Solo Project: Margaret Manchester

Resources Requested

Stipend AY: $1400.00
Stipend Summer: $400.00
ElementK: $70.00
Software: $500.00: Adobe Premiere 65 Win (199.98; Video Capture); Sonic Foundry Sound Forge 6.0 Win 49.98 (audio capture); Sonic Foundry Sound Forge Acid 3.0 49.98.
Equipment: $400.00: Emerson DVD/VCR combo (148.76; Walmart);  HP Scanjet 3500C (99.99; Staples);  Digital Video Capture Card ($130) and Microphone Headset ($20-25).

Total: $2,770

Project Info

Equipment Use In Future: To continue to develop multimedia PowerPoint presentations for other history & American Studies courses, as well as for DWC and Arts Honors presentations.

Start Date: Mid-December 2002
End Date: August 31, 2003

Milestones/Deadlines: I would hope to have at least the first few presentations ready for use when HIS226 begins in January 2003. I will continue to work on the presentations (scanned documents and images and some limited multimedia) during the semester with the goal of completing the integration of the multi-media sources during the summer.

Deliverables

Angel Course: All course materials developed through this grant would be made available to students through Angel.

Multimedia CD: By using the video and audio editing hardware and software, it will be possible to bring together a variety of different sources in a much more convenient and usable format. I use short film clips, play music, and use PowerPoint's extensively in my classroom teaching. It becomes very unwieldy to juggle several VHS tapes, CDs, notes, etc. A Multimedia CD would bring all the materials for a particular topic together. It could be copied and distributed for student use, or it could be made available through Angel, or a combination of the two.

Change in Practice: I have used a combination of scanned documents and images in my PowerPoints in the past. The software and hardware that I have requested would enable me to add the music and video, as well as narration and commentary if students are viewing the presentations outside of the classroom setting.

Conference Presentation: Yes;  The American Association of History and Computing holds its annual conference in March. This would be an ideal presentation for such a venue (http://www.theaahc.org). The Association also sponsors a refereed journal, Journal of the American Association for History and Computing.

Primary Objective

Developing new Powerpoint presentations that incorporate both audio, video, and traditional materials for the HIS(WMS)225/226 course. This would enhance classroom instruction by making materials available to students on-line through Angel prior to class. The PowerPoints make it possible to integrate a variety of sources for students to consider which would otherwise be unavailable or too expensive to obtain. PowerPoint slide shows make it easy to integrate material culture and artifacts. This is especially important when trying to understand the lives of women in early colonial history who were poor, illiterate, or slaves, and left few written records.

My hope is that students will develop better analytical skills, a greater facility in interpreting a variety of traditional and non-traditional sources, and thus a deeper and broader understanding of the variety of female experiences in American history. Integrating visual and material culture also enhances student learning by enabling students to draw conclusions and make connections between the documentary evidence and the other types of sources. Further, this would promote better classroom participation and discussion since the larger variety of classroom materials would be available prior to class.

These efforts would result in the transformation of the course as it has been taught in the past by integrating more technology, and would further promote the inclusion of new materials in a multimedia CD to be used in the classroom or provided to students as a supplementary package.

Project Details

Ideally, these materials would be of use to other instructors in the department who touch upon the history of American women in the US survey courses and in the American history seminars. The materials would also be made available to the Women's Studies Program.

Assessment Plan

Obviously the production of new presentations for each of the major topics discussed in the course. Evaluating student writing and projects for the integration of a greater variety of sources using a more cross-disciplinary method. Adding specific questions relating to technology and student learning to the mid-semester and end of semester course evaluation forms that all of my students fill out.