Final post

Introduction

It has been a long journey with many trials and errors that were all overcome by the end of the class.  This class started out great with a trip to the North-West regions of France.  The sites and information that was gathered was well worth the trip.  The memories will also be never forgotten and always treasured.  The group was on the smaller side and included 10 members in all.  That was two professors and then 8 students.  We took a plane to Amsterdam and only had one slip up.  This included a separation between the group which half made the last 45 minute flight to Luxembourg.  The other half of the group was forced to think on their feet and figure out what is the best way to deal with the situation at hand.  That was the group I was with and we decided to take a train to our final destination.  This train was not bad, there were a few transfers but overall not a bad beginning to this trip. That was simple one event of many that made the trip worth while.  The many sites that our group saw once we arrived in France was amazing.  A true historical journey through the Western Front.

One of my favorite part of the trip was when we visited the many forts that were used in The Great War and the stohlens that were created by the advancing German troops as living quarters and served as protection from artillery.  Our group had the opportunity to explore the stohlens in which we got to walk around in old, underground passages.  The entire event was unforgettable.  The longest one I went into was roughly 200 feet deep from the opening where it was caved in.  There were evidence of old exploded grenades as well as bunk beds that were rusting on the frames.  I found an old German grenade that already exploded and acquired a bullet hole some time in its existence.  Another group member found a rusty shovel and some others found old exploded shells that were laying peacefully in the soil and debris.

Overview of Topic Decision

The stohlens that our groups visited paved the way for my project ideas.  In one of the stohlens, I observed a wire that was frayed on one end.  This sparked an idea for a project in communications.  I was wondering what to exactly do a project on the first few weeks after we returned to the United States.  The communication aspect was still in the back of my mind but I wanted to do something unique.  As I was doing some research, I came across a website with different topics in World War One.  There was communication and I did click on the link.  To my astonishment I found out that animals had a great impact on the communication war effort.  I found that Carrier pigeons were used pretty often as a means to communicate what was happening on the war front.  The messages were relayed via pigeons to the head quarters behind the front lines.  This was a great topic for me.  I enjoyed the uniqueness of the topic as well as the fact it still carried my central theme.  After researching the same website further I came across a war hero by the name of Sergeant Stubby.  This was no ordinary war hero this was a dog that went to the Western Front and came back a hero in more ways than one.

Assessment and Overview

The project consists of two Google Tours that incorporate to very common communication methods that were used on the Western Front.  These included the use of Carrier pigeons and dogs the most famous of the dogs being Sergeant Stubby.  This project was very enjoyable for me and I had some fun researching the topic as well as using the data and presenting it in Google Tour Builder.  The presentation methods that our professor allowed us to choose from was a helpful way to show what we found and created.  As well as use some creativity in the means to present the information.  The professor of our class is a very intelligent man.  Although sometimes disorganized and quirky he knows a great deal of information about his fields and always strive to teach what he can to students.  He wants to learn and be able to teach what he learned to students.  That great quality should be strived for all individuals.  Professor Hupy knows one of the most important thing to do in college is save your work online on a cloud so it can be seen by other professionals.  A modern portfolio is an awesome idea to help any student get a great job.  The blogger site as well as both presentation methods, Google Tour Builder and ESRI Story Mapping are online websites that allow the user to display information and allow others to see it.  These websites should be used by teachers in order to help students better understand where things and events happen in our world.  They also give a better relationship of how the world is connected in more ways than one.

This has been a great learning process for me.  I enjoyed the final projects that had to be done.  However, the process to find out which presentation method to use was a bit of a drag to say the least.  The first few weeks of the class was spent on minute projects that were simple to find out if the class was going to use ESRI Story Mapping or Google Tour Builder.  The first project included a topic of our choice and had to be done on the ESRI Story Mapping website.  I chose the topic of the food we ate while on our trip in France.  I describe this process in my first blog post and the website link is here: Story Map of Food.  This points out some of the delicious food we ate as well as some pictures of farm animals that were kept at a place we stayed called Jardins Hotel.  This was also one of the places we stayed.  I enjoyed working with the ESRI website.  There was just a bit more steps that had to be done on the technology end of it.  This was not the goal of the class.  This was not a technology class it was a geography and history class.  The content is the most important thing in the projects.  The technology is more eye candy for the audiences.

