Blog 4 – Timeline Process

I found TimelineJS to be an extremely helpful tool. Though it was intimidating for me to use Google Sheets in such a way for the first time, I quickly got the hang of it and actually enjoyed the experience. In addition to that, the home page on TimelineJS had a tutorial video, which I ended up watching since I did not want to risk messing up a visual tool for learning which I know others would be looking at. I love creating things such as PowerPoints and Prezis, so this tool seemed to be no different to me. Furthermore, I enjoy learning through visualizations such as timelines, so this was a good fit for me. I found it incredibly interesting to be viewing other’s timelines and connecting their topics to Herland, as well. With such a different type of novel – one that was written so long ago and that without a doubt ahead of its time, it is fascinating to see the history of subjects such as medicalization, technology (from the eugenics movement to the invention of the plane), and women’s rights with how they have progressed over the years along with how the women of Herland were more or less advanced in certain areas (usually more).

As far as the research process goes for my timeline, I focused on finding information on historical and medical websites, as this was a perfect mixture of my topic. For media, I focused my search on WikiMedia Commons for pictures, and YouTube for the video. I found the video to be the most challenging to find, as my topic is more medical, and I did not want to show anything graphic. To connect my research back to Herland, I simply thought back to the text with specific instances (mostly regarding childbirth) and how they may have dealt with it. It was more of implied text than actual quotes that I was referring to, as the process of childbirth was not mentioned outside of wishing for it until it happened to them individually. Looking back, I’d say the Internet played a huge role in my research process, as all of it was done on the Internet (not to mentioned I looked back at the novel using Annotation Studio and created the project itself on the Internet). On the one hand, having access to the Internet to do research is extremely helpful, as I have access to everything on it (well, kind of, not really). Rather, I have access to the surface of the Internet, which is more than enough for me to be able to do the research I need – assuming my sources are actually reliable.

The one drawback was that it was difficult to find the history of, for instance, the childbirth process, sanitation in the delivery room, and even pain relievers. They may seem like relatively easy pieces of information to obtain, but I actually tried to research them on Academic Search Complete (just for fun) and it essentially came up with no results, unless you count not even a hand full of articles which barely relate to even the topic I was researching (as search engines do as a last-ditch effort). Overall, the process was relatively easy, and I like to believe that the end-result looked decent.