I love Historypin, the idea, the execution (generally). I hope it gains steam and becomes the location of first contact for people with historical treasures buried away in their family photo albums. There are real stories to tell historically and ethnographicaly, but the first task is to get these on map with some fairly reliable geopositioning. From there, the combinations are endless. Tracking encounters across time and space. Daily routines. Walks to work, school, past monuments, markets. Space informing the development of the person over time. The effects of a changing landscape on memory. There is a lot that could be done here. So, I participate with what I have, namely my wife’s family photos. The Gallaghers don’t have many photographs (at all), let alone ones with some historical interest.
My name is Michael Sean Gallagher. I am a Lecturer in Digital Education at the Centre for Research in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh. I am Co-Founder and Director of Panoply Digital, a consultancy dedicated to ICT and mobile for development (M4D); we have worked with USAID, GSMA, UN Habitat, Cambridge University and more on education and development projects. I was a researcher on the Near Futures Teaching project, a project that explores how teaching at The University of Edinburgh unfold over the coming decades, as technology, social trends, patterns of mobility, new methods and new media continue to shift what it means to be at university. Previously, I was the Research Associate on the NERC, ESRC, and AHRC Global Challenges Research Fund sponsored GCRF Research for Emergency Aftershock Forecasting (REAR) project. I was an Assistant Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (한국외국어대학교) in Seoul, Korea. I have also completed a doctorate at University College London (formerly the independent Institute of Education, University of London) on mobile learning in the humanities in Korea.
