A Digital Dissertation

There are three types of digital dissertation. The first is one in which a dissertation written for paper distribution is stored digitally. The second refers to a dissertation that is mostly paper-based but has a supplemental media component such as a related video or other media. Yet even in this example, the dissertation is said to stand alone, without the supplemental component.

Professor Kuhn wrote a third type of dissertation, one that was "born digital." This means that it is media rich and integrates media with text into a cohesive whole. No component can stand on its own, since the media and text are used together to convey particular analyses and conclusions.

For more information about Professor Kuhn see:
http://cinema.usc.edu/faculty/kuhn-virginia.htm

Other useful sites:

Institute for Multimedia Literacy
http://iml.usc.edu/

Institute for the Future of the Book
http://www.futureofthebook.org/

Kairos
http://english.ttu.edu/Kairos/

OurMedia
http://www.ourmedia.org

Please note that this is a research site and that comments posted to the site may be used in research. For more information about the study and how posted comments are used in research please see:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=anthrovlog

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• video
• blog
• education
• dissertation
• PhD
• degree
• new
• media
• pedagogy
• digital
• book

[ZenArcher]

What I am missing is how this is different than any other web page. She submitted a web page rather than a paper document. Okay, why is this special? I do see that it's pushing the envelope for dissertations ( it's not "the norm"). But today these kind of documents are widely accepted in the online world. So, more common place.

Be Well! ~ ZenArcher

[AnthroVlog]

Thanks for your question Zen. What I believe Professor Kuhn is suggesting is that it is not a matter of simply including graphics on a static page, but rather, she is incorporating many types of images (including video) directly into the core of her argument rather than just listing them on the side. It is the text and images that are functioning together to make an argument. This is perhaps hard to appreciate from the video alone, without reading her dissertation.

[AnthroVlog]

When academics write, they include quotes from others directly into sentences. Imagine how awkward it would be if you could never quote something someone else said, except in a side bar or at the end. This is the way media is often used on web pages and in academic texts, as side bars or listed separately. What Professor Kuhn does is integrate citations of media directly into her argument so that she constructs an argument directly using a kind of language of text and images together.

[SergioMomarsh]

Will digital writing be able to be read by beings of the future? Is electrically storing information a better way to communicate across the centuries than say, hieroglyph, or etched stone?

[AnthroVlog]

Thanks for your comments! You bring up a very important point. I read an article years ago that predicted a new job category--digital archaeologist. Archaeologists study human remains to understand aspects of their culture and life ways. Imagine a digital archaeologist who can find ways to read old formats of outdated digital media!

[stacypatt614]

I really enjoyed seeing parts of the actual dissertation and like others, hearing her take on fair use. I also like the advice she gives at the end, to other potential digital "dissertators" - be ready to defend both form and content.

[vkuhn]

I see your point but also, I defended this in August of 2005 (really old in e-time) and while I wrote a hypertextual Master's thesis that was a series of web pages in 1999, this dissertation is not. It's not online at all, but a self-contained e-book. I want to put it online but only if I can keep the integrity of the text (there are a few hundred pages of it); I also do not want the look of the piece to be subject to the look of a browser.V

[SergioMomarsh]

Future society will need such a category, imagine how difficult it would be to do with all of the modern encryption and coding we use. Before too long, without the right key, it becomes completely and uterlly useless binary data.

[ShortbusMooner]

Uh-oh! Very informative, and relevant to my interests!

To the vlog with it! ;)