What Day Is It?

Hello Everyone,

Hope you all are doing well! The last couple of weeks have been super crazy and I'm still trying to get into a regular routine. My thesis is still progressing, although very slowly. I have a bit more to do and I just need to push through! I am hoping to have my rough draft finished soonish? I still have some pages to write and some edits to finish! I've been trying to think of all the information that is instrumental to its completion so that I am not adding any unnecessary fluff! My poster is also still on my list of things to do, and I will hopefully finish that piece in the next couple of weeks. Stay safe!

A Bit Behind Schedule

Hello All,

These past few weeks have been crazy. I was on a family trip when everything was announced and came back to a bucket load of emails. While away I didn't get as much done on my thesis as I would have liked. Honestly, a cruise isn't really the right atmosphere to work on work... sooo for the most part my computer sat in my backpack. I still have more to write, although the last few sections should be pretty easy. I also have a few more things to do on my online platform. This next week is going to be super busy and crazy but I am hoping to have everything done a couple days before the deadline... fingers crossed!

BlogPost: Week 7

Hello Everyone,

It's been an interesting couple of weeks. My thesis work had taken a little bit of a pause, while I dealt with other mid-semester papers and exams. I was still working on it, but it was a little weird not having it be my primary focus. I'm excited to start working on everything again. I've started creating my poster and hope to have a finished rough draft in the next couple of days, it's been hard deciding what information to put on and what information to leave out. Also update on my digital project, I finally decided on a layout and everything is coming together pretty smoothly, although there's always going to be some kind of quirk. I am happing with the direction my paper is taking, I feel like I finally have all my thoughts in order and I am eager to get my next set of edits back from my advisors!

Next On the List

Hello All,

It's hard to believe that it is already week five, it's going by super fast! I've started actively working on the digital part of my project and hope to have it done by the end of the month. It's a little slow going. I've written quite a bit of the narrative, and I also have chosen most of my photographs but I am still having trouble with the layout and what I want it to look like - also the color choices are really limited and although this is a trivial thing it's a bit bothersome. I'm also continuing with my writing and trying to expand on what I already have, finding the correct layout of the paper is also proving difficult (I guess layouts in both digital and physical form are my nemesis for the week), but I have been switching paragraphs around and I think I am on the right path. I also want to go back in the next week or so and take another look at my lit review. There are some parts that I think I need to scrap and other areas that I can expand on.

Next On the List

Hello All,

I hope everyone had a nice and relaxing break! I spent most of my time working on my graduate applications and visiting family.

I have been making some progress with my thesis project. I have created my account and started working with ARCGIS. Everyone warned me that it was not the easiest software to work with and I have to agree! I'm spending a lot of time reading articles and manuals on the software to try and understand how everything goes together. I was a little discouraged coming back from break, but after meeting with individuals and scheduling other meetings I hopefully will be able to start making major headway soon.

I will also have my thesis board meeting this week, and I'm excited to sit down and chat about my paper and hear any new ideas that they might have. I always find it helpful to discuss my project out loud and go over it with a group instead of trying to run through it in my head, if that makes sense.

I'm also starting to work on my eight pages for this Thursday which is really exciting and also mildly terrifying. I have this great fear that I'm going to run out of things to say (which I know is super unlikely). It's kind of fun to just start your paper in the place you're the most confident in and just roll with it. It's bringing back happy memories from my time at camp and I'm really enjoying it.

Plans For the Break

My first goal over winter break is to put finishing touches on my literature review. I know I will receive feedback with my final submission and I am hoping to revise and complete an almost finished section before going into next semester. I would also like to take any critiques towards my outline and refine or change the groupings/name to better fit my thesis. I want to get the majority of my project done during winter break, focusing on my online platform which means:

1. Creating an Outline: How I want the platform to be set up. What information I would like to include and how these themes could be grouped.
2. Writing the Script: Writing the various parts for my sections, ensuring that all of the information is correct and having a base that I can continue to edit throughout the first part of the spring semester.
3. Choosing Visuals: Choosing what visuals I would like to include on the platform I am creating.  Also examining what steps I need to take in putting them on the site. I would love to include photographs, letters, audio, and if possible some video. I think this would add to the visitor experience and allow them to engage with the material presented.

I've found that this semester my time management skills have not been the best. I think I really need to sit down before winter breaks starts and make a goal sheets, that has specific dates when I need to have certain steps of my project complete. This will help me focus on what needs to be completed, and also stay on track instead of working on multiple things at the same time. Hopefully I will accomplish all of these tasks and come back in spring semester, with an almost completed project!

My Idea for the Future

For the first couple of months I held pretty true to my original idea. Although as I continue to gather research and narrow down my topic, it seems that I keep tweaking various parts of my thesis and concept. My topic is no longer focused primarily on the digital space and the role interactivity plays. It seems to have shifted. I'm now examining how a digital space portrays a narrative/storyline and what role can users play in the content generated for the site. With this change I need to re-conceptualize my original thesis statement and continue to narrow down what topics are important to my paper. I'm happy with this new direction!

I believe that my ideas about my thesis will continue to evolve and change. But because I am happy with these new ideas, I feel like I can move forward with the project part of my thesis, and start the visual process. I have also officially decided to work with ArcGIS because of its story mapping capabilities. I think this platform will help me form an engaging narrative and think more in depth about what content users would like to see on this type of platform.

What's Next

Hello All,

I can't believe we're more than half way through the semester! Since our discussions in class about the literature review, I've been focusing on finding research that connects to my topic and slowly but surely bringing different pieces together. I am trying my best to find literature that links to each other and also finding the best way to insert my own opinion into my review.

