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.
Tag: Omeka
Final Reflection
Building a prototype for Koreatowns in North Texas has been a challenging experience. This course has helped me to take a step back from the initial stages of my project and reconsider my audience. While learning about user-centered approaches to designing a digital project site, I encountered other challenges that I did not consider in the beginning. By studying the physical and digital spaces of a history museum, I was able to see things clearer. Also, studying various digital public history sites was very insightful. Learning about the different digital interfaces and digital tools, reading various scholarship on the digital public history, and testing digital public history sites have helped me to build a prototype.
I selected Omeka for the prototype because it was user-friendly and easy to navigate. It also allowed me to design my project site with creative freedom. The storyboarding technique, mentioned in Shawn Medero’s article “Paper Prototyping,” helped me to visualize the interface for Koreatowns in North Texas. In addition to storyboarding, I learned about the importance of testing and evaluating the prototype. I asked several people to visit Koreatowns in North Texas and provide feedback. Their comments helped me to see things that would be helpful for the audience when navigating the site. The comments from Dr. Leon were also helpful. My classmate’s review/feedback was helpful, but I think having more than one classmate to review the site would have been more helpful to gain more than one perspective.
Overall, I learned that building a prototype for a digital public history site is very challenging; yet the process is a great learning experience. This course has allowed to me explore things that I would not have done on my own such as building a prototype, accessing course materials, and learning different techniques to engage the audience. Since there is little information available online about the history and culture of Koreatowns and Korean Americans in North Texas, I was excited to build a prototype for the information to be available to the public. Finding time to take the images was a little bit challenging because I had to find the time to visit the places during the week and before sundown. After taking the images, I carefully selected the images that would be the best fit for the prototype. Before I learned to incorporate oral history into the prototype, I learned how to interview wonderful people who have close connections to the Korean American communities in North Texas. Another challenge that I encountered was the visual display of my images and text. I learned to experiment with different layouts of the images in Omeka. Writing short descriptions and narratives paved the way for me to understand my audience better. I had to consider the language usage and colloquialism, so I would not lose my audience to an abyss of words. Despite the challenges, I received so much support from the Korean American community. Finding the right people to interview was easy, but finding the time to interview them in person was a good challenge. Also, Dr. Sharon Leon has provided supportive and constructive feedback to lead me in the direction of learning something new in order to see the benefits down the road when I further develop my prototype.
Before the end of this semester, I revisited Michael Frisch’s article. In “From A Shared Authority to the Digital Kitchen and Back,” Michael Frisch explains the purpose of exploring: “Exploring, I think, is more interesting than searching, and it suggests a non-linear spatial imagination rather than a linear, tunneled one: one inhabits a space that is being explored rather than simply forging a narrowing path through it” (133). For my prototype, I came to a realization that I want the audience to explore instead of just search for information and images on the site. I want them to come away with some ideas or information that make them think about the reasons why Korean American history is rarely available online. Also, I hope their explorations and curiosities can help me to continue building the prototype. Ultimately, I want Koreatowns in North Texas to be our digital public history project by inviting people from different backgrounds and experiences to share in the building of the site as a community. The key to making the prototype available to the public would be an engaging collaboration with the audience. Echoing Corbett and Miller, “Honest sharing, a willingness to surrender some intellectual control, is the hardest part of public history practice because it is the aspect most alien to academic temperament and training” (36), I am steadily learning to take less control of my project and reconsider my audience. The question of “How do I engage my audience?” changed to “What are some changes that can be made to the prototype for audience engagement while connecting them to the purpose of preserving the history and culture of Koreatowns in North Texas and the Korean American experience?”
Project Progress Update
For this week, I am facing a few challenges with language conversion, oral history content in OHMS, and a possibility of changing the title of my Omeka site. After I added a plugin for the Korean and English language display, I noticed a few issues. After contacting Reclaim about finding a way to display Korean and English in Omeka, I was directed to contact Omeka support. I hope I will finally get my answer. I created another WordPress site in case I could not find a solution for Omeka. In WordPress, I was able to find some great plugins for language conversion and display. However, I decided to continue with my project in Omeka and worry about the language conversion later. I changed the language back to English only.
