| Browser Specification | "The African Diaspora" is best browsed on Netscape 3.0. A number of its navigation features are run by Java scripts that do not necessarily translate into an Explorer environment; if you are not on a frames capable browser, then footnotes will load into a new window. They are designed to load into the lower, left-hand frame so that you can read the footnotes without interrupting your place on the page. Your browser, therefore, should be frames compliant and JavaScript capable (Netscape 2.0 or later); Ideally, your browser should be LiveAudio and LiveVideo capable (Netscape 3.0 or later). |
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| Objectives |
"The African Diaspora" is a set of resources designed to create a hyper-linked research environment for the study of the African slave trade and African-American history and culture. It is primarily designed a resource-rich, self-directed research environment rather than a textbook replacement. This resource, if it is used as a self-directed research environment, is appropriate for skills ranging from high school students to advanced undergraduates. It is assumed that high school students and freshman undergraduates can use all the sections in this module, especially those on the early history of the slave trade, the role that African-Americans played in the American Revolutionary War, the Haitian Revolution, the slave revolts, southern justifications for slavery, and the materials on the Nation of Islam. The module is designed to support multiple objectives, but its principle object is teaching how to negotiate a resource-rich environment to solve interpretive problems. The key objective is the learning of research, focussed reading, and applied knowledge—the module is designed to generate interactive, collaborative writing in small to large classrooms; the module has also been designed specifically as a resource-rich environment to allow for a diversity of viewpoints and approaches to a specific problem. In the pilot implementation, the students are required to apply the material on African-American culture to explaining the basis of the civil rights movement in aspects of African-American culture and thought. They are then to share and develop their answers collaboratively on a page designed for interactive and collaborative research and interpretation. Students are expected to assess other student answers by developing their research or insights. The students will be expected to participate in grading and assessment and integrating that assessment into their own research and interpretation. This module has already been implemented in a scaled-down form; the purpose was to test the basic information and the soundness of the student work approach. |
| Authorship | Content, pedagogical design, graphic design and page layout, technical design, and script and CGI design have all been authored by Richard Hooker at Washington State University from April, 1994, to April, 1996. This learning module, like others, is edited by Richard Law, Paul Brians, and Richard Hines; the author invites any editorial comments in regards to content, pedagogy, or graphic design are more than welcomed. A bibliography of sources is included in the module itself. |
| Copyright | This site, like all other on World Cultures, is copy-right cleared for any reproduction that is for educational and non-profit, non-commercial purposes. The only exceptions are the various graphics whose copyright belong to third parties. These are available for educational purposes, but you're not allowed to make electronic or other copies. Please note the copyright owner status of the graphics; if no copyright owner is specified, then the graphic is in the public domain. I do ask that you do not use original graphics that I've developed for this site to illustrate a similar site of your own. The JavaScripts are copyright-cleared for any non-profit use whatsoever. |
| Acknowledgements | This project would not be possible without the generous and unstinting support and faith of Richard Law, Program Director of General Education, whose vision of education and genuine multicultural liberality makes him one of the real lights at Washington State University. The deep and strong support and intellectual engagement of Paul Brians of the Washington State University English department has been a key to the success of all these modules, as well as the editorial and technical help of Richard Hines of the Department of History at WSU. The Extended Degree Program, in their patient commitment to the vision of this project, especially that of Janet Kendall, Ellen Krieger, and Muriel Oakes, kept this project on-line when all else was about to fail. A grant from the Boeing Corporation has also allowed this project to enter its third and most ambitious phase. Finally, the intellectual brilliance and pedagogical genius of Professor J M Massi, whose loss and vision Washington State University could ill afford, has been a constant guiding genius of this and every other learning module on this site. |
