Final Exam Digital Exhibit

Question this final exam seeks to address:

Using the history and digital tools we’ve covered this semester, can your design a simple digital exhibit that demonstrates a thesis?

Background

We have covered a huge period in history, from approximately 100,000 BCE to 1400 CE. We have also used digital history tools–such as Omeka, Voyant, Historical Geographic Information Systems (GIS)– to ask different types of questions about the past than are possible using traditional books. Along the way, I’ve asked you to explore some basic concepts in history, such as how can a map tell a story, what can numbers tell us about the past, and what are the limits of social media in addressing history.

Your final exam will take the form of a digital exhibit on Omeka.

Part of creating your final exam will involve creating an outline and bibliography of your sources. This outline and bibliography will be peer reviewed. The entire assignment looks like this.

Exhibits 1 Assignment: Outline and bibliography for final exhibit. **Due December 2nd, 8 p.m., post to the Exhibits Assignment 1 discussion. **
Exhibits 2 Assignment: Complete peer review (through D2L) for one other student. Due December 9th, respond in the Exhibits Assignment 2 discussion. NOTE: This assignment is listed in the Discussion Section of D2L.
Final Exam: Complete your Omeka exhibit: Due December 14th at 8 p.m. NOTE: This is a Wednesday, not our standard Friday due date.

Learning outcomes: at the end of this assignment you will be able to-

Identify six sources (3 primary, 3 secondary) that address a common theme and pass the PISA test.
Analyze how your chosen six sources support a thesis of your creation.
Create a thesis that makes an argument for the importance of a historical idea, person, place, event, or object.
Create a Neatline exhibit map in Omeka that correctly places a point.
In the Neatline map, locate a point on a timeline using the SIMILE Timeline plugin.
Include sources from each of the modules (time, images, maps, words, numbers, and social media) in your digital exhibit.
Create an exhibit in Omeka.
Create three blocks of content in an Omeka exhibit.
Write descriptive text in complete sentences to explain why you’ve chosen your sources.
Publish a complete digital exhibit to the open web.

Assignment requirements

You must complete the history research part of this assignment before you create your outline and bibliography and then build the digital exhibit part of the project.

Exhibits Assignment 1: History Research

More important than anything else in this assignment is your proposed thesis for your exhibit. Finish this sentence: “this exhibits demonstrates that … .” If you can finish this sentence, you have a thesis.

To create a thesis, you need a theme, or a topic so you can look for sources. Here’s what you need to create a thesis.

Six historical sources (three primary sources, three secondary sources).
You must include one non-digital source (a physical book or historical object that you viewed in person)
A defined topic that relates all of your sources to one another.
A period of time less than 500 years. Your thesis can connect sources that are up to 500 years apart.
Your sources must address these six modules: Time (a dated source), Images (a picture), Maps (a GIS map), Words (a voyant analysis of a text), Numbers (statistics about your topic), Social Media (a post about your topic), with one source for each module.
All of your sources must pass the PISA (publication, institution, sources, author) credibility test.
You do NOT need more than six sources to earn an “A,” and more sources are not better. It’s better to have six great sources rather and eight weak ones.

Outline and Bibliography

Once you have six sources and a thesis, you can compose the outline for your digital exhibit. Your final exhibit will have three sections (called blocks). Your outline will need to look like this:

Thesis
Source 1 (full citation using the Chicago Manual of Style or another format. Make your life easier and use a citation machine if you can.)
Sources 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 with full citations.
Block One: Your first block should be a Neatline map with a “Record” point recorded on it.
Block Two: Explain what sources you are going to group together and why you are grouping them together? For example, you may wish to group your sources 1,3, and 5 together based on their type (say letters).
Block Three: Explain what sources you are going to group together and why you are grouping them together?
Explain in three sentences why you think your sources support your thesis. This is the most important part of the assignment. You must show how your sources support (not relate to) your thesis.

Submit this part of the assignment to the discussion board by Friday at 8 p.m.

Digital Exhibit

Once you have six sources centered on a them, and you have a thesis, and have posted your outline/bibliography you can begin building an exhibit. This part of your assignment requires you to use all the digital skills you learned this semester. I’ve tried to include screen shots of the relevant information below. Here is the key information for the digital exhibit. Here are the key components of the digital exhibit, with more detailed instructions below.