I have been struggling a little bit with OHMS. I viewed the video tutorials and read the tutorial guides; however, I just didn’t understand the procedure. I was able to add my interview with Dr. Zo, a first-generation Korean American, to OHMS. However, the audio recording does not appear in the Preview. Now, I have to figure out the problem, so I can link it to my Omeka site. The audio recording is currently available on my Omeka site. After removing my first interview, I decided to upload an interview from Youtube. It is an interview with a famous musician, Allen Toussaint, courtesy of the Library of Congress. Here is the updated link to my OHMS annotation activity: https://ohms.uky.edu/preview/?id=35461. Unfortunately, the video is not available for Preview even though I added the URL in the Metadata.
After interviewing two influential Korean Americans, I am contemplating if I should change the title from Koreatowns in North Texas to North Texas Korean Americans. The interviewees provided wonderful and inspirational narratives about their journey to America (Texas) and how they have contributed to their Korean American community. Each interviewee expressed his or her own passion for community involvement. They did mention Koreatown Dallas, but I am gradually realizing that I need to let go or release my control of the project’s initial direction and see it from an inclusive and audience centered objective.
My next steps include oral history management, addition of social media plugins, additional video recordings, and testing the site with volunteers. I will be uploading and transcribing the remaining audio recordings of the 2 interviews. Before I add the plugins for social media, I need to create a Facebook account for the project site and a Youtube Channel. For Facebook, I can add an image from the Omeka site with a brief description and a title to invite audience participation. For the Youtube Channel, I plan to record a short video about one of the places in Koreatown Dallas or Carrollton to capture the audience’s attention. I might record a short food video from a Korean restaurant (if permitted by restaurant manager/owner) or a panoramic video of Koreatown Dallas or Carrollton and upload it to Youtube. Even though my project is in the early stages of a digital public history site, I will be asking for a few volunteers from different backgrounds and ages to view my site and provide a brief feedback. I might even ask my own students to take a look at the site as a classroom exercise on the rhetorical persuasion and audience engagement of a digital public history site that is a work in progress.
Project Progress Update
The challenges I am facing this week include language conversion, interview recording, and selecting a plugin for future mobile access. I managed to download a plugin for Korean language. However, only selected words (e.g. tags and Dublin core) in Omeka were translated into Korean, but the English words were unavailable. I am trying to find a way to include both Korean and English. Also, I have to double check each word that is translated into Korean because I am noticing that most of the words that were changed to Korean were just the Romanization of the English words. I would like to add the Korean word for that English word. For example, instead of translating “tag” into the Korean pronunciation of tag, I hope to find the actual Korean word for “tag” if it exists. Another challenge I am facing is the downloading and converting of the interview recordings. I changed from using Samsung Galaxy to the Apple iPhone, so I am learning how to use the recorder properly and download segments of the interview. I might resort to using the voice recording editor via the web. After reading the material and exploring the sites in Module 8, I am learning how to include a plugin that will allow me to include an app for possible mobile conversion of my project site. So, I am researching Bootstrap as a possibility.
A Reflection on how Modules 4 & 5 have shaped the thinking process for designing “Koreatowns in North Texas”
Designing my project took some time, patience, and creativity. Modules 4 and 5 prepared me for a different outlook on designing my project and overcoming some minor challenges along the way. By exploring the suggested project sites in Module 4, I was able to understand how each project tries to engage the audience in different ways. Reading the articles that explain the process of designing the project was very helpful. The information on metadata was also helpful. In “Why Collecting History Online is Web 1.5,” authors Sheila A. Brennan and T. Mills Kelly convey the importance of metadata: “Without a metadata schema, however, your project is doomed to a lack of interoperability with other collecting projects that potentially threaten its longevity.” Adding metadata and adhering to the Dublin Core provided the additional practice I needed for describing my items.