The second  project included a tour of our trip to and around France.  This was done on Google Tour Builder.  Here is the link to the project I created: France The Western France.  This project included great visuals of 3D buildings and landscapes as well as a virtual flight to each location.  I thought this helped give the audience a sense of where these events took place and how far they are away from each other.  This project only had a few points but it did reveal to me that it was very user friendly and easy to add pictures as well as text and links.  This was one of the final points that needed to be seen.  After the trials and errors I decided that Google Tour Builder was the best option for what I want to accomplish and portray to the audiences.

I then began to work on the final projects that I had to get done.  They were both done on Google Tour Builder and I researched a great deal on the topics in order to get a sufficient amount of information within each project.  Most of the data was collected on the web or going to the library to research some atlases and literature.  The projects consists of some history of the Carrier pigeons and what there importance was during the war.  Some of the most famous pigeons that had a great impact on a battle or event.  A link to this Google Tour is located here: Google Tour of Pigeons An image of one point is located below.  Every time I look at the subject I am still amazed that these pigeons had the impact they did on the war effort.

The second project consisted of a war hero that was found near a military training ground in Connecticut. This stray dog was taken in by Robert Conroy and smuggled on the SS. Minnesota and sailed to France where he participated in 17 battles and even caught a German spy.  Once back to the United States he was treated like a hero and was given medals by General Pershing himself.  The link to this tour is here: Stubby

Critique of the Class

This class was a great class to participate in and be a part of.  Although the trip to France was one of the most exciting parts, the research of our topics were very interesting  but the research that our class conducted has the potential to actually be used in the upcoming anniversary of The Great War.  The concept of this class was a great idea.  However, I would like a bit more organization in classes, as a personal preference.  I would rather have specific details laid out to me.  And lists of exactly what has to be done.  This class did challenge me in ways that I have not had to deal with before.  Overall, my semester had a few issues that I had to deal with unrelated to school but I pushed through and got what I needed to done.  The only real problem I had was the amount of time spent on testing which web program is the best to portray the information.  It was nice to see each program and what each had to offer.  But I think it could have been maybe during the timespan of a week or two instead of three or four.



blog post is trial and tribulations what did I learn from the whole thing
overview and assessment

overall thoughts

theme of this post should be long trip overview

Intro to project week

Introduction

The week was spent on developing the tour of Cher Ami and editing the tour on Stubby.  I added some more information to Stubby tour as well.  Some of the time this week was spent on creating a summary of what my projects were all about. I hope to finish up these projects by next week.

The information that was added to stubby's tour was some awards and honors that he earned as well as the people that he met when he came back to the United States.  He shook the hands of three United States presidents and was awarded medals by General Pershing himself.  An image of the tour is below.

Here is a link to the tour of Stubby.  There are just a few minor details to add before the project is complete.  

The project for Cher Ami is coming along as well.  The information is not as abundant as I hoped but will continue to look.  I will probably end up doing a tour of multiple carrier pigeons that played important roles during battles and events.   

Give 'er!

Introduction

I have decided to do a project on the Sargent Stubby and finish that up this week and start another tour on a homing pigeon named Cher Ami.  This tour will focus on the pigeon's missions and if not enough informtiaon is

Content this Week

This week was pretty productive and I compiled a great deal of information on Sargent Stubby and almost finished Stubby's tour.  I just have a few minor details to finish up.  Here is a link to the tour as of right now.  I still have some information I would like to add about his time in the United States, as a celebrity.  The pictures that I found were a good representation of stubby and great primary sources.

As a side note regarding Sargent Stubby, he was one of the highest ranking dogs in History and was the only dog to out rank his owner.

