Katie Douthitt

Internet Security 

Depending on the type of password, websites being used, and the amount of personal information put in a website, online activities can be very secure or at risk for being hacked or flooded with a virus. The quality and length of a  password one uses for websites is crucial in terms of protecting personal information from threats on the internet. The most effective passwords are generally random, with numbers, lower and upper case, letters, punctuation, and above all a long password. A password can protect private information such as home addresses, phone numbers, and/or credit card numbers. It is also important to have antivirus fire walls to block any viruses that try and take over your computer/personal information that is stored within the computer.

The data that is stored online can create a presence of letting, for example, hackers be aware of where you shop, what websites you look at, your demographic and personal information like credit card numbers. That is why it is important to not save credit card or other personal information online, unless the website is 100% secure. Another example is that the cookies in your computer will generate a profile about yourself depending on the websites visited the most often. This will cause ads on websites like Facebook to pop up that are relevant to sites that you have visited in the past. This also means that your data is stored online that others could potentially view.

 Progress for Final Research Project 

I have finalized most of the information for my Final Research Project in Omeka. The last steps I have to take are adding footnotes, citations, and references to all of my information. I have posted all of the main ideas and images, maps, and data, to my Omeka Exhibit.

The one problem I am running into is finding at least 12 primary sources for my project. I have all of the information I need to complete my final research project and have not found 12 primary sources in the process. However I did find an interesting video completely relevant to my project. You need a Mason ID in order to access the video, but this is the link. The video is about an hour. The first 30-40 minutes are focused on the segregation to desegregation of public schools not only in the District of Columbia but the entire United States.

This is the link to my Omeka Exhibit. A screen shot as well of the main page.

This is just the description page.

The goal in the next few days is to find more primary sources to incorporate in to my project before the due date.

My Omeka exhibit will be based around the path that the education system in the District of Columbia took to go from a segregated education to integrated education.

I will use 3 different sections for the exhibit. The first one will be based around the various lawsuits that went into the transition from a segregated school system to integrated African American and White children to go to school together.

The second section will be discussing the quality of “colored” schools vs. “white” schools in the 20th century.

The third section will discuss how people viewed how both segregation and integration were either positive or negative for the education system in the District of Columbia.

These three different sections will help my research question by creating a foundation of the comparison between the segregated school systems, prove how effective every lawsuit was made even if it wasn’t in the persons favor, and show why integration of the public school systems in D.C. was made mandatory.

I have also revised my final research question to

How did African Americans that migrated from southern states to the District of Columbia effect the public school systems during the 20th century? What were the causes and effects of different legal debates on integration of African Americans into the public school system of the District of Columbia?

I think text-mining tools in general can be a valuable resource depending on the type of research that is being done. For my project specifically it would have been a good resource to use initially before digging deeper into data and information. After playing with and experimenting with text-mining tools, I learned that they grab key words, or words that are emphasized in the text and display them in a significant format. Words that are used more often then others are generally larger and more apparent for the viewer to acknowledge. I believe text-mining tools will be valuable when reading either short or lengthy articles and pulling out the key words to get a general understanding of what information is in the text.

Progress Report:

I have began reading secondary resources for my final project and gathering up as much secondary information as possible. I am doing this first to get a clearer sense of what primary resources I will want to focus on. I plan on doing most of my research by the end of this week and start making an outline of how I want to answer my final research project. What has been challenging is finding both primary and secondary resources that are completely relevant to my topic. I noticed that some of the articles I use do have focus on my topic but also focus on other topics too. I do want to use film documentaries, images, and journals (if possible) for my primary sources.

Creating the map for this weeks assignment, I came across a few issues. The first one was looking for locations that were relevant to my topic for integration of D.C. public schools and landmarks were different lawsuits on the topic  took place and effected. I used six different locations for this assignment that I felt were significant to my topic.

The first location was the Supreme Court Building. I used this location because this is were the Brown vs. Board of Education lawsuit took place. This trial was turning point for integration of African Americans into the public school systems across the country.

The second location was H.B. Woodlawn School, located in Arlington Virginia. This was the first school in Virginia to integrate African Americans into their school systems.

The third location was more vague. It was all of Prince William County school systems. I chose this location because in 1959 it closed down all of their public schools in order to not accommodate African American children into their schools. They refused to integrate even with change of laws.

The fourth location was the Lincoln Memorial. I chose this location because this is where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I have a dream” speech.

The fifth location was the Washington D.C. Mall were many protests and riots took place during the civil rights movement.

The sixth location that no longer exists was Parker Gray High school. The first all black school in Alexandria, Va.

