Participant's Evaluation of Real Time Challenges Seminar

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© Electronic Journal of Australian and New Zealand History

Evaluation of Virtual Histories, Real Time Challenges Symposium

For questions 1 – 5, participants were asked to circle the number corresponding to the most appropriate rating.

Q6 The most beneficial aspect(s) of the day:

• Meeting others from related but different areas (variety) 6
• Demonstrations of various online and multimedia projects 6
• Finding out what else was going on (state of play) 4
• Keynote speaker (Gillies) 2
• Gaining new ideas to take away and put into practice
• Reflection on theoretical and methodological issues and how hypermedia affects them
• Martyr
• Patterson
• Just to be there

Q7 The least beneficial aspect(s) of the day:

• No response on 6 forms
• Somewhat staid 1/2 hr / person format
• Little discussion of issues of funding or use of digital project
• AICN — nothing actually developed to present
• Some of the technical aspects of online presentations of texts (though this was still worthy)
• Too much to absorb
• Possibly too many presentations and not enough workshopping but then you would have needed three days — thereís lots going on Australia-wide — a national symposium would be good
• Perhaps the program was too tight. Some time for an open discussion forum may have been useful
• The relatively theoretical — McCauley, Gillan especially; Helena Gulash, Iím afraid
• Insufficient time to discuss which strategies and opportunities for collaboration need to be addressed
• Need for more historians to be involved who do not work in the academy
• Suggest reducing the length of talks and have more people speak, rather than lengthy lectures
• Not aware of any

Q8 As a result of todayís symposium, I will

• No response on 11 forms
• Explore more fully the way digital technology can be used to enhance the teaching of history
• Continue to learn how to put historical resources into digital forms
• Look for collaboration and other opportunities to increase digitisation / www-based access to my institutionís collections
• Start experimenting with archive(?) historical projects
• Develop new connections with individuals involved in projects that have similarities or conjunctures with my own
• Incorporate some of the sites discussed in my teaching
• Encourage some of my colleagues to get more involved
• Talk further with a number of the people I met at the symposium
• Think about ways I can suppor the study of history through technology
• Read the papers online — where will they be published? URL, please
• Attempt to get some in-house unique publications on the web
• Make use of potential, collaborative cross-linkages at the individual level of mutual benefit
• Plan with the benefit of some new ideas, eg collaboration with academics and institutions

Q9 Suggestions for another symposium or other activities:

• No response on 10 forms
• Incorporate a section which is more general or dialogue. Perhaps a session in which an example of the use of the digital learning environment can be demonstrated
• Seeking funding and how to gain political support
• Certainly there should be one, as we only seem to have scratched the surface
• Hands-on workshop/s on web use and technical issues
• Theoretical day
• Take up Paul Turnbullís issue of training historians working on smaller projects about archival tagging and ways to approach their data to maximise the long term value of historianís work
• Symposium / owrkshop on verifying information obtained from the web — referencing, sources, provenance, etc
• More practical online examples of digital history projects rather than lecture-style presentations — like the last 2 on the day
• Less on possibilities, more on realities — what is being done is more interesting
• Research and scholarship online in particular fields?

Q10 I am from

9 tertiary education sector

5 information sector

2 secondary education sector

3 other (please specify)

museum library, PHA, govt agency

If there are any other comments you would like to make, please do so below.

No response on 14 forms

• We must maintain the momentum and the networks. Well done, Paul and Alan!
• The presenters should be encouraged to “model” the use of the new technology rather than the old fashion lecture type presentations with more emphasis on good communication. Definitely a very worthwhile day — I strongly urge you to do this again.
• A wonderful first, which should be followed up.
• The diversity of the day (and speakers) was great, and could have been extended to greater involvement from the private sector and a number of other institutions (eg, National Maritime Museum) otherwise not represented.
• I am not usre we mapped strategies for collaborating. Certainly made on a personal basis — maybe this is actually the most productive and effective way? The final session, after all the speakers, answered some of concerns about where we go from here. Series of small group workshops seems to be a positive way to go.
• Very interesting day, esp. AICN talk at end