Cher Ami

The other tour that I started was about carrier pigeons.  Specifically, about the carrier pigeon named Cher Ami.  This carrier pigeon delivered 12 messages that were critical in the battle of Verdun.  As well as aided in the rescue of the "Lost Battalion" in the Argonne forest.  A picture of the pigeon is shown below.  On his last mission, Cher was shot through the chest with the message attached to his leg.  The pigeon refused to die.  Cher continued on his mission and delivered the message that contained the coordinates of the lost battalion.  This aided the American forces in finding the battalion.  The pigeon flew over 25 miles in less than 25 minutes.  This is still after being shot through the chest.

Here is a link to the tour of the carrier pigeons.  It is definitely not complete but has some information on Cher Ami.  Below is a picture from the tour itself with the location of Verdun and a guess of where the lost battalion was.

Notes to Do this Week:

also need to list my  game plan for the other projects

reminder to place a link to blog reference page.

as well as beef up some references

and the paper for capstone review to complete for presentation.  NEED TO DO!



as well as GEOG of FOOD plan for two papers with articles.

add to future studies in Irrigation project the countries that are in fresh water scarcity areas.

In the website labeled "crops and drops" need to add a section of problem with irrigation in world.  salination process and water logging the land.


Why this is important peice that the irrigation percent of farmland and the population of each country results in.  Why is the project important?  Why is that relationship or correlation important?

Week...

Introduction

This week was spent doing some research about other forms of Communication as well as working on my tour with Sargent Stubby.  I worked on the Google Tour and worked on some major information regarding Sargent Stubby.  Although I did do some other research on my capstone this week and that dealt with more of the GIS side of things including joining tables as well as manipulating data to work with the data in statistic software.  There is a reason why I do not take those classes.  Manipulating what seems to be a small event can turn into hours spent on it in order to make it look good.  Even copying a file can be the difference of allowing the data to work.  But I did find the information after talking with Christina.  

Results 

I worked a great deal on the tour builder that displays information about Stubby.  I performed some more research as well.  This included mainly secondary sources of which I listed in the Reference page.

Below is an updated picture of my tour in Google.  Here is a link to this Google Tour

Another update in the reference page was done, adding more of my view on certain references as well as some of the information I got from each site.

Adding to what I enjoy about the google tour builder is that you have an option to utilize some historic imagery that was taking of that area as late as the 1930's, it says anyway.

I also enjoy the 3D imagery that is able to be turned on or off.  Here is a great image of one of my map locations.  The location is focused on the Smithsonian Institution.  This is the picture of a preserved Sargent Stubby in the flesh.  Here is a link to there site...American Smithsonian

The 3D buildings are pretty unique site.  It allows the viewer to be more engaged with the site.  Google earth has become a great way to see foreign places and feel like it actually was a virtual tour.  One time my freind made a statement when we were at a fire and the stars were very clear and vivid, "These are better than the internet." hahah it was very hilarious.  This is becoming more and more realistic.  

One interesting Site i found was the Canada and Communication.


some personal critiques on website references as well as some more data with stubby



Questions

Should I put references in the tours I make or are the references in the blog okay to use?

Weekly Check in...

Introduction

The week consisted of me doing some research and looking into Sergeant Stubby.  I went to the library and learned to us the index system more efficiently.  I found some sources about Animal heroes and also ordered a few books through the interlibrary loan system.  One of the things I learned was to use quotations around words to use them as a direct phrase in what ever your searching for.

Results

Went to the library and learned that quotations search for that phrase not individual words this helped a great deal to find certain books easier.

Ordered a few articles about communications and animals.  I received an actual book just a few days later.  I did not expect that.  Some other books I received online via E-mail the next day which was awesome.  I placed the names and links to these resources in the Reference page on this blog.

Also I began a tour builder in Google for Sargent Stubby.  A picture or two will be on this post that will display my progress.  The link to this tour is right here:  Sargent Stubby

Stubby was in a number of battles and survived a gas attack as well as shrapnel from a German hand grenade.

Another point that I would like to mention is the main reason that I am using Google tour builder.  For one it is very user friendly and it is part of Google.  I have a great deal of application that are intertwined with Google.  This allows for easy uploading of photos and other videos. A great example is Youtube.

