Monthly Archives: February 2014

Blog Post 5

I’ve had trouble using Zotero. I generally use Chrome as my browser, so I made sure to download the version of Zotero that wasn’t Firefox exclusive. However, I still have not been able to get my sources into my Zotero account. Even though I have downloaded and installed Zotero, there is no icon near my URL bar when I am searching and looking at secondary sources.

Should I just download Firefox and try to use it there, or am I missing an important step that will allow me to use Zotero while in Chrome?

Blog Post 4

One source I’ve found is a website posted by the New York State Military Museum, which is dedicated to the 16th Infantry Regiment in New York. That is the regiment that my soldier, Alfred Thayer, belonged to. This source gives an overview history about the travels of the regiment during the Civil War. It also tell me where all the different companies were recruited from.

The source is of public domain and the information was provided primarily by Patrick Fultz.

Blog Post 3

In many ways going through the various documents about my soldier, Alfred Thayer, has been very tedious. But, after trying looking for specific information, opposed to the inventory stage, the task has become much more interesting. Hitting on the previous post about immersing yourself in the history, looking up information about a soldier from the civil war has been a much more narrow focus than what I am used to. It has been interesting trying to piece together the various aspects of his life by using documents that are well over 100 years old. One of the most challenging parts of accumulating this data has been trying to decipher the handwriting. I am always relieved when I find a transcribed, typed document. However, after spending some time looking at the documents, I am starting to get a better idea of what took place during Thayer’s time in the army.

Blog Post 2

Looking at the different ways historians like to look at history, the most unfamiliar aspect, to me, was the tendency to deeply immerse themselves in one particular area or time period. Being a product of public schooling in the United States, I am conditioned to look at history through a broad lens, barely cracking the surface of what actually happened. Much of the history I have been taught has been brushed over quickly, and been redundant from year to year.

This isn’t necessarily the fault of the education system. There simply isn’t time to go into great depth, while still covering your bases on a lot of basic history. Never the less, the only people that really can look that deeply into history, are historians. To get that much depth you need to be fully immersed, meaning not spending time on any other aspects. The way students are taught has probably affected the way they look at other educational topics as well. We are taught to skim.

Blog Post 1

I found the “How the Internet Works in Five Minutes” to be a very useful video. For the most part, my generation, myself included, has grown up taking the internet for granted without really knowing how it works. I’ve know that this is not really the case, but I’ve somewhat viewed it as a magical device that teleports information all over the world with a click of a mouse.

This video put the functionality of the internet into terms that made it intellectually accessible. Describing the internet as a wire, whether physical or digital, makes the internet very tangible – opposed to an abstract, magical device.

The video shows you the wire that is “the internet.” It then branches off all the functions of the internet, while showing how they all will connect back to that same original wire. Explaining how every device has its own IP address (like a mailing address) which is then located by the help of various routers, helped to put the functionality in perspective. Clarifying the difference between servers (computers directly connected to the internet) and home computers (devices connected to the server of an ISP) helped to distinguish between computer jargon that can be confusing to your every-day user.