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Why Does Korean American History Matter?

Creating a digital platform for the general public to learn about the history and culture of Korean Americans is important in today’s society because America is a country that has a rich history waiting to be uncovered and shared with the rest of the world. As an American, I am proud of my country and its heritage because I enjoyed learning about it throughout K-12 and college. However, as a Korean American, I do not know much about Korean Americans in American history. If someone asked me about the first wave of Korean immigrant migration to the U.S. while I was in high school many years ago, I would have to search for it elsewhere because it was not mentioned in the textbook during that time. If someone asked me if I knew about significant Korean Americans who played a role in U.S. government, politics, and economy while I was in college, then I would have to Google it. The limited information that was offered to me as a student in public school and college fueled my curiosity to find out more.

It was during my early years of teaching when I came to the realization that I had to learn more about a topic that I was not responsible for teaching in order to help my students connect selected literary works to history. I was teaching Asian American Literature, and I knew history, just like in any literature course, was an important element. Also, culture was an inevitable companion element to learning about history. However, I had very limited knowledge of Asian American history. I grew up in the South. I know it is not an excuse, but I think it is important because it is one of the reasons why I began the process of learning more about Asian American history. This information was not found in my old college textbooks as well as current U.S. History textbooks. I found the information by researching books and journal articles referencing Asian American history. However, I was still not satisfied because my students were accustomed to searching for information online that captures their immediate attention. To deter them from using Wikipedia as their single source for historical information, I realized that I had to direct them to credible and engaging sites. Still, I was not convinced that they were enough. I wanted that OMG or wow factor to be there when the students discover new information. I wanted them to examine and analyze information while learning to make their own arguments about it.

As a Digital Humanities scholar, I started the process of designing a website that explores Korean American history and culture in Texas. Also, I designed a website that linked reputable websites about Japanese American history during World War II to the novels that my students were reading for the course. I plan to design another website that links reputable websites about Vietnam War, Vietnamese diaspora, and Operation Babylift to an assigned novel written by a Vietnamese American author. In the meantime, I am learning about my own Korean American heritage by researching and documenting Korean American history and culture from Texas to the DMV area.

While I was working on my Korean American history and culture project for Texas, I discovered exciting information about Korean Americans in the South by interviewing people and visiting Koreatowns and cities that are heavily influenced by hardworking Korean Americans. While I was working on my internship for the Smithsonian Institution, I became curious of the history of Korean Americans in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. We rarely hear about Asian Americans in American history in schools, and we become more aware about it when we are in college (depending on the courses). Instead of waiting for someone or an organization to make a website to share the information about Korean American history and culture in the U.S., I decided that it was time to make a digital humanities website that celebrates and acknowledges it. Such historical information should not go unnoticed, especially when we live in a digital world that allows access to information globally. While it is waiting to be recognized and acknowledged as part of American history, Korean American history should be uncovered and shared with the public on an accessible digital platform.

May 15, 2018 (Final Self-Reflection)

The best way to learn more about Digital Humanities is working with people who have the knowledge and expertise in the field. After learning from the best professors selected by the GMU program, I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Pamela (Pam) Henson, Historian for Smithsonian Institution Archives, and her research assistant, Lisa. During my internship with the Smithsonian for two semesters, I have gained new skills to help me complete my digital public humanities site and to teach my undergraduate students about digital humanities as an introductory course. For this Spring semester, I used what I have learned in my graduate courses as well as from my own teaching experience to design an oral history collection. Pam selected Lucile Quarry Mann to be the first from the many collections (150 and counting) for my internship project.

Before I worked with Pam, I had minimal knowledge about oral history. After reading and researching more about oral history, I realized how it is a crucial component of digital humanities and the preservation of living history. Listening to the recorded interviews, which were originally recorded with tape recorders in the 1970s, has helped me to appreciate the unique discourse of oral history interviews between an interviewer and interviewee. The concept of digitizing audio recordings of interviews is fascinating because it allows the current audience to have access to living history in different formats. I also learned the importance of keeping track of everything such as documenting each interview with detailed information by viewing the transcripts and notes that were documented by Pam.

