History Trek: A Canadian History Site is a
bilingual
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...
(
French and
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
)
web portal
A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displayin ...
made for children, containing reliable sources about
Canadian history
The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of the Paleo-Indians to North America thousands of years ago to the present day. Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day Canada were inhabited for millennia by ...
. It was developed by researchers at
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...
with the help of students who ranged from 9 to 12 years of age. This is an example of an
intergenerational
Intergenerationality is interaction between members of different generations.Klimczuk, Andrzej, ''Intergenerationality, Intergenerational Justice, Intergenerational Policies'', n:S. Thompson (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of Diversity and Social Justice'', ...
design team, directly involving a sample of their user population within their team. As such, History Trek was designed "by children for children".
Development
The development of History Trek was funded by the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC; french: Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada, CRSH) is a Canadian federal research-funding agency that promotes and supports post-secondary research and traini ...
and took place between 2002 and 2007.
[Large & Beheshti, 2007.] The intergenerational design team, called the "Web Wonders", consisted of McGill researchers and a sample of student users. This design "team was led by Andrew Large and Jamshid Beheshti"
whose primary goal was to make an informational portal website that children would both want to use and know how to use. Potential users were included in the History Trek development process to determine the visual design, use of terminology, and methods of information retrieval.
[Large, A., Beheshti, J., Nesset, V., & Bowler, L., 2006.]
Methods of information retrieval
Based on the research done during development, and in order to support both information retrieval and browsing, History Trek incorporated four methods to retrieve information:
* Keyword search
* Advanced search
* Topic search
* Alphabetical search
See also
*
Heritage Minutes
''The Heritage Minutes'' is a series of sixty-second short films, each illustrating an important moment in Canadian history. The ''Minutes'' integrate Canadian history, folklore and myths into dramatic storylines. Like the Canada Vignettes of t ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
* Beheshti, J., Large, A., & Tam, M. (2010)
"Search patterns on a children’s portal." ''Canadian Association for Information Science Conference Proceedings.'' Retrieved April 11, 2013.
* Beheshti, J., Large, A., & Tam, M. (2010). "Transaction logs and search patterns on a children's portal / Journaux de transaction et modes de recherche sur un portail web destiné aux enfants." ''Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science'', 34(4). 391-402. University of Toronto Press. Retrieved April 11, 2013, from Project MUSE database.
* Beheshti, J., & Large, A. (2012).
The information behavior of a new generation: Children and teens in the 21st century.' Scarecrow Press.
* Large, A., & Beheshti, J. (2007).
History Trek: A Canadian history.' Retrieved April 11, 2013.
* Large, A., Beheshti, J., Nesset, V., & Bowler, L. (2005).
Web portal characteristics: Children as Designers and Evaluaters. ''Canadian Association for Information Science Conference Proceedings.'' Retrieved April 11, 2013.
* Large, A., Beheshti, J., Nesset, V., & Bowler, L. (2006).
Web portal design guidelines as identified by children through the processes of design and evaluation. 69th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST). Retrieved April 11, 2013.
External links
History Trek (Official site)
{{History of Canada navbox , state=expanded
Canadian educational websites
History websites of Canada
Studies of Canadian history