Create an Omeka Exhibit with the title “Your full name”
Create items or records (in Neatline ) for your exhibit. If you create items, put them in your existing collection.
Create a Neatline exhibit with the title “Your full name: your topic.”
Place records (either new records or items from your collection) into the Neatline map, with a location pin, and timeline included.
Include your Neatline exhibit as part of your six sources in your exhibit, in 3 blocks.
Make your exhibit public.

Exhibits Assignment 2

Review another students outline on the discussion board in D2L. Students will receive a bonus if they submit their review by Thursday night, December 8th.

Final Exam: Create, Edit, and Publish Omeka Exhibit

Due December 14th at 8 pm.

Here is the link for our course. http://jacknorton.org/1101-fall–16-omeka/admin/users/login

If you’ve forgotten your username or password, reset your password. Omeka will send you both your password and username to your Normandale email account.

Add an exhibit.

Give your exhibit a title, a slug (keywords) and a brief description in a complete sentence.

Be sure to include your class number in the tags (4)

Create a “Neatline Exhibit”

After you’ve created the overall exhibit, you need to create the map/timeline part of your exhibit. Remember that the map and timeline is in the “Neatline” part of Omeka.

Click on “Neatline” and then Create an Exhibit."

Give your Neatline exhibit easily identifiable metadata.

I strongly encourage you to call your Neatline exhibit something with your name at the front. This will make finding your map easier later.
Give your Neatline exhibit a one, complete sentence summary.

Select the widgets and map views you need.

Click on the widgets box and select “Text” “SIMILE Timeline” and “Waypoints.”
Choose the “Spatial Layers” (also known as the base map) you want for your maps. OpenStreet Maps generally displays best, but it does display in the local language.
Save your Exhibit.

Edit your Neatline Exhibit by clicking on it’s title.

There is no “Edit” button, only the title takes you into the Neatline editor. The title of your exhibit will turn from orange to brown.

Add the SIMILE Timleline and Waypoints Plugins to you map. (1)

You’ll also need to decide how many years per slash you want your timeline to show (every year, every ten years, every 100 years?). That is called the Interval Unit.

Save.

Add “New Record” or use an “Item” from your collection.

You can use an “Item” from your collection by click on item and then searching for its title.
Please be sure you name is in the tags of your Neatline records.

Add text as the picture shows below.

Add a title, a three sentence description in the body, and citation for your source.

Return to Omeka.

Once you create a Neatline exhibit, you can add it your main exhibit.

Click on (1) Exhibits on the main page and then “Add Page” and select “Neatline.” (2)

Your Neatline Exhibit will now appear.

Select your Neatline exhibit and Save Changes.

Add two more blocks.

Your blocks can be “File with Text” (which would be an image with a text around it; gallery (a bunch of images) or just text.

You can do more than a total of three blocks for your exhibit, but you must do at least three.

Add your sources with complete citations to the blocks.

Each source should have a sentence explanation for how the source contributes to your thesis.

When you’ve finished everthing, return to the Exhibit main page and click “Public” to make it available on the web.

Time Expectation

I expect this assignment will take 12–20 hours of time, spread out over 15 days. That is about an hour a day. Pleases do not wait to get started.

Grading Rubric

Student

Identified six sources (3 primary, 3 secondary) that address a common theme and pass the PISA test.
Analyzed how your chosen six sources support a thesis of your creation.
Added the six sources and complete metadata (Dublin Core data) to their own collection in Omeka.
Created a thesis that makes an argument for the importance of a historical idea, person, place, event, or object.
Created a Neatline exhibit map in Omeka that correctly places a point.
In the Neatline map, located a point on a timeline using the SIMILE Timeline plugin.
Included sources from each of the modules (time, images, maps, words, numbers, and social media) in your digital exhibit.
Created an exhibit in Omeka.
Created three blocks of content in an Omeka exhibit.
Wrote descriptive text in complete sentences to explain why you’ve chosen your sources.
Published a complete digital exhibit to the open web.
Wrote complete sentences for the exhibit text using standard English usage.