Designing a digital platform for an oral history collection comes with several challenges. One of the challenges was to present the material in a way that would engage a broad audience. In the designing stages of the digital platform, I used the skills that I have learned from the DH courses and my teaching experience. I have been teaching online since 2007, and one of my courses introduces students to think and analyze visual content from a rhetorical perspective for a writing course. Another challenge was selecting a segment of a full interview to introduce to the audience. The interview segment had to be short (5 minutes or less). There were a couple of interesting segments that lasted 10 minutes, but they were too long. The next challenge was to select images from the archives to correspond with the interview. In addition to posting images and text with the interview segment (e.g. image carousel), I came up with an idea of creating videos that combined the audio recording of the selected interview segment with images. I enjoyed the creative process of making a video because I was able to improve my video making skills while incorporating some of the techniques and skills that I have learned from my DH courses. The other challenge was making sure that there was enough memory or space for posting images and videos on the selected web page. These challenges provided a pathway for designing a digital platform for an oral history collection.

Working with Pam and Lisa has helped me to re-envision my design for Lucile Q. Mann’s oral history collection. From our weekly teleconferences and feedbacks, we collaborated to make the oral history and video history collections website possible for future launching. The progress is steady. Their helpful feedbacks were encouraging. I also provided feedback for the introductory pages of the oral history and video history collections website. Pam created a template that was modeled after my web page designs for Lucile Q. Mann’s oral history collection for future interns who will be working to put together oral history collections for the Smithsonian Institution. I am very excited that my work helped with designing the template for future oral history collections. I am very proud to be part of their project. I enjoyed working with a supportive and intelligent group, and I look forward to viewing the oral history collection on the Smithsonian Institution website when it is completed.

This semester’s internship has given me a new perspective on how oral history plays a significant role as a component of Digital Humanities. Presenting information from the past to an audience of the present and future is less challenging when certain digital tools, theories, and skills are used. How do we keep the changing audience interested in the people of the past? What digital tools are useful for creating and designing a new digital platform to present the past? How do we try to preserve the past without losing sight of our focus? Even though the past will remain constant in a form of a recorded interview in the case of Lucile Quarry Mann’s oral history collection, it is up to the digital humanities scholar/specialist to work with others to keep it visible and interesting in the present and for the future. It is also up to a collaborative group of people with various skill sets to help preserve the past and curate it as part of living history. Therefore, I plan to continue networking with people to encourage collaboration for my own digital public humanities project on Korean American history and culture while working on honing my oral history interviewing skills for future interviews.

April 13, 2018

Since my March post, I have been working on designing and creating an oral history page for Lucile Quarry Mann. After listening to more than 30 hours of audio recorded interviews and reviewing the transcripts, I selected at least 4 interesting segments from the interviews as featured items. I enjoyed the selection process because I became more familiar with Lucile Mann’s life. Her life with Dr. William Mann was exciting and adventurous. Also, I enjoyed listening to Pam Henson’s interviewing techniques because they will help me to develop a better understanding of oral history and approaching it from a different perspective. Pam’s discourse with Lucile Mann revealed exciting stories about the couple and how they contributed to the Smithsonian history and culture.

The process of linking the images to the selected interview segments was very challenging. First, I had to research the Smithsonian Archives for images to match the interview segments. Second, I had to splice the exact point an interview segment begins and ends. Third, I had difficulty narrowing down my selections. I tried my best to stay within the 5 minutes or less for the interview selections. Fourth, I was unable to find specific images for one of the interview segments that I thought would be a great featured item to entice the audience to listen to the full interviews. Even though the interviews were audio recordings, I was determined to make a video that synchronizes the audio recording segment with the images that were from the Mann family collections (e.g. photo albums, field books, and journals). During this process, I constantly thought about my audience. I created and designed for two different personas who would be most interested in listening to the oral history interviews, especially Lucy Mann’s interviews. Here is a link to the video in YouTube: https://youtu.be/lhpLiLftZpc

