

share two different viewpoints especially with my HIST 6615students of both the archivist

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and the technology specialist. The topic of digital records cameup numerous times, and I was

able to show how archivists and IT staff speak entirelydifferent languages and have

completely diverse concerns. Drawing on a paper I had writtenyears ago at UIS on paper, my

students were surprised to hear me explain that paper is still amore stable and reliable record

than any type of digital format.

Another exciting part of my residency was the requiredcolloquium courses I took

each semester. Along with fellow students Jane Davis and KristenBaldwin Deathridge, we

explored a number of topics pertinent to our different residencyprojects. Dr. Bren Martin

was our professor for both semesters and helped us with ourdissertation proposal, reflective

essay and portfolio. He also listened to how each of ourprojects was progressing offering

timely advice as well as support. He also met with each of usseparately as well to discuss

both the residency and our work in the colloquium courses. Eachstudent was charged to lead

a discussion at one of the class meetings. My topic for fall waspedagogy for digital media,

and my one for spring was educational standards in the digitalage. For the discussion in fall,

I asked everyone to read John Palfrey and Urs Gassers book, BornDigital: Understanding

the First Generation of Digital Natives. Along with othersupplemental materials, I discussed

the growing changes with todays generation of students. As theauthors noted in the

introduction, these kids are very different:

They study, work, write, and interact with each other in waysthat are very differentfrom the ways that you did growing up. Theyread blogs rather than newspapers.

They often meet each other online before they meet in person.They probably donteven know what a library card looks like, muchless have one; and if they do, theyve

probably never used it. They get their music online often forfree, illegally ratherthan buying itin record stores. Theyre morelikely to send an instant message (IM)

than to pick up the telephone to arrange a date later in theafternoon.5

5John Palfrey &Urs Gasser, Born Digital: Understanding theFirst Generation of Digital Natives, (New York:

Perseus Book Group, 2008), 2.

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Building on this knowledge was also part of my reasoning inexploring web enhanced, totally

online or hybrid courses for Public History programs. Withteaching HIST 2010 and 2020

online for several semesters and now adding web content to bothHIST 6615 and 6620, I was

hoping to bridge this generational gap. In spring, my discussionfocused on how this has

changed educational standards (or how it should change them). Iasked everyone to review

the International Society for Technology in Education standardsfor both teachers and

students. We also discussed the current U.S. History standardsat the National Center for

History in the Schools website athttp://www.nchs.ucla.edu/Standards/ . We also looked more

specifically on how Tennessee is doing based on a report by theThomas Fordham Institute

called The State of State U.S. History Standards 2011. Dr.Martin, these discussions and

my research in them helped me to rethink how I presented thesecourses and prepared my

dissertation proposal.

One of my hopes when I started the program here at MTSU was tosomehow combine

my passion for history and archives with what I have been doingprofessionally for over

fifteen years. Technology and history sometimes do not mix verywell, but I have been

pleasantly surprised how my experience has aided me throughoutthe program. It should not

be a surprise that I also wanted to do this with my residencyand ultimately my dissertation.

In my proposal to my dissertation committee, I included thefollowing question/purpose:

This study intends to investigate the possibilities ofconverting a graduate publichistory program to one partially (orcompletely) online with the hope of expanding

student enrollment numerically and geographically. To do this,the research will notonly focus on traditional programs in bothhistory and specifically public history but

also successful distance learning programs for the socialsciences. This study will alsoexamine key test cases such as thedigital curation programs at the University of

Illinois, the University of North Carolina and the University ofArizona as well as theArchival Education Collaborative (of whichMiddle Tennessee State University is a

partner) in hopes of identifying best practices and detailingboth the successes andfailures of trying to implement suchprograms.

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Within my residency, I had hoped to build up some personal datato add to the dissertation.

All of the materials had been originally posted online by Dr.Garrison through the course

management system D2L for both HIST 6615 and 6620. I also addeddiscussion postings to

6615 (they were already built in for 6620) as well as providingfeedback for papers in D2Ls

dropboxand all grading online for both courses. Besides thetextbooks, all the other articles

for the student to read were provided in an Adobe PDF format (Iconverted them to PDF/A

format so they would work with any version of Acrobat Reader orbrowser). During lecture, I

would routinely use PowerPoint in some fashion and all of thoseslides were added to D2L as

well for the students to download if they wished. I alsoattempted to use Elluminate for

instructor hours for the Archival Management course, but moststudents simply used email if

they had a question or waited till before or after class. Asmentioned before, my other

attempts offering Elluminate as a possible solution to twostudents was rejected.

