This guide will help you get started with each of the digital tool options for this course: TimelineJS, Wordpress, Twine, Storify, and LibGuides.
TimelineJS is a tool for creating interactive timelines that can integrate many types of media. Timelines can also easily be embedded in a WordPress site.
Blackness in the Americas Timeline
Smith students in SOC222 created a timeline of historical events related to the history of blackness in the Americas using TimelineJS.
Through Time: Student Timelines of Women's Studies 101
Wheaton College students created timelines on a variety of topics related to women's history using TimelineJS.
Twine is a digital storytelling platform that can be used to create text and image-based non-linear stories and interactive fiction.
Smith Librarians used Twine to build a semi-linear self-guided tour of Neilson Library, which included games, quiz questions, and detours along the way.
Climbing 208 Feet Up The Ruin Wall
Twine artist Porpentine tells a story of climbing a wall with stolen archeological artifacts.
Wordpress is currently the most popular content management system (CMS) and blogging platform on the Internet. A wide variety of themes and settings give users broad control over the look and functionality of Wordpress sites, and allow easy integration of text, audio, still images, maps, and video into sites.
You have two options for creating a Wordpress site:
To create a site, email Alex Martines (amartines@smith.edu) with:
Smith's WordPress How-To Site gives easy-to-follow, basic directions in creating pages, adding images, and lots more!
The Center for Media Production offers drop-in support and workshops for Wordpress.
Create your own free site at www.wordpress.com. Wordpress.com offers some different themes, but fewer plugins than Smith Wordpress.
Alaska Natives and the Silver Hand
Smith Students in ARH292 used WordPress to explore issues of race and representation around the Silver Hand designation for Native Alaskan handicrafts.
Smith's student-run journal, Global Impressions, publishes travel writing and essays by Smith students.
Storify is a tool for curating social media and building stories around it.
Email Brendan (boconnell@smith.edu) for more help using Storify!
China Through the Looking Glass
The Met used Storify to capture and curate Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter activity around their exhibit China Through the Looking Glass.
LibGuides is a tool for creating collections of resources. It supports the integration of many kinds of media, including maps, videos, and more. Your LibGuide can become part of the Smith College Libraries website!
You will need to create a LibGuides account to get started. Contact Brendan (boconnell@smith.edu) to create a LibGuides account.
[Student Perspectives]: Cultural Landscape and Historic Preservation
Smith Students in LSS240 used LibGuides to curate a collection of resources around cultural landscape and historic preservation through the lens of Northampton.