In one of our weekly meetings, I informed Pam and Lisa that I was unable to find most of the images for one of the segmented interviews. Pam sent excellent files for me to search for more images. These files allowed me to explore another segment that might be interesting to the audience. Pam designed the Oral History Intro Page. Lisa designed the Oral Histories summaries page. I designed Lucile Quarry Mann’s page for the Oral History Collection. However, when we had our meeting, we provided feedback for each other’s design because it was a collaborative effort. I designed Lucile Mann’s page in a landscape layout, so that it would closely resemble an actual web page. I tried to stay within the current guidelines of the Smithsonian’s Natural History website. I used my skills from my GMU course in designing a digital platform for a public humanities and history website. For L. Mann’s page, I tried to keep it less crowded and spaced out with a main image of Lucile Mann, a short bio section, an image carousel, segment clips with transcript, and a video that combines the audio recording of interview with images in synchronization. I had to post it in YouTube because the video was too large to send via email. I also added closed caption and transcript. I included a link to access the full interviews with a short description to tap into the curiosity of the audience to find out more about Lucy’s adventurous life. For the description, I kept the language simple and engaging. I learned this technique in my GMU coursework in Digital Humanities. Also, I added a Finding Aid link and links for additional resources that reference Lucile Q. Mann within the Smithsonian Archives and website.

My project was challenging, but I enjoyed it. It made me think about ways to redesign my own public humanities website. It also encouraged me to work with people from different professions and listen to good feedback. Collaboration, Communication, and Creativity are key elements in presenting a living history on a digital platform. This project has given me a chance to work on honing my video making and audio synchronization skills. Therefore, I look forward to seeing the finished product.

March 9, 2018

For the past few weeks, I have been working with Pam and her assistant Lisa to redesign and re-envision the Smithsonian’s oral history website. After reviewing, evaluating, and discussing 8 different oral history websites, each of us came up with ideas for a website redesign plan. I used the skills that were learned during my GMU Digital Humanities coursework. I also incorporated skills from designing my own websites. I imagined at least 2 different personas to approach my design from an audience’s perspective. Then, I typed a document that explains each part of the redesigned website. After I wrote my draft, I sketched what the redesigned website would look like. I learned this skill in Dr. Leon’s class when I was designing my public history website. I drew 4 different web pages of the website with a pencil (traced it over with a dark blue ink pen) on white sheets of 8 x11 paper: main page, about page, oral history interview pages A and B. I included a menu with clearly labeled buttons that will allow the user to learn about the site, navigate the oral history collections, listen and/view the oral history interviews, and read about interview’s background. It also included copyright information, a finding aid, map, timeline, and a contribution page for future crowdsourcing. Then, I scanned the completed sketches and saved them into a .pdf file. At the time I was redesigning the website, I was unaware that they had a current website. I was referencing the old website from 2004. I was informed about the current website when Pam, Lisa, and I re-convened to discuss our redesign plans. Fortunately, it all worked out. I suggested adding a timeline and map. The importance of having a timeline and/or map was something I learned in Dr. Kelly’s class. It helps the audience visualize the locations and time period when connecting them to the historical content. Also, I suggested placing a short video 1-2 minutes on the main page to introduce one of their featured collections to draw in the audience and engage them to explore their site and oral history collections. The other option was to include 1 or 2 paragraphs about the featured collection with selected images.

