Presentation Review
Kim’s presentation was great! She has a solid idea for her project, and I think her website will be really useful when it’s done.
The idea to follow Scottish migration patterns and ancestry through interactive buttons and maps and appeal to both younger and older audiences is innovative and creative. I particularly enjoyed her thoughts on “clicking though the past”, allowing for as much delving as someone desires- whether simply skimming some information or deeper research into the past. I also really liked her idea of others being able to contribute from the site, things such as photos, journal entries, folklore etc. This would be a valuable resource for those looking into ancestry, particularly if they come across other contributions that relate to their lineage.
Kim has also succinctly told us that she has limited her research area, which would have been my advice had she not mentioned it. She is limiting her research to the 19th century, and is collecting both statistics and digital resources, as well as consulting journal articles and other scholarly sources for her website content, all sounding very thorough in her approach. I did appreciate a mention of a possible fun facts interactivity through the links as well, with items such as what food would be eaten on the ships during migration. Things like this would add a great deal to a younger audiences’ interaction with the site, and tidbits of information are suitable for intriguing further clicking.
Her connection to Google maps will be interesting also, and I am looking forward to how she will incorporate that within her site. As she is approaching a high school audience, maybe she could also incorporate a “Teachers Page” and include some lesson plan tips for how to utilize the site to it’s maximum benefit within a classroom setting. But I’m sure she has enough to do already, and this would be a suggestion for a larger scale project with perhaps a longer time frame.
Overall, Kim’s website sounds like it will be a fantastic resource and creating it will keep her busy for the next few weeks! I look forward to seeing it when it’s done.
Jenna Helder 