At this point, I have a clear picture of what I want my final project to include, how I want it to function, and what I want the finished project to look like. So far, I have gathered most of the examples that I want to use in my timeline, and now I am mostly working on organizing them chronologically and finding pictures and other media to represent those events. One helpful suggestion I received was to highlight how each event contributes to the next, and since I am focusing on personal and anecdotal experiences of influential figures I believe this will be a great way to show how each of these events was a straw on the back of the European camel that eventually snowballed into the Great War. For this element I have decided to use a combination of images, documents, and videos taken mainly from primary sources and records. As of now, my next step is to find the right software which will allow me to create a visually appealing design while retaining a scholarly level of research, as well as incorporate the interactive element into the project. The interactive “threat level” element has probably my biggest challenge and remains so as of now.
After watching some of the interviews with former students about their own educational digital history projects I have learned that it is completely normal to start a project with a large scope, and overtime narrow it down to a much more specific topic or theme. The other aspect I noticed which was shared by a number of the interviewees was the theme of bringing to surface stories which normally do not get the attention of mainstream curriculum, such as in the case of Jess Pritcher-Ritter’s project about Hettie Cooley. Digital projects also have the unique ability to challenge students in a way textbooks cannot, since textbooks are methods of passive learning, and digital projects which involve student engagement are methods of active learning.
Leave a Reply