Objective:
Funding in the amount of two fellowships (@ $2500.00 each) for Phase I and II to produce and test a searchable multimedia database (SMD). The funds would defray the cost of developing initial content and a CGI-based search engine/delivery system.

Description:
This project is intended to create a keyword-searchable database of Microsoft PowerPoint slides on Mayan culture, both modern and ancient (The Maya World -SMD). This database will provide instructors and students with an accessible medium that incorporates both resources (data) and medium (a PowerPoint template) to create instructional materials for presentations, exercises, exams, etc. The PowerPoint slide templates themselves will offer integrated images and text which the instructor/student can modify within a local PowerPoint application to produce course-specific content and language.

This project will offer instructors of Spanish and Latin American culture a flexible, content-rich resource for their students and curriculum. With it, instructors and students will be able to compile PowerPoint presentations on a variety of content areas without having to produce individual PowerPoint slides for each presentation. Manipulation of individual slides (once downloaded) permits instructors and students alike to fine-tune the media and text to achieve maximum effectiveness in the classroom or Web environments.

The database will reside on a server at the University of Richmond, and will employ a CGI script for multiple keyword searches. The PowerPoint files themselves will download via ftp from links on CGI-returned HTML pages.

Rationale:
Instructors of foreign language need access to forms of linguistic, visual and aural realia. Further, in order to use such materials effectively in the classroom, some form of mediating technology needs to be applied. Visual materials need to be converted to a format that lends itself to projection or other means of dissemination, audio materials such as songs must be recorded and playback facilities must be accessed, and videotaped linguistic transactions with native speakers must be placed in context and glossed where appropriate.

While such materials exist, they are all too frequently commercial products which fail to meet individual instructors' needs and require significant alterations in the curriculum to be of use. In the case of PowerPoint slides (frequently used by faculty beginning to integrate technology into their classroom activities), there are a number of potential obstacles to widespread use:

• Manipulating images and formatting slide layouts are very time-consuming and occasionally confusing activities with a steep learning curve.
• Individual slides, without a distribution structure in place, do not allow multiple users to manipulate specific data at the same time.
• Storing slides in a linear, non-searchable structure (such as an ftp directory) does not allow users to conveniently access specific data in an immediately usable format, nor does it permit flexibility of access and preview of materials.

This keyword-searchable database presents a simple and centralized means of storage and retrieval of presentation software files that will be made available both to faculty and students at the University of Richmond. Following a successful proof-of-concept implementation, the database will opened up to both ACS consortium schools as well as the original participants in the 1997 National Endowment for the Humanities Institute on the Maya World.

This project will provide:

• An accessible pool of refined multimedia-enhanced data, already formatted and available for multiple pedagogic uses.
• A way to organize, systematize and present information from the 1997 NEH summer institute on the Maya World (about 200 slides connected with a 6-week institute and lectures by 15 scholars).
• Proof-of-concept for a simple means of storing and retrieving usable multimedia content.
• A powerful means for disseminating pedagogic materials. Once the pilot is tested, other materials will be solicited from the other 24 participants in the NEH institute and ultimately materials from across the modern language curriculum will be added.

After the initial phase of the project, this resource will made available on a consortium-wide basis, with the clearly stated understanding that PowerPoint slides and images constitute copyrighted material, and may not be used for commercial purposes.

Function:
Once the instructor/student has entered his or her search parameters, the CGI-based search engine will select all PowerPoint slides tagged with the appropriate keyword(s). The selected slide will then be sent to a thumbnail page, from which the instructor/student may then narrow the selection and by downloading the selected files to a local folder, compile a PowerPoint presentation on a particular content area supported by the media files.

Timetable:
Summer 1997 Dr. Claudia Ferman attended the NEH Institute on the Maya World.
Collection of data (slides/seminar)

September 1998 Phase I: Organization of the materials in clusters.
Writing of the texts accompanying images.
Phase II: Digitizing and editing media.

October 1998 Phase I: Designing of the database layout.
Phase II: Indexing of HTML pages. Writing/editing of CGI script.
Installation on local server. Design of PowerPoint templates.
Phase I and II: testing.

November 1998 Phase I and II: Testing the pilot: assessment, revisions.

