Author: u3092526

So I’ve just gotten up to date with the week 6 lesson 🙂

I thought this lesson was interesting; I never considered the fact that there are so many types of graphs! Unfortunately I couldn’t make any graphs because my laptop doesn’t know how to do normal laptop things.

Mapping Police Violence was so confronting. Just seeing the number up the top, and then being able click one of the markers to read about the victims, and then seeing the visual list of how many officers got away with their crimes. I couldn’t get off the website for awhile because there is just so much information in it, and it is so straight forward, in your face, easy to read facts.

I had a look at some of the others but that one was definitely the one I considered to have the most impact.

I enjoyed this lesson because I started off thinking it wasn’t within my interest range but then I genuinely enjoyed the content and all the external websites and links.

Thanks 🙂

 

Hey everyone,

I put my project website into Voyant Tools just out of curiosity and my results were:

Exploring the Election Speeches was interesting too. I always search my own name on everything, just out of curiosity. I am truly disappointed to find out that my name has not been used in any election speeches. The word nor has though, so I guess that is close enough!

What I enjoyed most about exploring the election speeches was being able to look at speeches (or summaries of speeches) that were made a long time ago, compared to recent speeches from the past 10 years and how they can still be really similar in some aspects.

Thanks Tim!

Nour

Hi everyone,

My project started off as an idea to make some kind of database/forum for conservation students to share resources, projects and anything of the sort. I was originally interested in this idea because I wanted to do something that would reflect my interest (conservation) and potentially help future students; as most of you would know we currently use the Facebook page to share everything but that becomes difficult when you take into account that not everyone has Facebook, and that it is really hard to search through a Facebook page. You don’t have the option of being able to add categories or tags to make searching a bit easier.

Ideally I wanted my project to be something future students could use, something that had pretty much everything they needed in the one location, something that was from students to students and helped give guidance.

With the guidance of Tim I started my project on Omeka.net, a website that lets you create and share collections. Omeka felt appropriate because I would essentially be sharing collections of academic resources.

I initially had a bit of difficulty understanding how to use Omeka. I used Tim’s blog on Omeka and a few other guidelines to help me understand it and I will honestly say that it took me weeks to really know what I was doing with it. But once it clicked I became really excited about the project.

This was a really helpful link I used to help me understand the Dublin Core, which is the set that Omeka.net goes by.

I started by creating the main collection categories:

• Objects
• Paintings
• Paper
• Textiles
• Codes and ethics

I asked students to send me their previous conservation project reports so that I could include them as PDF’s within the appropriate categories. The idea was that a future student could hop onto Conservapedia, click the category that their object falls into, so for example a student working on a painting would hop on and click painting, they would then be able to see the work that previous students have done to paintings, they could see the methodology and resources used and hopefully it would guide them in the right direction for their own project.

While I was putting everything together I started to question the ethics behind this. I had permission from students to use their work and was very open about what it was for but I wasn’t actually sure if publishing assignments was against some kind of policy, if it would somehow feed into plagiarism issues. I asked my classmates and everyone thought it wouldn’t matter and that it should be fine. I think it should be okay, but in retrospect I should have checked with an actual academic at the University to make sure I’m not breaking any rules.

Another issue I had was that I was using the free services on Omeka.net. So basically what that means is that I didn’t have access to all the themes and plugins, and I only had 500mg to work with. Unfortunately I couldn’t afford to buy any of the plans, even the $49 one. My Conservapedia looks a little different to what I had imagined because I only had four themes to choose from, but I am happy with the way it looks.

I was really happy with how helpful people were being; a lot of people wanted to send me their assignments to be included in the project, which was awesome. In my project proposal I said that I would measure the success of this by how many students are interested and participate in this; I don’t think I really met the goal of how many students I wanted to be involved, but I am still happy with the interest that was shown and the number of people who wanted to help and participate.

In my project proposal I said that I wanted students to be able to share things as well as search; this was a bit difficult because you’re only able to view the pages unless you’re signed in. This wasn’t something I really thought about when creating the account and page. In retrospect the username should have been something more communal than “Nour”. Perhaps “CulturalHeritageCollective”.

