uncover – Online Portfolio

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 Kelly’s advice to narrow my focus on what part of the historical content does not make sense to my students.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.

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.

First Piece of the Puzzle

For my final project, my initial ideas include several questions that focus on teaching about the incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans during WWII and how the historical evidence provides an insight into what happened before the war ended. One of the novels that they are assigned to read is John Okada’s No-No Boy. Okada’s novel focuses on more about what happens to Japanese Americans after WWII, but he does begin the novel referencing what had happened to many Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The following questions might help my students to begin thinking about the historical issues surrounding an unforgotten and partially hidden period in American history:

What have American history courses revealed about the treatment of Japanese Americans during WWII? Why study this part of American history? Are you able to make the connections between the primary and secondary sources? What inquires or historical questions can be derived from viewing, examining, and analyzing the historical evidence? What arguments can be constructed by viewing the primary and secondary sources? Based on your research and reading, what do you think is missing or hidden?

The above questions are challenging for students to make sense of because they were taught from an omniscient narrative that did not include any humanistic approach to learning about the selected historical content. It is a topic that most students have had little exposure to because it is another ugly part of American history. Also, students may have had no exposure to this part of American history, which makes me very sad because I was one of those students. During my freshmen year in high school, my Honors History teacher scanned over a small paragraph in a textbook about the internment camps during WWII and told us that it was not important and it was not on the exam. Fast forward many years later, I have been delving into the unimportant historical content to learn more about it; and I began to “uncover” more interesting sources to investigate and analyze. The historical issues pertaining to the treatment of Japanese Americans during WWII make my students feel at unease about what happened, and some of them hesitate at first to learn more about it because it places them in an uncomfortable position. At this point, some of the students begin to ask more developed questions and have a sympathetic or empathic understanding. As a result, they either have to choose “to learn about the rhinoceroses or to learn about unicorns” (Wineburg 498).

(Postscript for Responding to “The History Curriculum in 2013”)

The ideas expressed in Dr. Kelly’s “The History Curriculum in 2013” present a different approach to teaching history. Instead of focusing only on historical content knowledge, he provides 4 different concepts/skills (making, mining, marking, and mashing) with the use of technology to help educators teach history in a new and interesting way. He provides examples for each concept and how each concept can be incorporated into the history curriculum. Kelly knows the importance of digital resources and how they can be used to teach history in a different way. Echoing the move to teach history with a different approach such as Wineburg, Levesque, Calder, and McClymer, Kelly’s ideas are another approach to teaching history and fostering historical thinking. However, Kelly goes a step further with his approach to teaching history by emphasizing that undergraduate students will be better equipped for graduate programs, employment, and research opportunities because they have gained additional skills while studying history.