questions – Online Portfolio

From an academic perspective, educators have the potential to teach students, who are also consumers of information, to be cautious of the information that is posted on the web and to examine the sources in order to avoid being programmed to just click and accept information on the web. As long as educators are able to practice what they preach, students can learn to be wise consumers of the web. Being skeptical is not necessarily a bad thing because it allows the student and consumers to ask questions and see things differently. According to Wineburg, “What once fell on the shoulders of editors, fact-checkers, and subject matter experts now falls on the shoulders of each and every one of us” (16). The question is “Who will teach them?” Educators should help their students understand the various points of learning to examine and evaluate their sources as a beginning stage of the historical thinking process. Wineburg provides a great suggestion and that is the digital toolbox. He proposes 2 questions for students to think about when examining and evaluating an online source: “Who owns a site? Who links to it?” because “we teach students how to evaluate sources by asking questions about the author and the context, and by asking questions about their supporting evidence” ( Wineburg 16). Instead of just clicking away at the links that appear at the top of a Google search (or other search engines), students should learn to examine the links by asking questions.

Teachers may consider providing a lesson with at least 2 or 3 activities on how to examine search engine results. To begin the lesson, students can learn key terms such as SEO, Search Engine Optimization, and read articles by Nicholas Carr and Sam Wineburg. The teacher might even consider having the students read about Eszter Hargittai’s Northwestern University study on college searches in Google, which is mentioned in Wineburg’s article. The other lesson will include activities on how to examine, evaluate, analyze, and edit Wikipedia entries. Since “the internet has obliterated authority” (Wineburg 14), “search engines should play a role in building ‘digital literacy’ in order to help searchers more effectively find, analyze, and use information. The goal is to encourage searchers to integrate information effectively and efficiently by evaluating the credibility of a source, and using and citing information ethically and legally” (Rieger). Teachers can provide credible and reliable websites with historical evidence to help students begin examining primary sources. It will help students have an idea of what a reliable, historical website with primary sources would look like. The next lesson is to teach students to work with primary sources by asking questions, analyzing them, and learning to appreciate them as part of history. Eventually, the students will learn to create their own history projects for a historical topic that is hidden or partially-hidden on the web. The students will learn to be wise consumers as long as teachers provide the educational platform that allows them to ask questions, investigate questions, and analyze historical evidence.

Conducting research for building a prototype for a digital public history project comes with some interesting challenges. One of the challenges that I have encountered is creating a set of questions to find out more about my audience. During the early planning stage, I thought I had great ideas for whom the project will target. After interviewing my users, I realized I needed to revisit my set of interview questions. My questions were almost linear, and I needed to take less control and let the audience tell me what they are looking for. One of the audiences that I did not consider at the initial planning of my project is the audience who does not have any knowledge of both Koreatowns and Korean American history and culture in North Texas. If I could find a way to engage this type of audience, then I will have a better understanding of my audience.

According to Shlomo Goltz, “personas are one of the most effective ways to empathize with and analyze users.” Learning about personas and creating two personas for my project has helped to step back and see my project from another angle. Then, I began to understand my audience. I am currently in the process of creating a third persona to acknowledge another group of audience. Another challenge I have encountered is the technology aspect. I made the assumption that if my audience uses technology, then it will be less difficult to engage them. However, I needed to pay closer attention to different patterns of data and the data that was missing. Both users access social media, but the type and time spent for each one differs depending on what they need and want from each one. The users not only want to search for information, but they also want to learn and to be acknowledged. I plan to study more social media platforms in order to understand how each one serves a purpose for different audiences. This will help me to learn which ones serve a greater purpose in engaging the audience with the project, and it will help me to select the appropriate digital tools to engage my audience.

Furthermore, engagement becomes a key factor for keeping the audience interested, informed, and valued. They want to be part of the project in some way. Just like visiting and engaging in the physical spaces, the audience wants that similar experience in a digital space; and they want to leave a physical and digital space knowing that they have learned and/or contributed in some way. The shared inquiry between the audience and the project creators create an interesting dynamic. By inviting the audience to become part of the project, the level of engagement goes from minimal to valuable. Also, carefully researching the audience and the different types of engagement adds a humanistic approach to the project. I plan to integrate activities that both the audience and I can co-create or build the project together. In the meantime, I will continue to research the end goals of different users. Overall, the user research has helped me to view audience from a different perspective and how they play a significant role in the designing and planning of our digital public history project.

Tag: questions

Response to Wineburg’s “Why Historical Thinking is Not About History”