The next part of my internship is to create a way to sort and bring one of the collections together. Pam has suggested focusing on women at the Smithsonian, so we agreed it was good start. I received several audio interview recordings, transcripts, blog links about Lucile (Lucy) Quarry Mann. I am in the process of listening to the interviews while viewing the transcripts. Each interview is 30 minutes or more. During this time, I have created a short video (59 seconds) to get an idea of what a short video would look like to draw the audience to Lucy Mann’s oral history interviews. I used iMovie to created my video. Since the video was too large to send via email to Pam and Lisa, I had to post it on my YouTube Channel. Here is a link to my humble and short video: https://youtu.be/caC-9EFBcGM

February 9, 2018

I enjoyed the selected readings that were recommended by my Smithsonian mentor, Pam Henson. She encouraged me to read Oral History and Digital Humanities edited by Douglas A. Boyd and Mary A. Larson before I start my internship work. The essays in the book helped me to see a different perspective of Digital Humanities, and it gave me enough background information of how oral history became integrated into the digital world. Also, oral history is a component of Digital Humanities, and it has some interesting roots. Each of the authors described their challenges and recommendations of presenting oral history on a digital platform. The methods described in the book were insightful and informative. With advancing technology, they had to constantly tweak a few things to present oral history interviews online. The concept of the audience from each author reminded me of my GMU Digital Humanities course lesson on audience or user. I thought about the type of persona they had to imagine when making adjustments to their work. In addition to budget concerns and having enough manpower, collaboration was a key factor. This book provided good resources, past and present, that revealed the changes and importance of keeping the content significant with advancing technology. I reviewed some of the older oral history websites and noticed how they much they have changed due to change in technology, budget, manpower, collaboration, and audience. Therefore, these changes are no different from creating and maintaining a digital public humanities site.

Also, Pam introduced me to 8 different Oral History websites for evaluation. Pam, Lisa (Pam’s research assistant), and I are in the process of evaluating them in order to design Smithsonian’s Oral History Archive online. So far, I have reviewed 3 oral history websites. Carefully evaluating each site helped me to come up with ideas to improve my own public humanities website. There are themes and trends that seem to be outdated on a few sites, but the content is very useful if certain things were changed. Even though I am evaluating each site from my own perspective, I am constantly reminded in the back of my mind that the user is also looking for something else. During my coursework, I learned about the importance of designing a digital platform with several personae in mind. The digital tools and presentation of the oral history interviews are very important. The description or metadata comes back to haunt me in a good way. Learning about Dublin Core at the beginning of the GMU DH program helped me to look for the basic elements for each interview. Also, I am learning to see differences on how transcripts are displayed on each site.

The work that I have completed for the past few weeks have encouraged me to use my learned knowledge during my GMU coursework and experience with designing my own digital public humanities and teaching history and literature sites. I am excited about working with Pam and Lisa. Pam has been very helpful, and I appreciate the knowledge she has shared with me. I look forward to working on their oral history archive site.

December 2017

From November through December 12th, I worked on project summaries for the Smithsonian Transcription Center. My mentor, Ricc Ferranter, introduced me to Trello (web-based project management board) and walked me through the process of drafting and launching project summaries for crowdsourcing. Each slideshow required research, and I enjoyed researching various topics. The more I read each one, the more I wanted to know about certain things. The biggest challenge was trying to select one of the items in the documents that will capture the audience and lead them to transcribe them. There was so much interesting information that the selection process was challenging and fun. The Smithsonian Transcription Center relies on crowdsourcing for their transcriptions, so my goal was to draft short and engaging summaries with a good hook. In addition to writing summaries, I researched information about the selected topic and selected online sources that will provide additional information about it.

Crowdsourcing is challenging, but it has its benefits. By drafting and revising the project summaries, I learned to tweak my words to capture a broad audience. Keeping the summaries short (3-4 sentences) was a great challenge. To make the summaries a little more interesting, Ricc suggested that I add web links for specific information; so the transcribers can have access to additional information via the web. Working with Ricc was awesome. He provided helpful feedback for each of my summaries. Ricc taught me to see things from a different perspective.

Working as a virtual intern is an amazing experience. Ricc and I communicated on a weekly basis by phone, email, and Trello. He was very patient and informative. He provided useful and informative feedback. Using Trello helped me to organize my assignments and to communicate any changes or updates with my Smithsonian mentor. Working on a digital platform was convenient for both of us. Also, waiting to see how the transcribing process from the digital volunteers was coming along was exciting. Ricc would provide an update, and I would take a peek at the transcriptions.

