Blog Post 5 - Mike Roche

Some of the pedagogies we learn about in ENGL 5004 seem to be based on a lot of the same ideas implicit in the examples cited in the Examples of Collaborative Digital Humanities Projects article. I do in fact think these projects can help people "overcome the limits of [their] own knowledge". For example, The Hurricane Digital Memory Bank makes researching Hurricane Katrina much easier and more convenient and this, in turn, allows people to make efficient use of their research time. However, I can also see why digital memory banks like these can be troubling to humanities scholars--especially with regard to the increasingly blurry distinction between scholarship and journalism, which the article is sure to point out. Like Jamie and Michelle I do not want the "Lone Scholar" to cease to exist in favor of one big collaborative one.

I'm a curious person and I think the ease of access to information in our era serves a curious person like myself well. I dedicated a good portion of last night to youtubing Groucho Marx skits and interviews and reading articles that have been written about him. However, am I a Groucho Marx scholar? NO WAY. The night before I was watching ODB interviews. It's very characteristic today, I think, to know a little about a lot. With the efficiency of digital memory banks, it seems possible to get to the point where we know A LOT about A LOT. Is this a good thing? I guess so but I think people who consider themselves scholars must find a way to keep deliberateness and thoughtfulness and intentionality about their work.