Reed Magazine February
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2003

Cindy Trimble ’05, anthropology

Need directions on the road to evolutionary enlightenment? Ask Cindy Trimble, a sophomore in Charlene Makley’s Anthropology 211 class, to share her secret weapon—a “theory map” representing the anthropologists and schools of thought covered in the course. Trimble chose to take a high-tech approach to cartography, designing her theory map as a website that presents the key players, their basic positions, and the relationships between them in an interactive format. She chose this format in part because the map was a work in progress that required a flexible structure able to accommodate additional information that she would be adding over the course of the semester.

The theory map assignment was intended to be done as part of the students’ normal reading and note-taking process in an effort to solidify their understanding of the readings and connect it to those already covered. Trimble had never constructed a website and jumped at the opportunity to try her hand at HTML. With the right technology it was hardly daunting, and she found it convenient to work on her creation any time, any place because she could open her website on any available Reed computer—in the ETC building, the library, commons, or on her personal laptop in the dorm.

Using Microsoft Publisher, Trimble crafted a complex yet intuitive interface for her theory map site. A vertical navigation bar provides easy access to the anthropologists covered in the course in a rough chronological order, based on the publication dates of their works and the years in which they lived; the chronology is not exact because she grouped anthropologists of the same school of thought together, another important touch point that allows for connections to be drawn between theories. She used hyperlinks to connect general ideas and theories with specific quotes from works covered in class. Hyperlinks also proved to be useful in connecting the anthropologists to one another and to their references in sections such as “Points of Influence and Reaction” and “Criticisms.” When you’re deep into Durkheim’s principal concepts and methodologies, it takes just a mouse click to discover who disagreed with him and why—and then you’re off and running after Franz Boas. Such is the tendency of the human animal. . . .

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Reed Magazine February
Go to Page 1 Page two, you are herego to page three go to page 4 go to page 5 go to page 6 Link to Reed Mag  Home

2003