For my internship, I used some of the skills I learned about crowdsourcing from my GMU Digital Public Humanities coursework. I had to constantly think about my audience, which meant shortening my sentences and being selective with my words to engage the audience. I recalled the persona exercise I had to do for one of my courses, and I put that into practice when drafting the summaries. Researching and adding the links to the summaries reinforced the concept of what is appropriate for a broad audience. Also, I had to think about copyright issues and be selective with web content when linking the websites to the project summaries. By using what I have learned from my coursework, I was able to draft project summaries for a broad audience.

My internship work with Ricc and the Smithsonian Transcription Center connected me to a digital world of communication. Even though I did not know the digital transcribers, I had a virtual connection with them by writing the project summaries. After my project summaries were launched on the STC website, I was able to see how the audience responded to each one of them. The virtual communication between different audiences to meet a certain goal via the web is truly amazing. The concept of digital humanities is reflected in this internship project. History comes alive when digital volunteers partake in the crowdsourcing efforts with Smithsonian Transcription Center.

What I enjoyed most about the internship is being introduced to different historical documents for review and research. Also, I enjoyed communicating with Ricc about my process and what things I need to revise/edit. Ricc is a very supportive mentor. I admire Ricc’s work and dedication. He does his best to keep the digital volunteers interested in the transcribing. I also had a chance to see how the public responds to my project summaries. My internship assignment with the Smithsonian Transcription Center opened my mind to thinking about my audience throughout the entire process, and it helped me to understand and appreciate crowdsourcing. Therefore, I have gained a new perspective on how digital humanities keeps history alive through digital communications.

A Reflection on Previous Interviews

After viewing the previous interviews, I learned that the process of revising and narrowing a lesson is the norm. During the project making process, I was a little worried that I was not getting my point across; and I continued to add more material. Celeste and Jeri mentions starting with an existing argument, and I thought about Dr. Kelly’s advice to narrow my focus on what part of the historical content does not make sense to my students. I will narrow my focus and not make it bigger than it should be. Also, I will select 1-3 primary sources to help my students think about history and make connections to the novel. Teaching students to access primary sources online from reliable websites is very important. Also, teaching students what to do with the primary sources is very challenging but exciting. The focus on digital media or digital resources are mentioned in all of the interviews. Maura Seale makes an excellent point about teaching students to engage with the primary sources by exposing them to archives and collections. Devon Hardy’s emphasis on Learning Objectives is spot on because she knows the importance of keeping the audience in mind while creating a digital history project. I added a few learning outcomes on my site. She also mentioned learning assessment, which is very important these days in education. For the future, I will have to consider a plan to design an assessment for my project’s learning outcomes.

Designing my project site will require a few more changes because I would like to use it as a supplement to my course in ecampus. It would be a good ready to go class as mentioned by Erin Bush. If ecampus (Blackboard) is down, then I can always refer to my project site without worries. Also, I can make additional changes without dealing with weekly and unwanted system updates. My project did not turn out what I wanted initially, but I enjoyed the process of creating it. Nate Sleeter also mentioned that his project did not come out exactly as he was hoping. Therefore, I came to the conclusion that digital history projects are work in progress due to changing times, advancing technology, differing perspectives, innovative teaching methods, broadening of diversity, and new ideas. There is always going to be something interesting to uncover when learning about the past, and in the field Digital Humanities, a digital history project is one of the means of engaging the general public, students, and/or scholars to explore, examine, and analyze the past.

Sixth Piece of the Puzzle

Teaching history in an Asian American literature course is a challenge because there is so much historical information that has yet to be uncovered. For my digital project, I am creating an Omeka site with lessons on connecting John Okada’s novel, No-No Boy, with Japanese American history during World War II. Also, the lessons will ask students to work with digital resources from credible historical sites. The digital project will include digitized primary sources for students to examine and evaluate. Also, they will learn to make connections between the novel and historical evidence while uncovering complexities in history.

