I am starting the second class in the series for the Graduate Certificate in Digital Public Humanities, after earning my MA in Applied History at George Mason University in 2021. As a retired Naval officer, the program is a building block for a second career as a digital public historian. When I started that masters program, I envisioned working in a museum or at a historic site, with little understanding of the digital side of public history. It’s been an educational adventure.

I currently work in digital public history, as part of the staff at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. I have just finished work on a project cataloging postal covers and other artifacts relating to the Netherlands in World War II. Working at the RRCHNM, I am fortunate to be in an environment that thinks not only about history, but how to do digital history, producing projects and understanding how the field is evolving.

While working at the center, I applied for the graduate certificate program to build on my skills and build a stronger intellectual foundation in digital history. In both the courses already completed, I specially chose to do projects that stretched me, using Kepler.gl in the first and working on an educational game in the second. I am comfortable with Omeka, so trying something completely different has been useful.

Across years of study, I have only worked on development of teaching lessons or practicals in once class, Thirty years ago at instructor training school. I made transparencies for overhead projectors, so I can safely say that skill is beyond outdated at this point.

My primary interest in teaching and learning environments that involve more informal learning and teaching opportunities. Digital history offers opportunities to enrich physical sites, such as a museum or historic site, as well as enhance curriculum and encourage exploration. In this course I would also like to explore how to effectively make those linkages.