Whileperhaps more negative than positive, I still am confidentthat my experiences the past

year (along with interviewing the faculty that used Elluminateextensively both semesters) can

add to the research for my dissertation.

During one of the colloquium classes, Dr. Martin made the remarkthat I probably

have discovered what he did so many years ago that teaching atopic really makes you truly

learn and understand it. One of my biggest weaknesses is neverworking in an archives. I

have used archives. I have partnered on projects witharchivists. I have supported these

institutions with my enthusiastic support and often wallet aswell. Some of my dearest friends

now are archivists, but they all know that my day job is atechnologist. I have learned so

much from my courses, my instructors, my fellow students andteaching these classes.

However, teaching these two semesters makes me realize more andmore that I need to get my

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hands truly dirty (it is a little embarrassing when yourstudents have processed more records

than yourself). With this in mind, I have begun to contactseveral of my archivist friends and

offered my services. Jim Havron of the Albert Gore ResearchCenter has a number of items

that I can assist in processing as well as investigating if Ican help him with anything related

to the work he does as the archivists of the TennesseeConference of the United Methodist

Church. I also plan on contacting John Lodl at the RutherfordCounty Archives and Lucinda

co*ckrell at the Center for Popular Music to see if I canvolunteer to assist them as well.

During this long process and specifically my residency, I alwaysgo back to those all

too familiar questions. What did I learn? Was I a success or afailure? What did I learn

about myself? Can I possibly add something to this wonderfulprofession like the men and

women who have taught me? The first time I ever got the chanceto teach on a college level

was in a computer networking class at Roane State CommunityCollege. It was scary but

ultimately extremely satisfying. When I look back at the coursesI have taught throughout my

residency, I can recall never leaving class tired or disgustedwith my students. I always left

excited that learning had taken place for both them andespecially me. Considering that most

of those days I had worked 8 to 10 hours before going intoclass, that hammers in that my

decision of so long ago is valid. What did I learn about myself?I still love teaching and

enjoy since I am teaching something that I am passionate aboutinstead of just having

experience in (like technology). My life has benefited so muchfrom magnificent mentors

who not only taught me their chosen field of expertise inhistory but the wonders of teaching.

Perhaps, that is why I was never satisfied with having a job intechnology but educational

technology or instructional technology (however you labelit).

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I cannot end this document without again thanking the countlessfolks who have

helped me throughout my educational career in history, publichistory and especially archives.

Dr. Paludan is no longer with us, but I owe so much for hisinfluence with that first graduate

history course. I appreciate the continued friendship andsupport of Dr. Bob McGregor

despite our lively discussions on religion.Although I can talkat length about Dr. Siles

teaching me about the ins and outs of managing an archives, Iowe him more for pointing me

towards MTSU for both a job and a fantastic public historyprogram. I also cannot fail to

mention Dr. Conard giving me my first chance to work on such aninteresting project as Tims

Ford as well as trusting me with the responsibility of thearchival track representative during

my residency time. Although I did not take a class from himuntil my professional residency

colloquium, Dr. Bren Martin has been tremendous in helping mewith both my residency

proposal and dissertation proposal, and he has offered meextremely useful advice and support

especially when I interviewed for my first history position. Icannot thank Dr. Lisa Pruett

enough for be willing to serve as the chair of my committee plusher fantastic advice on my

dissertation plans. Although I have not mentioned him earlier, Iwould also thank Dr. Lynn

Nelson for his help with my written comprehension exam plus somewords of support before I

stepped into my first interview when I was applying for an openfaculty position. Finally, I

cannot thank Dr. Ellen Garrison enough. To mention everythingshe has done for me in the

past four years would take far too many pages for this essay. Iam truly blessed to have

known and worked with so many exceptional faculty andhistorians.

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Appendix:

MRK Model Planning Document

Used For

HIST 6615/7615

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1. Identifyinstructional problems,andspecify goalsfordesigninganinstructionalprogram.

Essentials of Archival Management (HIST 6615/7615) is frequentlycalled in the

Archives Educational Collaborate (AEC) the Archives 101 course.In other words, it is

the first course the graduate students (on the Archives track)take that primarily focuses onthe archivist profession.

One of the biggest instructional problems with the course has itis taught at MTSU is itattempts to combine all the major concepts,vocabulary, standards, ethical principles, and

current issues in archival management with practical hands onexperience and day-to-dayarchive management techniques. Where mostarchival classes are either completely

theoretical or entirely hands on system work, this course triesto do both.