Learning to add items to a collection in Omeka provided an insight into viewing it from the outside. I had to keep the audience or personas in mind when I was making the digital collection. I had to carefully select items that might trigger the interest of my audience. Also, I had to think about the interface for my project. I selected Omeka instead of WordPress because it was best suited for my project. From the article, “Generous Interfaces for Digital Cultural Collections,” “Generous interfaces provide rich, navigable representations of large digital collections; they invite exploration and support browsing, using overviews to establish context and maintain orientation while revealing detail at multiple scales. Generous interfaces use multiple, fragmentary representations to reveal the complexity and diversity of cultural collections, and to privilege the process of interpretation.” With Omeka, I can add layers of information that allow the audience to select their digital experience. Instead of a linear navigation, Omeka features sections that the audience can select in different order.
The storyboarding activity in Module 5 provided an insightful look into my project site. At first, I had the images categorized into 2 collections and 1 exhibit. While storyboarding, I realized I needed to go back to two personas because it was becoming too much. Also, I switched from 2 Collections and 1 Exhibit to 3 Exhibits. I redesigned my storyboard images while I considered two personas: primary and secondary. By constantly thinking about how the user might navigate the site, I was able to see what changes I needed to make to make it more user friendly and engaging. According to Shawn Medero, “Paper prototyping can also help improve the final product: the prototyping stage is the right time to catch design flaws and change directions, and the flexibility and disposability of paper encourages experimentation and speedy iteration” (“Paper Prototyping”). By drawing each screen, I came to the conclusion that I needed a section that allowed the audience to take part in this project. So, I added two additional sections: Cultural Events and Remembering Koreatown. Similar to the Hurricane Digital Memory Book, Baltimore Uprising, and A More Perfect Union, I added sections that valued the audience’s experience and contributions in order to build the project to its full potential. I also came to the conclusion that I would like to add another language, Korean, to my site after viewing Gulag: Many Days, Many Lives. Including another language in one or more sections of the site will add another level of audience engagement. Overall, the storyboarding activity provided an opportunity to reassess the narrative that I want to present in each exhibit as well as engaging the audience to share their narrative interpretation.
As always, content is very important. In Erin Kissane’s article, “A Checklist for Content Work,” she argues that “good content is user-centered.” While working on the infrastructure of my Digital Public History project site, I had reconsider the content. I had to think about the goals that I want my users to accomplish when they visit the site. This part is a work in progress because “content must adopt the cognitive frameworks of the user” (Kissane). I need to work on the diction and tone to capture my audience’s attention.
Modules 4 and 5 have shaped my thinking process for designing my project site. At times, I had to stop myself from doing too much and just think about it. When I was gathering my sources, I had to reconsider my personas. I realized that I had to scale down my personas from 4 to 2. Also, I had to think about the items and how they were going to be displayed. I had to revise the metadata and descriptions. This part is still a work in progress. In agreement with Suzanne Fischer, I had to “seek patterns” and take the time to think about my project because “synthesis is a creative skill that public historians can learn and teach” (“Developing your Synthetic Powers”). By looking for patterns in my project, I was able to pinpoint certain things that I had to scale back on since less is more.
I didn’t want to overwhelm my audience and lose their attention. I had to take a humanistic approach with technology. Therefore, maintaining a clear communication with the audience via the interface is very important when designing a Digital Public History project.
Project Proposal for “Koreatowns in North Texas”
“Koreatowns in North Texas”
The proposed “Koreatowns in North Texas” project will convey the importance of preserving an unrecognized part of American history. Currently, there is no website that allows the audience to access information about the history of Asian Americans in Texas. Multiple Asian American communities in Texas continue to prosper, and they contribute to the socio-economic development of the surrounding communities. Unfortunately, the history of the Asian American communities goes on undocumented by the Dallas County and the Dallas Historical Society. The proposed project will help inform people about an important part of the Dallas cultural and socio-economic history in order to bring awareness to a diverse community. It will emphasize the significance of immigration and the sustainability of urban and suburban development in diverse communities. The project will begin with the Korean American communities of Dallas County. There are two Koreatowns in North Texas: Koreatown Dallas and Koreatown Carrrollton. Each Koreatown is different, but both of them play a significant role in their community.