This is a video I found on Sargent Stubby.

But regardless, I do not like working with the ESRI Storytelling because of the complicated functions as well as the not so user friendly functions.  Such as the complicated adding the CSV file.  I believe that that function could have been made easier and a great deal easier to install and keep updated. The one nice thing about the ESRI program is the ability to change the HTML code for more personalization.  Allows the user to form a variety of displays to help the reader understand what is exactly going on.

Another thing that I updated was the reference page in my blog.  I place a number of links and bibliographies of a few books about animals in World War One.  Blogger is super easy to place links in the text it is as easy as pushing a button.

Conclusion

The progress I hope to make is get the tour done with Stubby and make plans for anther one on Animals.  perhaps pigeons.

A few more mention from Email and fix page for links
got a book today about animal heros in the great war

This is for 11/4

Introduction

The week was spent mainly study and working on a capstone project. I was reminded how to do certain things in GIS.  Put together a few maps that contained information on irrigated land and percent irrigated farmland.

Some information that was found was a newspaper article that had old newspapers that were archived to this site and I did find one artlicle that had information on animals and communication.

Results

The papers have a lot to go through and I will still have to get some more Information or atleast I would like to.  This week I plan to go to the library and do some research with communications and animals at the library.  My main thought would be to have multiple tours of different aspects of the communications lines for Germany as well as the British and Americans.  I did find out that the British used animals more frequently than any other country.  Germany did have a great deal of German Shepherds used in scouting missions as well as using their acute sense of smell.

Newspaper Articles

This is an image of the article I found dealing with animals and Communication

Questions

Neat article on the Sapper in Vietnam.


Well this is a perfect example of saving frequently.

This is the One

Intro

This week consisted af mainly research.  The over all idea is that I ended up choosing the topic of communications in World War One.  There is a good amount of information about this topic on a number of sites.  Down at the end of this post I will have a few links about the topic as well as more precise topic that I found on the website. A very interesting point to make is that because of the number of poor communication lines and radio beacons, a great deal of animals were used often.  The horse was important at the beginning of the war to carry artillery.  The dog was also important for a number of reasons. As well as the most known of the WWI animals the carrier pigeon.

Methods

The methods that were most often used was searching the internet and walking into the library.    

Results

The information I found was a great starter and got me into some great topic choices.  There was also a very renowned Bull terrier that earned a number of awards and metals.  Sargent stubby was his name and he was used a great deal for the beginning portion of the War.  Originally he was snuck onto the ship in the passage over to Europe.  Then after Sargent stubby was discovered he was allowed to stay because of all the soldiers grew to liking him.  He served his duty as bringing a medic bag to wounded soldiers as well as transporting important information to other regiments.  He also served as a scout to pick up the scent of poison gas?  He knows what the gas smelled like being that he survived a few gas artillery shell explosions.

This Bull Terrier was also known to aid and comfort the soldiers in the trenches as well as on the battlefield to comfort a dying soldier.  Stubby's acute hearing and smelling helped to spot spies and lurking enemy soldiers.  

Conclusions

The topic has narrowed down and I have a good idea at what my topic and project could be.  Perhaps the topic could be with Sargent Stubby.  I am also going to put as a reminder to look at Holtstiens books to see if any pigeon story are in there or hope fully a first account would be nice.

Questions

How is the topic of animals as communication if enough information is available?

Would google tour builder work for this any ideas I could use?

Ask Zach if he can use any information on animals in the topic of communications?

Or use the story of Sargent stubby as a google tour? as one small topic.  include other information on communication.

Some information on communications

World war one History in comunication  Very brief description of some forms of communications and which is more effective than others.

Pigeons this is a personal account of a pigeon that saved a great deal of soldiers

Sargent Stubby

Story of War dogs and descriptions



Great site with a personal avcount of a soldier using carrier pigeon and also the site contains information on using dogs as messengers, medics, guard dogs and scouts.

Went on awebsite that presented a prezi power point and found some information.  However, it was vague and had very little information overall.



stubby hero