Assignment – Socio Historical Contexts:
The Socio-Historical Context is an historical survey of your selected country. This assignment is designed to help you establish the social and historical recipe that underlies the creative expressions produced by the peoples and cultures in and from your selected country. The information contained in the social and historical context should include a brief description of early development of human activity in the area, kingdoms, trade relationships, colonialism, independence, and post colonialism. You can use information from your previous discussion submissions as content in this assignment.
Assignment Objectives
- collect historical information about your selected country from scholarly sources
- organize historical data into chronological themes
- present the socio-historical background of your selected country in a written assignment
- create an infographic timeline for your selected country
- format sources and cite them in-text
Where to Begin
- Step 1: Conduct research first and collect data (keep track of your scholarly sources.) You can use the historical information posted in discussions throughout the Histories Module
- Step 2: Organize your data into topics such as human origins, empires, colonialism, independence, etc..
- Step 3: Begin Writing: Write the body first (your selected topics become paragraphs), then write the introduction, and write the conclusion last.
- Step 4: References: Be sure to include a bibliography that is formatted (does not count toward the word count). You should also reference in-text using parenthesis or footnotes. If you need assistance, review the Annotated Bibliography lesson for information on formatting references and citing in-text.
The Socio-Historical context should be organized in the format described in the Word doc and consist of approximately 500 to 1000 words. It is a good idea to type the report in a Word document and then copy it into the textbox in the discussion so others can easily read it. Feel free to download the Word document below to use as your template.
Create a Timeline Infographic
An infographic (graphic with information) is a great way to communicate a lot of data in a small amount of space. A visual timeline is a great way to display the historical background of your country. This will be particularly important during your final project when you will need to produce a research poster, and a timeline graphic will allow you to display the historical context of your topic. The goal of this activity is to familiarize yourself with at least one way to create a visual timeline.
There are a wide variety of methods to create an infographic. This lesson includes three programs listed below. Powerpoint is available on most computers. Easelly and Canva are free online software programs. If you are already familiar with another program, feel free to use it. Note that all timelines must be saved as a JPG and embedded in the discussion.
Powerpoint
There are many ways to create a visual timeline in Powerpoint. The video below describes how to create a timeline using the ‘Chart’ feature. To learn how to create a timeline using the ‘Smart Art’ feature in Powerpoint, click here.
Whichever Powerpoint feature you use, it is important to create the timeline on a single slide and save the slide as a jpg. JPG will save your file as an image. To save as a jpg, go to ‘Save’ and beneath the area where you name the file you will find the ‘Save As’ option. Click on the drop down menu and select ‘jpg.’
Keep in mind that once you make your slide a JPG image, you will not be able to edit it in Powerpoint. Be sure to save the original Powerpoint first (PPT). This will allow you to modify your timeline later in the event that you want to use it in your poster for your final project.
Easelly
Easelly is a free online program for anyone to create and share visuals (infographics, posters). The website has a variety of timeline templates to choose from. Simply type ‘timeline’ in the search tab and then modify one of the templates with your data. Be sure to save your file as a JPG by clicking on the ‘Download’ button near the top left corner. Select ‘low quality’ (dont worry, it is good enough.) The program will automatically download as a JPG. The program will save your timeline for you, so don’t forget your user name and password in case you want to come back and edit it.
To check out Easelly, click here.
Canva
Like Easelly, Canva is also a free online program to create infographics and other digital graphic materials. While the program does not have a template specific to timelines, it has a wide variety of graphic styles and options to choose from. To save your work as a JPG in Canva, click on the download icon located on the top-right corner of the screen (to the right of the ‘Share’ button.) In the dropdown menu select ‘JPG.” Like Easelly, Canva will save your work for you and you can edit it later. So be sure to remember your username and password. To check out Canva, click here.