Initially I wanted a hybrid between a database and a forum but I don’t think Conservapedia is much of a forum. Omeka.net isn’t really the place to host forums, but I decided to stick with it because I think it is really great for most of what I wanted.

Apart from that, I think my project met almost everything I wanted it to.

It is an easy to navigate database for students to share and view resources that could be helpful to their projects.

It is broken down into categories so that you can easily find what you want.

 

Results:

You can search by key words:

Or tags:

I downloaded a few plugins as well:

Simple pages allows me to add extra pages to my website, so I’ve included a section where I talk about the vision behind Conservapedia, and a contact page so visitors can leave feedback.

I also added a plugin that allows me to have social bookmarks on each individual collection or item page!

My favourite addition was this plugin that imbeds PDF files onto the page.

Originally you would have had to click the PDF icon and it would have opened up the PDF in a new tab, so this plugin allows users to scroll through the document on the original page.

Ironically I was just elected as the social media representative for the UC Cultural Heritage Collective so I think there are so many ways Conservapedia can be extended now that I have this new position within the collective. I honestly think this project relies heavily on public participation and interest, so if other students are interested in this becoming a “thing” then there are ways that I could incorporate it within the collective, and ultimately we could get funding from the collective to buy one of the package deals! In terms of how it can be extended, I think it could naturally grow into something big-ish if enough students are interested in it. It might be an idea to have teacher involvement as well so that our teachers can share important resources with students. The 5 categories that I currently have are all basic categories and I imagine as Conservapedia naturally grows more categories will be appropriate.

I’d like Conservapedia to be something that can be useful for any Heritage, Museums, and Conservation student, in any year level. For example, I’m in my third year, and recently within one of my units we had an assignment where we had to create a poster and present a lightning talk on various topics; a lot of students were lost when it came to creating a poster and we had little examples of what previous years have done. So imagine students from this year all published their posters onto Conservapedia within a Poster category, next years students could easily have access to examples and it would be beyond helpful for them.

In the future I would like students to be able to include 3D images of their objects on Conservapedia.

I think that this could be something cool and I wish I had a more time this semester to work on it but if it is something that I choose to continue with within my new position as social media representative then I think it might be worthwhile. I think if this project were something worth continuing with it would be important to see what other students really want to gain from it so I could cater to those needs.

If anyone is interested in checking out my Conservapedia let me know and I will share the link 🙂

Thanks everyone!

Nour

I’ve just finished the week 2 readings and activities and the one thing that stood out to me the most was the guy who created 200 Trove lists about lawnmowers. My first thought was “that’s super random, who needs that?” but then I thought that it actually is really cool that there are ways for people to collect things that are really specific to them. I got lost on Trove looking for things that I’m interested in and seeing how many specific collections cater to my interests. When I was younger I collected magazine and newspaper clip outs of my favourite model, Lily Cole (no longer a model, but she continues to inspire me with what she does), so I just cant wrap my head around the fact that all of these magazine clippings of her are now on an online database.

I remember learning about Trove and hearing similar things in a previous class of yours Tim, Anthropology of Collections I think? but I will have to admit that I didn’t appreciate Trove for what it is at the time, but now after doing this unit I just think it is so great.

The Tiny Gallery is my new favourite thing, it reminds me of an online dolls house. Zooniverse.org is really cool, I can see how something like this would be so useful in the cultural heritage/ conservation sector.

I actually feel like it was easier to go back and read through the week two activities and readings now (at the end of the semester) than it was earlier on in the semester. Coming into this unit I found it hard to understand everything because of how different this unit is to everything else I’ve studied, but now I’m finding it easier to understand things I previously couldn’t wrap my head around.

Thanks,

Nour 🙂

Hey everyone, I’m catching up on some of the lessons I’ve missed over the semester (no better time to do it than when I can use the free wifi at uni!).

The topic of maps accurately depicting reality reminds me of something I read recently about American students not realising that the world map looks like this in every other country because the maps that are used in American schools look like this (Chopping Asia in half so that America can be in the middle!).