The other chief instructional problem for this course is toconvert it to an online/hybridmodel. This class has been taughtexclusively in the traditional brick and mortar fashion.

With the addition of the new software resource, Elluminate, theexpectation is thatstudents could potentially take this from adistance. While this may present less of a

challenge with the theoretical side of the course, the hands onexercises may prove morecomplicated.

2. Examinelearnercharacteristicsthatshouldreceiveattentionduringplanning.This was modified from an article on adult learners fromthe Rochester Institute of

Technology website. Considering the nature of graduate studentsand archivists ingeneralthe learning characteristics mentioned meshvery well

yProblem-Centered (seek educational solutions to where they arecompared towhere they want to be in life)

y Subject-Oriented (focused on subject at hand no matter howrelates to own goals)y Results-Oriented (have specific results inmind for course)y Self-Directed (not dependent on others)yJust-In-Time/Hands-On (common trait of archives education is toprepare for day

to day operations)

y Thinking Styles:o Reflective

View new information subjectively Relate new information to pastexperiences Often ask "why?" Examine their feelings about what theyare learning

o Creative Like to play with new information Always ask "why?"Make excellent troubleshooters Create their own solutions andshortcuts

o Practical

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Want factual information without any "nice-to-know" additionsSeek the simplest, most efficient way to do their work Notsatisfied until they know how to apply their new skills totheir

job or other interest

o Conceptual

Accept new information only after seeing the big picture Want toknow how things work, not just the final outcome Learn the conceptsthat are presented but also want to know the

related concepts that may not have been included

y Learning Styles:o Visual (information visually illustrated ordemonstrated)o Auditory (information spoken)o Kinesthetic(information touched or manipulated)o Environmental (informationpresented in surroundings that match learner

preferences)

3.Identifysubjectcontent,andanalyzetaskcomponentsrelatedtostatedgoalsandpurposes.

Outline of Subject Content:

y Nature and history of archives managementy Researchmethodologyy Legal implications/boundaries for Archives ManagementySystems Thinkingy Acquisitions and Appraisal

o Collection development policyo Schellenberg (evidential,informational) and Jenkinsono Models (documentation strategy, blackbox, functional analysis,

Minnesota)

o Evolution of practiceo Legal issues/record keeping (accessionrecord, deed of gift, donor file)

y Archives Vs. Manuscriptsy Professional Ethics for ArchivesyRecords Management (Life Cycle of Records)y Arrangement andDescription

o Standards (ISAD(G), ISAAR(CPF), DACS, MARC, EAD, EAC)oEvolution of Practice

y Preservationo Preservation Vs. Conservation (library, museumuse)o Principleso Idealso Applicationo Introduction of digitalpreservation (problems with hardware and software,

open standards)

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o Threatso Characteristics of preservation environments

y Referenceo Reference interviewo Reference toolso

Documenting/Policies

o Facilitieso Securityo Copyright

y Outreacho Available Tools (Pros, Cons, Considerations)oEvaluation How to do outreach with what, given specific resources,to

accomplish what?

o Websites Their influence and impact on archives managementandoutreach efforts

y Oral Historyo Nature of Oral Historyo Role of Archivist(Practitioner v. Work with Others)o Transcription (Preservation,Access, Use)o Ethics and Legal Issues

y Audio/Visual Recordso Photographso Video tapeo Soundrecordingso Filmo CD/DVD

y Electronic Recordso Vocabularyo What Makes ElectronicInformation Different???o Transition Paper to Electronic RecordsoImpact on Archival Practice in a Variety of Areas

y Job Market/Careerso Expectationso Opportunitieso Levels ofTrainingo Responsibilities as Related to Various Roles

4. Stateinstructionalobjectivesforthelearner.A student whocompletes this course should be able to:

y Describe the nature of records and the role of records insocietyy Illustrate the key role that historical records play inacademic research.y Explain the key elements of archival theory andthe fundamental principles of

archival management

y Demonstrate a basic knowledge of archival selection,arrangement, description,reference, outreach, and preservation

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y Analyze the professional and ethical issues that confrontarchivistsy Locate and evaluate current information on the theoryand practice of archival

management

y Apply theoretical knowledge to practical problems in anarchival repositoryy Finally, because there are not always "black& white," or "right or wrong"

approaches to issues related to administering archivalcollections, the class willemphasize options and differentapproaches to questions and concerns that

archivists face on a daily basis.

