Information Technology & the Humanities Copyright © 2002 Eric S. Rabkin

Information Technology & the Humanities Eric S. Rabkin Department of English University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan presented at the University of Trento 07 May 2002

Resources Start with Eric Rabkin’s homepage: Explore Bookmarks In courses <400, explore Supplementary Resources and Online Resources In courses >400, explore Supplementary Resources, and Class Roster and Projects Example using many functions of IT in the Humanities: the Genre Evolution Project

Functions of Information Technology (IT) Information Acquisition Information Manipulation Collaboration Information Presentation

Information Acquisition Existing digital resources (e.g., Oxford English Dictionary) Existing analog resources (e.g., optical character recognition) New resources (e.g., the Genre Evolution Project)

Information Manipulation Textual manipulation (e.g., complex searching, text analysis) Graphical manipulation (e.g., Photoshop) Numerical manipulation (e.g., “How to Succeed in Science Fiction” [access via Research Results page of the Genre Evolution Project])

Collaboration Working on common files (e.g., MS Word) Sharing data resources (e.g., the Genre Evolution Project) Inviting public scrutiny (e.g., Symbolism Dictionary [access via U-M Fantasy and Science Fiction Web Site])

Information Presentation Projecting any application in a group (e.g., taking notes in MS Word) Sending any type of document file (e.g., graphics and spreadsheets) Creating animated narratives (e.g. Flash and PowerPoint)

PowerPoint: Creating a simple example Titles Subtitles Other text Graphics Transitions Builds Animations (See

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