I've mostly been focusing on the digital side of my research, examining articles/books that are reviewing the digital space and that center their argument on ideas like accessibility, digital tourism, digitization, and interactivity. I really want to know what participants are looking for when utilizing an online platform and what they seem to learn the most from. I was researching one article that discussed interactivity and how it can be used as a learning tool, promoting the idea of finding one's own learning path through the use of different materials. I've also been going through case studies. One was very helpful, and was a tour that could be accessed through a website from anywhere. This helped me to think about my own tour and the type of platform I wish to use when creating the space. I hope to find other examples that could help when thinking about what online platform I want to use and what could be the most easily accessible for my audience.

There is still material that I need to dive further into for my thesis, and will be my focus for the second half of my literature review. I would like to look at the bigger narrative for my project, how my work could be applicable for other organizations (i.e. how could smaller institutions use my methods to work on similar projects). I also would like to further examine what system I should use to pick the material I will be working with for the tour. Also how I frame these points in history when thinking about the 100th anniversary and what stories will be considered the "most important" or crucial  in the camp's history to those who will be viewing the site/digital space.

Revised Topic Discussion

Research Question: Through the use of interactivity, can online guided tours create a meaningful experience and allow participants to easily move about the digital space?

To promote interconnectivity I would like to introduce an online guided tour for the 100th year anniversary of Camp Kawanhee, connecting those who cannot be at the reunion to the camp, and promoting the historic milestone that the area is celebrating. The online guided tour would be centered on a map, providing a useful way for individuals to move about the space, and recognize areas from the past. The map would enable the experiencer to be taken through a digital tour, that allows visitors to look through photographs, audio, and archival material in the hopes of simulating an experience that reminds them of camp life. The map would look at both the past and present in an effort to replicate changes made over time. My research question centers on how these interactives play a role in digital tourism, and how the material presented makes a strong personal connection between the “visitor” and the digital space, creating a more authentic and impactful experience. 

By utilizing ArcGIS, I will create an interface, where participants are able to easily review various mediums, while also remembering and reflecting on the camp site. Reviewing where past activities were and where they are now, and listening to well known individuals at camp discuss their own memories, allowing for nostalgia and wistfulness to take hold. Connecting individuals to a place that they are not able to visit at that time. 

__________________________________________________________

Sources: 

1. Benyon, David, Aaron Quigley, Brian O’Keefe, and Giuseppe Riva. “Presence and Digital Tourism.” Ai & Society 29, no. 4. 2013: 521–29.
1. This reading provides insight on how digital tourism blends with physical material, and provides a definition and introduction to what the authors define as digital tourism. 
2. "Digital Huntsville, AL, History Tour Offers 24/7 Online, Guided Tour of City Center." PRWeb Newswire 6 Oct. 2014. Business Insights: Essentials. Web. 21 Sept. 2019.
1. This is a great example of a project that is similar to the one I would like to do. The tour is guided and includes photographs and other archival material. 
3. Grau, Oliver, ed. Museum and Archive on the Move : Changing Cultural Institutions in the Digital Era. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, Inc, 2017. 
1. This article reviews how the digital space has impacted cultural heritage. I thought it would be interesting to note the different thoughts about digitization of archival material and other artifacts for my thesis. 
4. Kennedy, Michael. “Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS: a Workbook Approach to Learning GIS. Hoboken.” NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2013.
1. This will help to guide my work in ArcGIS. The source provides information on the system and explains different features that users are able to access. 
5. Schoenau-Fog, Henrik. Interactive Storytelling 8th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, ICIDS 2015, Copenhagen, Denmark, November 30 - December 4, 2015 ; Proceedings. Cham: Springer, 2015.
1. This reading had a number of articles that spoke to the topic of interactive storytelling, which I think might be an important part of my own thesis. Individuals can connect with the story and be able to share their own thoughts.

A Thesis Topic

Mapping the Past: The role interactivity plays in digital tourism

Research Question: Do interactives play a large role in online guided tours? 

To promote interconnectivity I would like to introduce an online guided tour for the 100th year anniversary of Camp Kawanhee, connecting those who cannot be at the reunion to the camp, and promoting the historic milestone that the area is celebrating. The online guided tour would be centered on a map, providing a useful way for individuals to move about the space, and recognize areas from the past. The map would enable the experiencer to be taken through a digital tour, that allows visitors to look through photographs, audio, and archival material in the hopes of simulating an experience that reminds them of camp life. The map would look at both the past and present in an effort to simulate changes made over time. My research question centers on how these interactives play a large role in digital tourism, and how the material presented makes a strong personal connection between the “visitor” and the digital space, creating a more authentic and impactful experience.

Still Thinking...

Hello All, 

I’m still a little unsure about a topic for my thesis. I have a couple of ideas in mind, and hope to officially pick my topic by the end of the week!

My first idea and the one I’m focusing on right now is a guided interactive experience. The camp I interned at over the summer is celebrating its 100th anniversary and I would love to do an interactive map for the event that would take individuals around the camp and blend past and present spaces. When I was at the camp I initially thought I could do something similar to this on a brochure but quickly realized that I needed a bigger space to work with. I would love visitors to be able to touch a specific place on the map, and see archival material about that particular spot, and connect it to their own memories. In an ideal world there would already be a software that I could work off of and I could build my map this way. I’ve started to contact individuals about my idea and we will see where that leads. 

If this idea does not work out I’d love to work on a topic that surrounds the theme of grassroots activism and how this might be inserted into the museum, allowing those who come into the space to engage with the project and maybe even add to it or become involved. I would love to find a local museum or library who might be working on a similar project to see how they implemented their ideas and how this might have impacted the surrounding communities.