Project Proposal: History through 18th Century Clothing
Technical plan
There will be a few different methods used to produce the site, a reflection of the various kinds of content that compose the site. The clothing primer will be the simplest portion of the site, predominantly simple HTML pages, with lots of images, some detail rich images, and a few interactive portions along the lines of the Colonial Williamsburg virtual colonial paper doll. These interactive portions will be created with Flash or LiveMotion. The detail rich images will use either JT Imaging or Viewpoint software. The HTML editor will be DreamWeaver, since it is an industry standard, and has advanced features such as templates that will make the site easier to manage. Some of the lecture modules may use PowerPoint slides with audio, rather than just text and images, where appropriate. Most of this material will be fairly straightforward for the faculty to create, requiring perhaps some outside training for producing the Flash or LiveMotion components. Some of the repetitive work could be done by assistants, reducing the workload on the faculty.
The immersive world will include QuickTime virtual reality movies, allowing students to view a series of period furnished rooms, with appropriately attired and positioned manikins, from all angles. Students will be given writing assignments in which they must use the QT movies and their readings to a critical analysis to answer the question. The immersive world will also include a Flash or LiveMotion rendered module that incorporates the expert-guide feature of the Theban Mapping Project's 3D tomb with the self-directed investigation and story arc features of Magic, Illusion, and Detection. Using a story arc where the students investigate allegations of smuggled goods will not only create an explicit link between clothing and political and economic history, it will also draw in both teenage boys and girls. Again this portion of the site could be created by the faculty, with some training, or faculty could collaborate with technical assistants on the project.
The document database will be built using XML coded documents and a software such as Folio SiteDirector to turn the collection of files into the web document database. In the initial phases of the project, students will be trained in the process of classifying documents, assigning key words, and tagging relevant data. This portion of the project will be tied in with their technology course. Students will be provided with electronic (text) versions of the documents for tagging. Primary source documents will include letters, advertisements from newspapers, and inventories. The document database will also contain images of extent garments and period drawings. Being able to search these primary resources based on key words will be a valuable addition to the collection. The database will also include some compiled data, placed there by the faculty. The compiled data will provide statistics useful for the students to know and use.
Once a sufficiently representative sampling of documents has been entered into the database, students will then be required to query the database to find answers to questions, although for a few semesters there may be concurrent assignments, in which students participate both in the development and also use the existing database.