While researching different locations to put on my map, I found it difficult to find specific schools that either integrated or segregated African Americans into their system. I know I will have to do more research on my topic in order to find specific locations that were turning points for the integration of African Americans into the D.C. Public Schools.

I did find it interesting that there was a school in Alexandria, that no longer exists, only allowing African Americans to attend due to the difficulties of integration into other schools.

My final research question is: How did various ethnic groups that immigrated to the District of Columbia effect the public schools systems from the 19th century to present? How did different cases of  legal debates on integration of race into the public school systems create different effects in the District of Columbia?

I chose this topic on integration into the D.C. public schools because until recently it has been an ongoing battle of whether or not public schools could be integrated between different races. To me personally, the debate itself comes off a waste of time and money. It should be perfectly acceptable for different races to get the same education under the same building. However, many other people disagree and it established a huge battle of lawsuits and protests in the D.C. area as well as across the country. I want to understand why this was such a serious issue, how it was handled, and how it has been resolved.

These are my five primary sources (may be subject to change)

1) Our Own Correspondent. “Racial Issue In U.S. Schools.” Times [London, England] 8 Oct. 1954: 8. The Times Digital Archive, 1785-2008. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.

This is a newspaper article printed in 1954 about the integration of public schools, focused in Baltimore and D.C.

2) Winerip, Michael. “American Can Save Its City Schools.” The New York Times 7 Nov. 1993. Web. 25 Mar. 2014

This article is discussing how integration can actually make public schools for efficient for students and to help them graduate and overall do better in school.

3) “Racial Integration of Schools.” 1957-1960. Fastimages.net Film 25 Mar.2014

I found a website that has primary source videos and clips that are related to racial integration in the school system. They show how white students would act around black students trying to go to school, protests, and violent behavior to black dummies that hung on trees outside of the schools. There were military involved just in case riots broke out.

4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2XHob_nVbw

This clip on youtube shows insight to the Brown vs. Board of Education lawsuit. It has images of the affair and short clips discussing what happened and the results.

5)  Supreme Court decision that changed the nation Brown vs Board of Education. United States. Supreme Court; Guidance Associates. Mount Kisco, N.Y.: 1986. VHS

I have to go to the Johnson Center Library and rent the video, but it has the outcome of the Brown vs. Board of Education video.

Secondary Sources 

1) The DC Schools Project

This article is about the different teachers and teacher aids reaching out to students of different ethnic minorities and helping them with english as well as adjusting to American culture. This article is relevant because it shows how this system helps the students adjust and how it makes an impact on the school systems by integrating different minorities.

The D.C. Schools Project Martha Farmelo TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Sep., 1987), pp. 578-582

2) The Scholastic Performances of Negro and White Pupils in the Integrated Public Schools of the District of Columbia

This article is relevant because it takes both the perspective of non segregated schools and segregated schools and determine how well the students do in each setting.

The Scholastic Performances of Negro and White Pupils in the Integrated Public Schools of the District of Columbia

This article is about the public schools in DC before they started integrating African American children with white children. The end of the article is about whether or not DC will make public schools separate but equal or entirely integrated.

The Education of Negroes in the District of Columbia Mary A. Morton  The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 16, No. 3, The Availability of Education in the Negro Separate School (Summer, 1947), pp. 325-339

My final research question,

How did various ethnic groups that immigrated to the District of Columbia effect the public schools systems from the 19th century to present? How did different cases of  legal debates on integration of race into the public school systems create different effects in the District of Columbia?

After some research on the internet, I found that the comic strip was printed between May 20th and June 6th 1992. According to the library copy right website since the cartoon was published after March 1st 1989 there might be permission needed in order to use the comic strip. It is also copyrighted and protected for 70 years after the death of the creator. Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes, will not license his characters. This means that his characters can be taken and used to be manipulated, adjusted, or formatted in different ways for anyone to use.

According to this website http://thecalvinandhobbes.webs.com Calvin and Hobbes coming strips can be published as long as the individual has written permission or if it is for a review, like giving an opinion.

Watterson refused to merchandise his characters because he believed it would cheapen the image of Calvin and Hobbes. However, people have taken his characters and “revised” them into the individuals own style.

Technically the use of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip on the class website is not allowed. Since there is no opinion being given or credit being given the use of this comic strip is illegal. Though it is obvious this is a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip it isn’t given any credit to the creator, Bill Watterson.

The first topic I chose to research was the establishment of the Library of Congress. On April 24th 1800, President John Adams established the Library of Congress by approving $5,000 to purchase books. In 1801 the first books were shipped over from London and brought to the U.S. Capital. However 12 years later the British came to Washington D.C. during an invasion and burned down a 3,000 volume library. When Thomas Jefferson became president he sold his books to congress for the use of the government. Today the Library of Congress has more then 17 million books and keeps expanding.