Spring 1998 Phase I: Testing SMD-The Maya World in Spa 312, Perspectives on Cultures and Nations of Latin America.

Part 1: Content and Materials Production

The SMD’s content will consists of the visual materials (about 200 35 mm slides) on ancient and contemporary Mayan culture, obtained during a six-week research trip to Guatemala, Honduras and the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico. These materials were produced in the context of the National Endowment for the Humanities 1997 Institute "The Maya World." They consist of a set of high quality pictures which clearly document many important aspects of Mayan culture. A portion of these materials have already been used in my 1997 "Perspectives on Cultures and Nations of Latin America" class, and have proved their potential for pedagogic purposes. It was this experience that prompted me to find more flexible and thorough ways to integrate them into the classroom environment. For the last six years I have been working on the production of audiovisual educational materials for the teaching of Latin American literature. In that context I produced and directed a series of videos already available for classroom use. The SMD project will enable me to further this exploration into the teaching of Latin American cultures.

Part 2: Classification, Data and Design:

Each image will be accompanied by texts providing critical information including relevant history, insights on popular and traditional culture, anthropology and archaeology documented in the image.

A crucial aspect of this project is the design of a series of database keyword search parameters with which the images (documents) are described. These keywords should be relevant, accurate and thorough but also capable of connecting images within clearly defined groups. Since we are considering this project as a pilot model that can be expandeded to many more images, the keyword system needs also to be suitable to incorporate more levels of information. Keywords and texts will be in Spanish.

Part 3: Evaluation

I will pilot the application/slides in my class "Perspectives on Cultures and Nations of Latin America" (Spring 1999). The database front-end site and files will also be made available to other instructors in the Spanish section with my approval, in order to determine the material's appropriateness at other levels of instruction in the final evaluation phase of the project. Students will also have access to the materials for their presentations in the class.

The second phase of SMD – The Maya World will provide database structure and search capabilities for the multimedia content of the entire project. This phase may be divided into multiple parts:

• Producing a number of blank templates.
• Creating and editing the CGI script and HTML interface for the search engine.
• Installing and troubleshooting the script and database structure on the local server.
• Producing and tagging HTML pages with return parameters (multiple keywords).
• Testing the alpha and beta versions of the project.
• Creating, applying and interpreting an evaluative assessment.

Part 1: Template Production.

For the purposes of this project, a number of PowerPoint templates will be created to frame and identify the primary content areas within the collection of photographic images. These templates will also offer sound and video playback options for the collaborative projects which will follow the initial pilot project. Dr. Ferman and I will work together to produce templates that are simple to modify, contain distinct text and graphic areas, and enhance the informational content, rather than detract from it.

Part 2: Database Structure and Tagging of HTML Pages.

Dr. Ferman and I will work together to develop an organized database structure based on a series of nested directories which will contain HTML pages with individual File Transfer Protocol links and thumbnail images of each PowerPoint slide. We will then select a series of keywords to apply to each page's meta tag line to serve as search criteria.

Part 3: CGI Script Creation and Editing.

We believe that it is important to make multimedia resources such as our project available to interested members of the ACS consortium. To that end, we have elected to produce SMD - The Maya World within a Web environment that allows selective browsing, thumbnail and download capabilities.

Central to the success of this project is the development of a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) script which will function as a search engine for the database. Use of such a CGI interface will allow the user to easily search any number of files without having to navigate through a series of indexes and sub-indexes. The script will accept input in the form of multiple keywords, will check those keywords against meta tags within specified directories and will return results as an HTML page with thumbnail images of the relevant PowerPoint slides. FTP links to the actual files resident on our server will display next to the thumbnail images. I will create a new script in Perl or modify an existing script for the purposes of the project.

Once the CGI script is created, I will install, test and debug the initial versions on a local machine before a final beta version is installed on a public-accessible server.

Part 4: Assessment and Revision.

Dr. Ferman and I will assess the utility of the database in the context of her upper-division Spanish course "Perspectives on Cultures and Nations of Latin America" to be given Spring semester of 1999. Following the pilot test of the materials within the context of the course and first revisions, we will solicit volunteers at the University of Richmond and elsewhere within the ACS consortium to serve as pilot instructors. A short written evaluation of the project will be prepared with input from the second generation of pilot instructors, and submitted to the ACS and individuals associated with the project.