Site map

Alright so I’ve been using my made Paint skills and have produced a site map. I’m still trying to figure out how to do a wireframe in Word. I guess I’m supposed to use the table function, but it’s proving more difficult than I thought it would be… could be just that I’m not as familiar with the function…
sitemap1

CMS Modification

Okay, so again, here is the link to my site thus far: Classical Architecture as History, 1790-1943. I REALLY liked the colors that were used in making this dark theme because I thought it would make the detail, colors, etc. in my images stand out, which would be why I chose to use this theme. I DID change some of the colors, but it’s pretty subtle. Anytime full white was used in a current tab or as a border I changed to a light gray color because I thought the white might be a little distracting for my purposes. So for example, the navigation bar had a #fff set as the border line on top and bottom, so I changed that to a light gray. I thought about just getting rid of the border all together, but I thought the slight change of color added something extra to the top of the page. I also want the font style to be Times New Roman because of the classical theme I have going on my site.
All my other changes should be pretty obvious.

I had a good time putting all this together and I think every time I work on my site I learn something new. I have to say though that in attempting to change some of the colors, I swear that I changed a color, saved, and sent it over FTP and it didn’t do anything… but then when I tried again later it worked. I don’t know what that was all about. Story of my life I guess….

Working on my site…

Here’s the link to my site. Still working on everything, but thought I would go ahead and post the link.

Classical Architecture as History, 1790-1943

Strategy and Scope Assignment

Please note that I am having trouble uploading a file so I’m putting the text of my strategy and scope assignment here.

Overview:
This project, Classical Architecture in Washington, D.C.: Architecture as History, 1790-1943, is an educational tool for the classroom directed at both students and teachers. The project will use visual and interactive methods to best engage the next generation of students so steeped in the modern world of the internet and new media. The project also specifically speaks to the need for more engaging ways in which to reach the goals of the National Teaching Standards in high school classrooms. The site will also serve as a virtual tour guide to classical buildings in the federal city, which will cater to classrooms who cannot travel to D.C. as well as those fortunate enough to make the trip.
How this Project is Valuable?
This project would bring American history to students through a visual contemplation on DC classical architecture. Changes to architectural style will be examined as being symptoms of changing American views on identity and intellectual awareness of the United States’ role in the world. This site will present itself as a broad overview of American history where major themes in how American identity developed. This project specifically speaks to the difficulties of teaching students to have a full grasp of these themes in American history, which are required by the National Teaching Standards. It also speaks to the stereotype that American history in high school has been reduced to a long list of dates and names with the result of students identifying the study of history with boredom. New media and the internet are increasingly ways in which teachers can engage students in a more hands on approach to history. The use of architecture as a visual and interactive textbook would provide evidence for the development of the United States from the Revolution to the present in a less conventional way
Technological Requirements:
I will use Omeka to build this site because of the database feature it offers. The photographs will consist of photographs I have taken of D.C. buildings and statuary as well as images located on the Library of Congress website. Since these images will be either my own or offered by the LOC (and therefore fall under public domain), copyright will not be an issue the project will have to undertake. Images I have taken were done so with a Nikon D40 SLR camera and are therefore high quality images. The LOC offers high quality images of their sources for download as well. Since the site will place much importance on visual evidence of changing themes in history, offering high quality images on the site will also be important.
Timeline:
March 16: Omeka will be installed on my server space and I will have the theme and home page up and running.
March 23: I will have a complete sitemap and wireframe for the site. I also will have begun uploading images to my database with the necessary Dublin Core information attached. I will also be working on and including content for the site.
March 30: I will continue to be uploading images. This week in class we are focused on Photoshop for Historians, which will hopefully provide some new insight into presenting my images in the best way possible.
April 6: This week in class we are discussing Design Rationale on our sites. I have no doubt that constructive criticism will assist me in make any final changes to the theme I have as well as the overall look of the site.
April 13: I will have made necessary changes to my site via the criticism from the week before in class. I will also continue to add images and refine the content and accessibility of the site with teachers and students in mind.
April 20: If I have the content for the teaching modules as well as the photograph database complete, I will begin work on a museum building feature designed for students to submit as a classroom assignment. The purpose of this assignment will be to have students demonstrate an understanding for the changing architectural features attached to different periods in American history. This exercise will also boost the interactivity of the site in engaging students to actively learn US history. Obviously, the functionality of the site as a whole as well as the photograph database and content will be the main concern for this project and only if these priorities have been taken care of will I undertake a more complicated stage of the project.