I researched briefly the opening of Union Station. Union Station opened on September 29, 1988 as a private/public ownership. In 1981 Congress restored the station with $160 million to preserve as a national treasure.

I then researched the Cinco De Mayo riot in Adams Morgan. In Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant a riot broke out on the 5th of May. A new officer tried to arrest a Salvadoran man for being drunk in public. The police man shot the Salvadoran who was unarmed and the Salvadoran community broke into chaos. Creating a riot within Adams Morgan.

I think Diigolet is a good source to use if you’re in a group situation and need to focus on a specific topic. However, I would not use it for my own personal use unless I was working with a group. Diigolet allows you to post information to the group for easy access, but there are other tools like Google Docs and Email that allow for the same outcome. I do think for History 390 or any type of class, this is an effective use of communication.

Out of the three topics I chose to focus my research on, I decided to go foreword with researching the public education system in the District of Columbia. My focus for the research topic will be based around the integration of primarily African Americans going to public school along with other ethnic minorities starting in the 19th century. My reason for focusing on this topic is because I want to see how the education system in the District of Columbia has changed throughout the decades whether it be for good, bad or both.

I think it is important to understand the dynamic of thinking that the government was going through when they decided to finally integrate different ethnic groups within the public school system that was originally dominated by white men and women. What were the pressures the government was facing? What actions had to be taken in order for integration within the public school system be allowed? Overall why was it such a big ordeal but various ethnicities to go to school together to receive the same education?

A main focus will be looking at the case of Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954. Schools were segregated by race, violating the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The point of the case to let black children attend the same public schools as white children. I’m going to review this case and figure out how it has made an impact in the public school education system in Washington D.C.

To begin research for this topic I’m going to focus on books and journals that have been published about pre integration in D.C. public schools and post integration. I am going to look at how different the public schools were before and after integrating students from various backgrounds. The time period of focus will be in the middle of the 19th century to present. I want to look at present day public education in D.C. to view how the schools are doing academically with their students and socially.

Washington D.C. is a large melting pot of cultures and people of different backgrounds. My first research topic is to explore the reasons of immigration and races that have come to Washington D.C. throughout the years. I want to find out why D.C. is home to so many different nationalities and what is the appeal of the District. I also want to research how this migration of people to D.C. has influenced it and in what ways is it a different place then what it could have been hundreds of years ago.

I will research this topic by first looking at the history of early Washington D.C., what kind of place was it and what were the districts original intentions of impacting the rest of the United States. Second I will research when immigrants started making their way to D.C. and what was their purpose for moving. Third, I will research the impact that immigration has had on Washington D.C. and whether or not its been positive, negative, or both. I will be looking at both primary and secondary sources mostly going through the GMU online library databases to find information.

Credit: http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-52513285/stock-photo-washington-dc-may-immigration-reform-activists-protest-on-may-at-the-white-house-on.html

My second topic is on the public education system of D.C. and why it has been known to be not well funded, a difficult environment for teachers and students, and why their hasn’t been any major changes in the last several decades. I also want to find out how the  public education system started and how it got to be a certain way for so long. Will there be any near future improvements or what does the future for public education in the District of Columbia look like? I do realized that with this topic, the topic of racial division and integration will come up. I plan to pursue that topic as well only in terms of how it effected the public school system.

I plan to start my research by looking at the history of public education in D.C., how it started, how it has changed, and what challenges has it faced along the way. I will look at time lines, articles, journals, newspaper articles, magazines, books, and any type of multimedia like photos or videos.

Credit: http://historicdress.org/wordpress/

My third topic of research is about the construction and influence of the Smithsonian’s museums, galleries, and zoo. I want to find out why the Smithsonian was built, why located in Washington D.C. and how has it influenced the District throughout the decades. Personally, I have interned at two different Smithsonian Museums, the National Museum of Natural History and the Freer|Sackler Gallery. While interning at both museums it was not hard to miss how influential and respected the Smithsonian is as an Institution. I want to figure out how the Smithsonian got to the point of having such a high level of credibility, respect and influence not only in D.C. but the world. Did the location of being in D.C. make a difference, has the location of the Smithsonian improved D.C. tourism? What are the benefits or negative impacts of having the Smithsonian in the District of Columbia?

I will start my research by starting at the birth of the Smithsonian museums, galleries, and zoo. I will found out who started the project, why D.C., and the point of the Smithsonian. Next I will look at how it has influenced D.C. and how D.C. has helped the Smithsonian prosper. Like the other two topics I will start and finish my research through journals, articles, magazines, books, videos, images, interviews, and any other primary sources that I encounter.