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Adrienne Hood Jacqueline Spafford |
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| The Journal for MultiMediaHistory Volume 1 Number 1 ~ Fall 1998 |
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Adrienne Hood Jacqueline Spafford |
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Bruce Retallack's Web site. |
We should point out here that we are aware that many people are working with instructional and research Web-based projects that far exceed this one in sophistication. There are even more people, however, who are beginning to see the advantage of integrating Web sites into their curriculum but have not yet taken the first step, due to such factors as technophobia, lack of facilities, lack of time, or lack of departmental support. We encountered all of these in varying degrees and will address them here. Our hope is that by discussing the problems we overcame, the difficulties we are still encountering, and, more importantly, the successes we achieved, that other people might consider taking the first step towards working with this important new communication technology. THE FIRST YEAR - 1996/97to encourage the use of the Internet as a research tool to add a new dimension to the exploration and use of objects and images to stimulate thinking about design and organization elements to explore the presentation of information in a non-linear format to encourage the incorporation of illustrations, photos, and graphics into text to provide practical computer skills that participants could take with them into other courses, the workplace, and ongoing individual Web projects
Computer Literacy
The largest problem we initially encountered was the unevenness of
the participants' computer abilities, including the instructor's. They
ranged from a level of comfort with a variety of computer applications
(two to three students out of a class of sixteen) to near computer illiteracy (surprisingly,
the majority). This was magnified by the near-terror on the part of those students
with little computer experience—some contemplated dropping the course
when they considered the overwhelming project that lay ahead. In addition,
while Hood appreciated the possibilities of the Internet for creating exciting
new ways to communicate history, she soon discovered that she had no idea
how to create a Web site of her own, let alone how to teach this to others.
One of the university's academic computer facilities, Information Commons,
was very enthusiastic about the project and had promised assistance, thus
she proceeded, thinking it couldn't be too difficult. She soon found out
otherwise.
Equipment and University Support
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Erica Phillips' Web site. |