Essay: “Advantages of Teaching in a Digital World”

Teaching students in the 21^st century comes with several challenges, and the challenges allow educators to tweak their lesson plans to adjust to the ever-changing environment. In general, people are inundated by the digital world; there is so much information overload that most people can get overwhelmed. Consumers of the digital world are less than 2 or 3 clicks (with reliable internet service) away from discovering and learning about the past instantaneously. For more than a decade, people have been programmed to search online for convenience without thinking about the complexities of what is happening to the way they search online and how information is displayed and received by the consumers. There is no fine print to read when it comes to encountering the search engine. If there is such a thing, then most of the consumers of the digital world have missed it. The most popular search engine is Google, and my students and I are consumers of it. Unfortunately, people are not taught how to search properly and be skeptical of search results and websites. The massive amounts of information in the form of text, images, and videos are on the web; but people must be aware of how, what, why, and who they search online. Since students rely on the web for recreational and academic purposes, they can learn from teachers to be smart consumers of the digital world. Educators can use the web for providing credible information and show their students how to examine, evaluate, and analyze information on the web. The malleability of the past in the digital world has made it easier to teach about and help our audience to engage with the past.

Even though the web has made it easier to teach about the past, there are some unsettling challenges that complicate the work of teachers. The mass reliance on Google to conduct research is one of them. “Since search engines are becoming a preferred method for discovering, retrieving, and organizing scholarly information, it is critical that we understand the emerging trends” (Rieger). College undergraduate students tend to search for topics in Google rather than the suggested library databases because it is very popular, convenient, user-friendly, visually appealing, and most used search engine. Most of the time, Google displays the results on several pages, but most students usually view the first page of results. In the first page, they select the first 3 links to view. Sometimes, students will view the remaining links and quite possibly the 2^ndor 3^rd page of the results. Most people have been programmed to just click and view without carefully considering what they selected. That is when the educator comes in to help the students. In addition to all the lesson plans they are required to teach students about a subject, teachers might have to consider teaching students how to use search engines, evaluate the web sources, and analyze them for academic purposes. Unfortunately, most of the search is completed away from the campus when students leave. So, the educator just has to hope his or her students will be cautious and aware of how and what they search on the web.

On the flip side, the digital world has provided several great ways for teaching students about the past. One great way to teach about the past without being inundated with links of historical information from a simple search is teach the students how to evaluate the search results. Educators can teach the students about key terms for search results such as SEO and explain how search engine results are displayed on the screen. An educator might consider asking the students to conduct a Google search of a historical term from an electronic device in different settings, or they can conduct a Google search with the same laptop, tablet, or smartphone from two different settings (e.g. coffee shop, campus, home, etc). They can compare their results and discuss the differences and similarities with the entire class. Then, the educator can teach students how to examine and evaluate links. For instance, “the goal is to encourage searchers [students] to integrate information effectively and efficiently by evaluating credibility of a source, and using and citing information ethically and legally” (Rieger). Students will learn to question search engine results and begin to evaluate which websites are credible or not. This lesson will teach them to be smart consumers of the web.

The digital world provides excellent resources on the web that students are unable to see in person. Historic sites with valuable and interesting information are crucial to foster historical thinking. Educators who would like to teach students about history with primary sources can have access to them on the web. Educators can introduce credible, historical websites and provide a short lesson for students to examine a primary source without leaving the classroom. In “Why Historical Thinking is Not About History,” Sam Wineburg makes a good point by stating, “Reliable information is to civic intelligence what clean  air and clean water are to public health” (16). Educators can propose two questions to help their students learn to evaluate sources for reliable information: “Who owns a site? Who links to it?” (Wineburg 16). By answering these two questions, students can begin to evaluate the website. Also, a digitized primary source with text can be compared with a transcription of it. The educator may ask 1 or 2 questions to help students to examine both sources. Sometimes, when the physical site is too far away for students and educators to visit in person, the website of the physical site provides digital resources for helping the educator to provide an engaging history lesson for his or her students.