5. Sequencecontentwithineachinstructionalunitforlogicallearning.Thecourse withinD2Lisbrokenintomodulesthatalsocorrespond withthe weeks

inthecourse.Ihaveusedthisonnumerousoccasionsandfinditbotheasierfor

myselfintermsoforganizationandthestudentsforunderstanding.

y Week 1 (What Exactly Do Archivists Do?)y Week 2 (The Nature ofRecords)y Week 3 (Selection/Appraisal/Functional Analysis)y Week 4(Accessioning & Arrangement)y Week 5 (Description)y Week 6(Access)y Week 7 (Reference)y Week 8 (Outreach/Public Relations)yWeek 9 (Preservation)y Week 10 (Audio/Visual Records, OralHistories)y Week 11 (Electronic Records)y Week 12 (Archives andSociety)y

Week 13 (Archives as a Profession/Ethics/SAA/ACA)y Week 14(Student Presentations, Wrap Up and Final Discussions)

6.Designinstructionalstrategiessothateachlearnercanmastertheobjectives.Bythe very nature of this course, I think I can take advantage of anumber of strategies:

y Direct Instruction Normal Classroom Lecturesy IndirectInstruction Team Project, Exercises (Case Studies used)yExperiential Learning Assignments and Trips at Rutherford CountyArchivesy Independent Study Oral Report, Reflective EssayyInteractive Instruction Discussions, Team Project, Archives in theNews

7. Plantheinstructionalmessageanddelivery.I plan to use a numberof tools to present/deliver my message including using D2L asthe

main means for most communication. While I am requiring thestudents purchase twobooks, the majority of the readings will be onD2L. I also plan on regular discussion

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forums and the use of the dropbox for all papers. I will alsopost regular announcementsthrough both the news area of D2L andemail.

Since this is not listed as an online course, I cannot deliverall the content this way, but I

do plan on using Elluminate either all the time in case I havestudents who live out of state

(or a considerable distance away) or some class periods. I mightalso experiment withoffice hours as well to see if I get anytakers.

Within most class sessions, I intend to both use a mixture ofstandard lecture, hands onwhen we visit the local archives andgroup work. As it is a graduate course, I intend to

give students multiple opportunities for discussion and alsopresenting themselves.

I am also debating whether to invite guest archivists as welltowards the end (say week 12or 13) to talk about their careers.

8. Develop evaluationinstrumentstoassessobjectives.y Studentswill prepare a discussion preparation paper prior to each classbased on

the readings assigned.

y During certain weeks, students will participate in a forumdiscussion onDesire2Learn based on the weeks readings or currenthappenings in archival

management

y Students will be required to present an oral report on currentissues in one domainof archival management (for example: appraisalor arrangement). Since there is

the potential for users to be online, student reports will bedone throughElluminate.

y Students will required to participate in several field tripsor local repositories andperform specific exercises at theseinstitutions (details still being worked on).

y Students will complete and report on a group field experienceand submit a 1500-2500 word reflective essay on this experience aswell as the course itself.

9. Selectresourcestosupportinstructionandlearningactivities.Textbooks Required for Purchase:

y Developing andMaintaining Practical Archives: AHow-To-Do-ItManual(How-to-Do-ItManuals forLibraries, No. 122) byGregory S. Hunter

y Understanding Archives &Manuscripts by James M. O'Toole& Richard J. CoxOnline SAA Resources/Readings Provided byInstructor:

y Selections from Providing Reference Services For ArchivesAndManuscripts byMary J. Pugh

y Selections from Selecting & Appraising Archives&Manuscripts by Frank Bolesy Selections fromArranging &Describing Archives &Manuscriptsby Kathleen D.

Roe

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y Selections fromManaging Archival &ManuscriptRepositoriesby Michael J.Kurtz

y Various other classic articles by Schellenberg, Samuels,Miller, etc.

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Bibliography

Bantin, Philip C. Understanding Data and Information Systems forRecordkeeping. New

York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2008.

DSPace Wiki, DSpace Instances (as of01/12/2009),http://wiki.dspace.org/index.php/DSpaceInstances ,Accessed April 2011.

DSpace Wiki, What is DSpace,

http://wiki.dspace.org/index.php/EndUserFaq#What_is_DSpace.3F ,Accessed

April 2011.

Morrison, G. R., Ross, S. M. &Kemp, J. E.Designing EffectiveInstruction (4th Edition).

NewYork: John Wiley & Sons, 2004.

Palfrey, John &Gasser, Urs.Born Digital: Understanding theFirst Generation of DigitalNatives. New York: Perseus Book Group,2008.