I had a bit of fun with http://thetruesize.com and used it to compare where my parents are from (Syria and Lebanon) to where they currently live (Melbourne, Australia).(Syria is red and Lebanon is pink)

The True Size is a really cool programme but I wish it allowed users to map states in Australia, or islands. Specifically so I could see the size difference between Canberra and some islands that I want to visit, or live in. Whichever I can afford first.

I also created my own map in Google maps; I started off in Syria and Lebanon again and then mapped out where all my immediate family are around the world.

I thought the idea of georectifying Australian maps was intriguing but I couldn’t really get it right (despite the steps being written out for me!).

This lesson was mostly* enjoyable because it got me thinking about things I previously haven’t given much thought to, and it brought up the story of the random Kansas farm which was unusual and different. The lesson gave me a better understanding of maps, and how complex they are.

*mostly enjoyable but frustrating when I couldn’t get certain things to work for me.

Thanks,

Nour 🙂

Hey everyone,
Last lesson we looked at the interaction we have with space, through 3d digital imaging, virtual tours and such.

The topic of virtual tours was interesting because it brought up a lot of different opinions. We clicked through the National Museum of Australia’s virtual tour and not everyone liked it because it isn’t the best representaton of reality. I however really enjoyed the idea of virtual tours because, the NMA for example, is now more accessible to people with disabilities.

We also looked at museums and galleries around the world created 3D images and models of objects. I think this is great for SO many reasons. Some people in class said that having a 3D image would make researching a particular object easier than trying to work with a 2D image, whilst others stated that having that documentation is important in case of a disaster that leads to the destruction of an original object. At the AICCM conference in Hobart last year I remember one of the talks being about how museums and galleries have started using 3D replicas of objects for different reasons. One talk was about integrating 3D replicas into tours for visually impaired visitors to allow them to experience the artworks, whilst another talk was about how museums and galleries use 3D replicas for displays, while the original pieces sit safely and comfortable in storage somewhere.

This lesson has given me a really strong urge to just 3D print everything. Maybe from now on I will only gift people in 3D replicas of them.

See you all this week 🙂
Nour

Hi everyone,

My week 9 reflection is a bit late due to not having internet in my new house 🙁

Last weeks lesson was really interesting, enjoyable, and so very creepy.

I enjoyed the new discovery of redaction art, and submitting some photos to the Vintage Art Depot on Twitter. I submitted a bunch of real photos, but also a cartoon image of myself to see whether it would detect the face, and it worked! The topic of facial recognition reminded me of this post which I find so funny. Also, since becoming aware that humans are REALLY good at detecting faces in things, I actually cant stop detecting faces in things. More so than before.

Actually being able to sit through a lesson made such a difference than trying to do it all online, so I’m very happy that I don’t have any more forensics tutorials clashing with this unit.

Looking forward to this weeks class,

Nour.

Hey everyone!

I felt like I needed a bit more time than usual to understand this week’s readings and activities because this area is very foreign to me, but thats what uni is for! Introducing us to new ideas and tools. I played around with making my own graph, which was cool and got me thinking about my project and how I will approach it. It is still early days though so my ideas are very small.

 

I’ve never really thought about data in this way, or considered how HUGE the internet is until this unit; for example I never considered the fact that in a museum or gallery you have a limited amount of storage space for a collection, however online there is no limit.

That’s all from me this week, I’m still trying to process a lot of the new information so hopefully next week I’ll be able to have a more detailed reflection 🙂

Nour.

Hey everyone,

I thought this weeks activities and readings were really interesting. When I googled unprofessional hairstyles for work my results were screenshots of the results (inception), so for a second I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. As James said in his reflection, it made me wonder what the results would have been like prior to the experiment going viral.

I have noticed/read about the filter bubble before but I still cant believe how advanced technology is in terms of using our history and location to limit our view of the world to only things we are interested in, it makes me feel like we are stuck in little bubbles despite having everything at our fingertips.

I think that http://www.artbinderviewer.com/ is a good example of a generous interface. There are two options to search the collection, one is via keyword – not so generous; the other is by COLOUR! It doesn’t require a search term, it doesn’t expect the viewer to know anything about the collection or what they’re looking for other than the colour, which is why I think it works well under the category of ‘generous interface’.

Thanks everyone,

Nour.