Another teaching method that teachers can do is to incorporate a lesson that helps students learn how information is posted on the web. Educators can use Wikipedia as part of a lesson to teach students how information is posted in a digital space. They can uncover complexities in history by conducting research on certain Wikipedia entries with historical information. For example, Brown and Olsen assigned their students to revise a Wikipedia entry on Tianamen Square after learning about it for a several weeks. They conclude that “one of the principal tasks of historians is to not let the complexities of history go unnoticed. Wikipedia’s ubiquity has made it a useful forum to communicate such complexities to the public, as well as an effective tool for future historians to improve their academic abilities” (Brown & Olsen). Also, students can learn to compare the information between Wikipedia and a historical website. They will learn to ask questions and begin to think historically about the information on the web. Also, they will inquire more about the past. Providing a lesson for students to engage with history by examining, evaluating, researching, analyzing, and editing information on the web, teachers can use the web as means of teaching how information is posted on the web.

Finally, there are free digital tools on the web that educators can introduce to students to work with historical evidence. For data mining, educators can introduce easy and user-friendly digital tools such as Voyant and Wordle to examine the text of a historical document and how the words appear in context. Educators should “make sure your [students’] visualizations expose something new, hidden, non-obvious” (Cohen). The visualizations of the data mining will help students to uncover something different or new. Also, they can use mapping tools as visual reference of key historical places and uncover some complexities of geo-history. Working with digital tools to understand and analyze historical evidence allows students the opportunity to think about history in a different way. It also helps them to uncover interesting things and discover new information to fuel their inquiring minds. There are so many great digital tools that educators can introduce to students to help them work with historical evidence and to help them to foster historical thinking.

Despite the challenges and downfalls of a malleable past in a digital world, it makes it easier for educators to teach about and to help students engage with the past in multiple ways. The digital world has helped educators teach students about search engines and evaluating search links. It also introduced the concept of learning about the past in a digital space, especially when the physical space is out of reach. They learn to examine and evaluate digitized primary sources on the web. Students learn to use digital tools to analyze historical evidence on the web and uncover complexities in history. According to Kelly, “the best way to use digital media to teach them to see history as we see it is to create learning opportunities that make it possible for our students to do history—to practice it as we practice it—to help them make history, using their own creative impulses, rather than simply giving us what they hope is the correct answer to a question we have posed” (“Teaching History”). The malleability of the past in the digital world can have its challenges, but it can help educators find ways to teach students to be smart consumers of the web while learning about the past.

Bibliography

Brown, J. & Olsen, B. M. (2012). Teaching Tiananmen: using Wikipedia in the undergraduate classroom to learn how to write recent History. American Historical Association. Retrieved from https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/april-2012/teaching-tiananmen

Cohen, Dan. (2016). It’s about Russia. Digital Humanities: Theory & Practice. Retrieved from http://edchnm.gmu.edu/dhcert/sites/default/files/pdf/Its_About_Russia.pdf.

Kelly, T.M. (2013). Teaching History in the Digital Age. Digital Humanities. Retrieved from http://edchnm.gmu.edu/dhcert/sites/default/files/pdf/TeachingHistoryintheDigitalAge.pdf.