The proposed “Koreatowns in North Texas” project will ask the audience history questions pertaining to what they know about the history of Korean American communities and their connection to the two Koreatowns in North Texas. Here is a sample of the following history questions: What do you know about Korean American history in North Texas? What historical information about Koreatown Dallas or Koreatown Carrollton would you like to learn? How often do you visit Koreatown Dallas and/or Koreatown Carrollton? Describe your personal connection to one or both of the Koreatowns. What do you think makes Koreatown Dallas and/or Koreatown Carrollton interesting? Describe your earliest memory of Koreatown Dallas and/or Koreatown Carrollton. Describe your fondest memory of Koreatown Dallas and/or Koreatown Carrollton. What do you think stands out the most in Koreatown Dallas and/or Koreatown Carrollton? (e.g. the architecture, the cafes, the building signs, etc.). Some of the statements were revised from questions to non-questions to encourage the audience to provide more information.
Also, the project’s website will include a collection of digital images, short descriptions/narratives to connect with the audience, and information about important people who have contributed to the sustainability and development of the communities. Another component will be added for audience participation; they will be able to add their images and narratives that are related to the development of the Korean American communities. Their contributions will help build a historical collection online. Also, it will include digital maps to show the locations and spatial components in order to depict community integration and neighborhood gentrification.
In order to inform, persuade, and engage the audience, the website will implement digital tools. Omeka, an open source web publishing platform, will be used to feature the images as items. After the metadata is added for each item, the items will be organized into Collections or Exhibits. A Geolocation plugin will be added for mapping the locations of the items. Another plugin, Juxtapose will be used to show a side-by-side map comparison of both Koreatowns. Also, it will be used to show a map comparison of Koreatown Dallas in 1980s or 1990s versus now. An additional plugin, Commenting, will be added for the audience to add their comments. A Zoom It plugin will be added to allow the audience to zoom into the image and view it from different angles. Eventually, a social media plugin will be added.
For the target audiences, there are four different personas. Persona 1 includes the 1.5 and 2nd generation Korean Americans. They visit the Koreatowns with family and friends. Some of them have contributed to the building or development of Koreatown Dallas or Koreatown Carrollton. Persona 2 includes an audience who is non-Korean American but is familiar with Korean culture and history from different levels, and they visit the Koreatowns. Persona 3 will be the audience who does not know anything about Korean culture and history, and they do not know that Koreatowns exists in North Texas. Persona 4 is the audience that is comprised of first generation Korean Americans who moved to North Texas during the late 1970s to 1990s and they have contributed directly to the development of Koreatown Dallas, or they have very strong personal connections to it.
A Reading Response and Reflection
For my project, I plan to use my Omeka items to engage my audience in different ways. One of the activities will include tagging. I did not tag the items because I want to see the how the audience varies in their opinions about each item. Will it be objective or subjective? So far, I have developed three personas for my project; and I would like to see how each of them tags the Omeka items. The first persona is someone is familiar with Koreatown. He or she may have grew up visiting Koreatown with family and/or friends. Also, in the first persona, this person could have contributed to the development of Koreatown. The second persona is someone who has an interest in Korean culture and/or history, and he or she likes to visit Koreatown. The third persona is someone who is not familiar with Koreatown. He or she probably does not think it exists in Texas.
Similar to the Hurricane Digital Memory Book and Baltimore Uprising projects, I plan to include a section that will ask the audience to add their memories of the Koreatowns and the events. For each item, I would like to include a plug-in that allows the audience to add a comment. Also, there will be a mapping tool that allows the audience to input their location in comparison to the locations of both Koreatowns in North Texas. Another activity will include a redesign or remapping of both Koreatowns. How will it fit into your neighborhood? Or, I can ask the audience to engage in building a Koreatown near their neighborhood. Furthermore, Koreatowns Dallas and Carrollton hold festivals pertaining to Korean culture and history, so I would like to include a section that allows the audience to upload their pics and add comments to build a story based on their personal experience during one of the past festivals. This activity will be build a community of festival goers or lovers to communicate with each other.
Reflection for the Process of Creating “Asian Americans in the South” DH Project
Initially, I was tied between selecting two different project ideas. My first idea included a collection of images linked to several novels written by Asian American writers for my Asian American literature course. After meeting with Dr. Robertson a few times via Skype, I decided to focus on information pertaining to Asian Americans in the South. I wanted to begin with a collection or exhibit of Asian American history and culture in the South.
