Madeline+Coven+-+Design+Space

=**I. Design space to develop your 250-300 word** // abstract // **that summarizes your question, rationale, and your findings.**= > > >
 * What is your question? - //How does an interface facilitate or not facilitate search for primary source materials?//
 * What is your rationale? Building on Lee’s and Manfra’s work on primary sources in the Plantation Letters and Documenting the American South, respectively, I will explore a little-understood facet, in the education community about new technologies: the web and human factors. New literacies mean, among other things, the ability to use web interfaces to make decisions about information use. Information cannot simply sit in the ether and wait for us to access it. It has to be organized in an information architecture, and accessed through an interface. An interface is a portal through which a person joins with a another item. The pages of a book, for example, are a kind of interface to the book's content.
 * What are your findings? In keeping with the common core requirements that students learn to interpret primary sources, I will use two sites that organize and display primary sources for visitors: loc.gov, and fordham.edu. Both sites use a principle known as visual hierarchy, which places more general things over less general things. It helps a page, too, to not list too much on one page, as Fordham.edu does. The other site, loc.gov, uses more pages for the same amount of information, and this helps facilitate finding given information through means other than a search box. I have found that because the interface at the Library of Congress website has more information represented in meaningful and orderly hierarchies, it is easier to access primary sources on slavery. Its page hierarchy has titles like National Expansion and Reform, 1815-1860, Slavery and Abolition, and Westward Expansion. At Fordham, the page's hierarchy tries to cover the whole nineteenth century, and the small title The Conflict Over Slavery is under Power and Ideology in the US: North vs. South. Overall, the Library of Congress web site is more conducive to searching for primary documents, as it displays them in categories, whereas the Fordham site displays them as specific documents that may not always meet a researcher’s criteria.

=**II. Design space to plan out your** // creative synthesis // **that will visually represent your findings. Remember to include your abstract in your visual representation.**=

> Develop your compelling question related to student learning by the end of your first semester in the program. Decide on a question that you are passionate about and want to focus on for the duration of your program. Click here to learn more about what we mean by compelling question. Here are a couple of examples: How do I creatively and effectively engage diverse learners in my middle grades classroom? How can I effectively engage elementary students in reading and writing?
 * ==Compelling Question:==

My question is... //How does an interface facilitate or not facilitate search for primary source materials to enrich the classroom?//

> Use coursework (including core courses ECI 546, 524, 523, 508 and your content specialty courses), individual investigations, and outside experts to explore different aspects of your question. Actively analyze information from multiple sources and perspectives as you explore answers to your question. Make a list here of the information you are analyzing. As you proceed with your analysis make some notes here about your initial findings and where you anticipate needing more information. Also, make sure to note if and how your compelling question has changed.
 * ==Gather & Analyze Information:==

I need more information about the visual principles of interface design.

> Synthesize the information from and across your sources to create a unique response to your question. You should be able to distill your synthesis into 4-6 bullet points (to be included in your written abstract) as well as provide a creative visual representation of your findings. You may use a variety of media and tools to design your visual representation of your Creative Synthesis. Think carefully about the tools that you will use to represent your findings. The first draft of your Creative Synthesis should be developed no later than Midterm/NCSU Spring Break while you are taking the ECI 508, Teachers as Leaders class. Click here to see sample products from former students.
 * ==Creatively Synthesize Information:==

has to have a search box has to have a visual representation of its information space (Lee, Spires) History and Memory, Manfra and Marshall, and formulating a task

examine: navigation layout input

Library of Congress: Browse by Topic: American History: National Expansion and Reformfront page thumbnails distracting from what I was looking for, just by navigating the site

under American History

under National Expansion and Reform

under Slavery and Abolition:

Internet History Sourcebook: Internet Modern History Sourcebook: hard to find documents on slavery just by looking at the page
 * African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship
 * African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907
 * Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives From the Federal Writers Project 1936-1938
 * From Slavery to Freedom: The African American Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909
 * Slaves and the Courts 1740-1860
 * The African-American Mosaic: African-American Culture and History
 * The Church in the Southern Black Community, 1780-1925
 * The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress
 * Voices from the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories

Library of Congress fully connected escape hatch in top menu

Fordham multilevel-fat menus escape hatch

> Seek out at least two colleagues in the NLGL program in addition to your advisor to provide peer feedback on your abstract and creative synthesis based on the NLGL Creative Synthesis Rubric. Based on the feedback you receive, you may choose to make revisions to more fully meet the rubric criteria.
 * ==Critically Evaluate and Revise:==

> Be prepared to present your Creative Synthesis at the NLGL Design Studio Showcase during your final semester of your degree program, in conjunction with the ECI 508, Teachers as Leaders course.
 * ==**Share, Publish, Act:**==

http://prezi.com/rhdvucx0z2n3/untitled-prezi/