Up and running…

With Jeremy’s help I finally got my Omeka stuff up on the server and I’m currently playing around with themese and gauging what it’s going to take to write my own theme. I’m pretty excited now because I think I might actually be able to figure this all out and have fun with it too! This isn’t to say that I will needing lots of help, but I feel a lot more encouraged now that I can at least SEE that I have a site…. I have already started uploading images and thinking about how I want them to be ultimately represented and complimented by necessary content. There’s a lot of work ahead, but this might actually turn out to be fun. I’m looking forward to putting together my wireframe etc…

p.s. on last thought

Another fear I’m having right now is that everything in class makes sense, but then what happens when I’m on my own and at home…. That would be what happened when I attempted to upload Omeka to my server….. Thank God we’re having those weekly help sessions because I think I’m going to be needing them.

Strategy for my site and readings

I’ve been critically thinking about personal deadlines for my site and have been laying things out. The only problem is that I think I would feel a lot better if I got my Omeka stuff up and running on the server. No worries, I will hopefully have this all figured out before class begins on Monday, but in the meantime I have been feeling pretty anxious….

After looking at the sites on wireframes, mapping, and diagrams, I think the next exercise we are to do for class might alleviate some of this anxiety. I am a visual person and like to look at the big picture in order to conceptualize how the final product might appear. The wireframe was particularly encouraging in thinking out how the overall site will look and flow without tying my mind in knots while attempting to mentally “link” all of my content pages together in my mind.

The readings this week addressed some issues I think I’m having in keeping organized with my project idea, which I think is one that could quickly become convoluted and difficult to navigate. I think wireframes and mapping is important to my site’s success. Also, keeping the users in mind, in my case teachers and students, will help me stay focused and organized.

Chinese blogger stabbed

Not sure if anyone else was going to post this article. I am not familiar with this blogger, but I think it’s interesting that in a place such as China where the news is highly censored, blogging can be a preferable a method to creating community. Thearticle is on the stabbing of a popular Chinese blogger.

The Codex and other stuff

I’ve been going through the Word Press codex and tutorial as well as playing around with notepad and manipulating HTML code. One thing I discovered was that the original site that inspired the layout for my site in Clio I is that I think it will take me a lot of time to figure out how to make it work for my purposes. I’m not ready to give up yet because I’m enjoying the whole playing around with the code, but it’s highly probable that I will have to start out easier and see where it takes me….

The good news is, like these tutorials we looked at this week, there is a lot of information out there on the web and in books which will help make the whole design vision become reality in our web projects.

Practical applications and semester project

I want to share an article that was in the Washington Post last week which discusses how through computer simulation using a portrait of Martha Washington from the 1790s, historians are able to “prove” that the first First Lady was attractive in her younger years. Many people may ask why we should care either way how she looked, but actually it plays into the discussion of what kind of relationship she and George Washington had. I think this is interesting because it brings in a visual aspect of research in order to shed new light on a historical couple. This story is appealing to both popular and scholarly audiences and I think is one example of how computers and visualization can assist in bringing new horizons to the study of history. Another reason why I’m posting the article is that I question how much of an impact “visualization” will ultimately have on the professional study of history. This got me thinking that maybe there ARE ways it will have an impact. The article is hilariously titled: Fresh Look at Martha Washington: Less First Frump, More Foxy Lady.

I’m plugging away at all the exercises and reading in both the Meyer and Cederholm books. I’ve always enjoyed playing with code and seeing how I can take one trick I’ve learned and apply it to yet another trick. I have always found that some if this is trial and error when finally sitting down to write my own page. As far as a semester project goes for this course, I think I’m pretty content with attempting to follow through on the project I proposed in Clio I, which was a site directed toward students and teachers in exploring the intellectual and historical reasons for why the federal buildings of DC were designed within the classical tradition. As I stated in my project from last semester, I think there is a huge disconnect for why there are all these classical buildings in DC. I find it troubling that many people just accept it as part of the DC landscape and yet they seldom ask the question of why all these buildings for over 100 years were designed this way. If we take a closer look, much can be learned about what contemporaries involved in each building’s plan and design thought of America and its place among other countries of the world.

I think that an examination of these buildings can be used as a visual and interactive textbook for students, probably in high school. One thing that Dan Cohen commented on in my final project was that it needed a more pronounced web 2.0 aspect to it. I think instead of asking students to build an interactive museum exhibit for teachers and fellow students, I may change that to asking students to become architects themselves during on of the 6 classical architectural movements and have them “build” something that would have been done at that given point in history. My one concern about this is whether or not I’m going to be capable of building such a site with a back end aspect to it…