Eventually, I decided to focus on adding images that were taken by me during my sabbatical in Spring 2015 and other times. I have collected several images over the years, but I did not have them categorized and displayed together. Instead, I have been using some of the images for my online Asian American Literature and First-Year Composition courses.
My Digital Humanities project seeks to answer the following question: What do we know about Asian American history and culture in the South? I chose this focus because there is not enough information documented about the history, cultural venues, religions, community centers, events, and influential Asian Americans in the South. Since I began my project, I realized my aim became broader. I also wanted to know more about the local people and social issues (e.g. community activists, major contributors, social injustice, etc).
At first, I proposed that my intended audience would be my students because I wanted them to know more about Asian American history and culture, especially in the South. After meeting with Dr. Robertson via Skype, I realized that my audience should be broad to include the public for a possible crowdsourcing project in the future. There is so much information that I have yet to discover, and if I invited the public to contribute to the project, it will be a great way to develop it for public access, engagement, collaboration, and viewing. Therefore, I had to rephrase my project question and replace “college students” with “we.”
For my project, I selected Omeka because it allows me to display the images as an Exhibit. After gathering and selecting images from my multiple photo collections and categorizing them, I added them to Omeka. Then, I added the metadata to describe each image. By adding each item/image to Omeka, I was re-introduced to the importance of adding Metadata. At first, I selected the Berlin theme; but I did not like the layout of my project. So, I selected Seasons because the layout looked spacious and more visually appealing. For the organization of my images, I selected Exhibit style for my working project because I was able to select different layouts of the images and add brief comments/notes. I also selected File, Block, or Gallery for the layout of the images. I added the Geolocation plugin for the location of some of the items/images. Since I began working on my project, I had to reorganize the order of may Exhibit pages and add more information or comments for each page. Also, I learned to add a Geolocation Plugin that is user-friendly; it allows me to map the locations that are linked to most of the items/images. I am still learning how to refine my mapping skills.
My process has slightly changed since the initial stages of my project. I realized that including a summary on each page would be helpful for my viewers. My peers and Dr. Robertson also agreed. At this stage in project, I need to do more research and include information and images on the history of each Asian American town in Texas, Culture, and Who’s Who in the South. This part will include more interviews, trips, and networking.
After posting my working project for my classmates to review it, I received helpful and positive feedback from my two classmates and Dr. Robertson. Both classmates, Pethel and Cavanaugh, provided helpful and positive feedback for my project. They suggested adding a summary for each of my exhibit pages. They both mentioned that adding the map was a good idea. Pethel suggested moving the link to my map on the side instead of on top of each item. Pethel also suggested adding an image and brief explanation to my landing page or about page. They both agreed with the idea of making my project as a crowdsourcing project for the future. Pethel suggested using FaceBook.
After reading the feedback from my classmates, I added information to my About page as an introduction to my project. I also added a brief summary or narrative for each exhibit. Upon Dr. Robertson’s feedback, I added more metadata, specifically the date and rights, to the existing items. I kept the order of pages for the Exhibit the same. I have tried to refine my map, but I have learned that I need more time to work with the map or geolocation plugin. I like the idea of crowdsourcing my project after I have worked on it a little more. Since my project is in the beginning stage, I will not add the social media platform until I work on it a little more throughout this DH certificate program.
Working on Asian Americans in the South has taught me to explore my curiosity in order to share it with others who might be just as curious or want to learn more about it. It also taught me the importance of looking at the project from different perspectives. Receiving feedback from my classmates and professor has helped me tremendously. I was not sure if I was on the right track until I received helpful and positive feedback for my project. Learning to use different digital tools has helped me to select an engaging and user friendly software for my project. I had some minor setbacks when it came to adding additional metadata and information or summary for some of the images. I may have been too ambitious by working on this huge project, but I have learned so much from this course in order to continue working on my digital humanities project. To view my project, please visit the following link: http://elainecho.org/Omeka/