Rieger, O.Y. (2009). Search engine use behavior of Students and Faculty. First Monday, 14(12). Retrieved from http://www.firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/%20view/2716/2385

Wineburg, S. (2016). “Why History thinking is not about History. History News, 71(2),14-16. Retrieved from http://resource.aaslh.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2016/10/Wineburg-Spring16-a.pdf

Response to “National Parks and New Audiences”

Coslett and Chalana incorporate interesting ideas that reflect ways of teaching historical thinking to the general public. After providing a historical background of two historic sites: WM-NHS and SJI-NHP, they point out the elements that best represents them. At the same, they also point out the elements for improvement in order to increase their presence for more visitations and reaching out to a broader audience. They express the need for uncovering the complexities of history by arguing that the NPS should continue to be progressive with improving their parks because “the agency recognizes the need to expand its interpretive approaches to incorporate different cultural groups” (104) and “without straying too far from the founding mandates” (103). For WM-NHS and SJI-NHP, the authors argue that the physical and online presence need to be improved in order to uncover some parts of history that need to be acknowledged while adhering to the mandates. Besides the permanent exhibit (physical site) that is divided into sections that present information about the Whitmans and Cayuse, some of the language and outdoor signage need improvement at WM-NHS. For SJI-NHP, Coslett and Chalana advise themes beyond the “Pig War” that should be explored and continue to be uncovered such as the Native people and women’s experience. They also mentioned that both parks used film to engage the audience. Even though Coslett and Chalana point out the steady progress of the parks, they argue that the parks “fall short of directly engaging the park’s more complex and controversial human histories, particularly with regard to the perennially marginalized contributions and experiences of Native peoples” (122). Their argument echoes what most of our readings in this course have mentioned. Uncovering the complexities of history is an ongoing process that includes changes in language, historical studies, humanities, technology, and people. Asking questions about sources is unavoidable even in physical spaces such as the historic sites. Being skeptical about the presented information invites the questions from the audience in order to face the challenges that sometimes changes need to be made in order to uncover the complexities of history.

Fortunately, NPS has begun to make such improvements in the 21^st century by collaborating with people with different experience such as working the design students for “Parks for People.” Another way NPS engaged with the public was “Find Your Park” that uses social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram to bring attention the parks and reach out to a diverse audience. Coslett and Chalana refer to “dark parks” that make visitors think and learn about unpleasant things about the past such as internment camp sites, isolated leprosy community, etc. “These NPS units offer contemplative places for consideration of the less savory aspects of our nation’s struggles with violence and oppression,” and “parks like these may inspire tolerance by revealing and exploring prejudice while contributing to important communal healing processes” (124-125). The uncovering or discovery of complexities of history is part of that learning and healing process.

I would advise the NPS to continue reaching out to a diverse audience for collaborative opportunities. They might meet some innovative individuals who will bring fresh perspectives to the current historic site. Also, I would advise the NPS to work with more individuals from diverse backgrounds to help improve their online presence. I checked out the webpages for WH-NHS and SJI-NHP, and I noticed some elements that could help improve their online presence and traffic. For the WH-NHS, the images in the Photo Gallery section need metadata. Also, it would be nice to zoom in and out of each image. The Education page needs great improvement. I think if the right digital tools and more teaching resources were implemented, then it would be a great way for teachers to refer to this page. Possible voice recordings of some of the transcriptions would be nice for visitors who are visually impaired. SJI-NHP needs some updates on their web page. The last update was in March 2015. The history and culture page displays images with the text. I can actually click on the image to viewer a larger image. The Education page also falls short; it desperately needs more information to engage the teachers to view this page with their students. The Photo Gallery is a little confusing because the photos are all on one page of an exhibit and not separated. The visitor is not allowed to zoom in and out of the image. Also, I would advise taking more pictures of the physical site and post them online. Unfortunately, I did not see any questions to help the audience to think about the historical evidence and uncover the complexities online. Posting 1 or 2 questions to capture to the audience’s attention would help them to begin thinking historically about the historical evidence. The maps seem out of date or need improvements to engage the audience. An interactive map might would be useful to connect the items from the other sections of the digital site. Maybe in the future, NPS might consider adding 1 or 2 languages to increase international audience. After viewing these two sites online, my final advice would be for the NPS to reach out to individuals who are interested in improving the online presence for certain parks. Both the physical and digital spaces are significant to uncovering historical complexities, so NPS might consider working with GMU students who are in the Digital Humanities Graduate Certificate Program to help them improve their digital space and presence.