march professional development

this month, i chose to work on StoryMap JS. since my project for this year uses ArcGIS StoryMaps, i wanted to try an alternative and see what I could make.

i appreciated the fact that the UI was pretty straightforward to use and that adding points on the map were easy, but i did come to appreciate the features that Esri added to ArcGIS StoryMaps as i don’t think that i would have been able to do what i have project wise with only StoryMap JS.

here is the StoryMap i made!

project wise, i published the content and galleries that i have been working on and have continued to update the documentation. i think we’re in a pretty good spot right now 🙂

i can’t believe we’re halfway through the semester. see you next month :p

⋆˙⟡ steph

feb professional development

this month, i chose to work with twine to create a short game/experience. i like making games and experimenting with tools to create interactive expereinces, so when i saw twine as a training option, i chose it immediately.

the tool itself is pretty straightforward to use. the only issue i had was trying to delete a passage as you can’t use normal shortcuts. i chose to use the desktop app, as it saves automatically, which made it easier to take breaks and work on the training in my own time as well.

i would like to experiment more with macros and other twine features and can’t wait to see what else i can come up with using the tool.

here is the short experience i made

⋆˙⟡ steph

week 11 [11/17-11/22]

this week’s training was on storymaps. after working on the training and stroymaps for my project, I would say I am pretty comfortable with helping someone use the tool.

I would say that this tool is great at incorporating many of arcgis’ other tools and helping collate information into a readable and interactive format. it is quite lacking in layout options – you can’t change the position of buttons – for example. and quite inconsistent as well, you can change the layout of maps and images, but not timelines or sidecars.

accessibility wise, I think that thinking about colors and contrast as well as the readability of text is important. I also think that adding navigation options – like Quicklinks in for headers make navigation easier and sites created using the tool more accessible as well.

from the storymaps gallery and how to make an awful storymaps, I noticed that good storymaps are consistent, don’t use unsightly colors and are engaging. one thing to avoid is mixing and matching image formats – galleries and inline images – and making sure buttons and links work.

now that I know more about the platform, I can continue to work on each map for the project with more knowledge and confidence.

ciao 🙂

⋆˙⟡ steph

week 10 [11/10-11/16]

this week’s training was in audacity. I have had some experience using the program so it was not that difficult to get back to using it. as such, I think that helping someone learn how to use the program will be pretty straightforward. I found it interesting that you could download the app through muse hub and have access to a wide variety of plugins and audios, but I did find it frustrating to try add audios that I installed using muse hub and would like to find out ways to make the process simpler.

project wise, I continued working in the management timeline and it’s documentation, and have also been working on a map tour of CERA and an image gallery. I still have images to rename and sort though, so the image gallery will take a while.

gotta get back to work :p

⋆˙⟡ steph

week 9 [11/03-11/09]

This week, we worked on documentation. I made documentation for the first StoryMap I made for my project – the management timeline. I think good documentation clearly outlines information users will need to access content and create new content – if there is any. I also think good documentation needs images, or some sort of way to show the user what buttons or icons they need to press in order to achieve specific results.

My project leads and I will need to create documentation about naming and sorting files, adding content to sorry maps and embedding them in the project site. We will need several images, and a pretty good understanding of how each tool we use in the project works in order to create documentation for the project.

project wise, I began working on the management timeline and a few other story maps that we may or may not need for the project. I have also begun documenting my progress and process, and will continue updating the documentation as the year progresses.

renaming and sorting image files is still an ongoing process though. see you next week :p

⋆˙⟡ steph

week 8 [10/27 – 11/02]

this week’s training was on WeVideo. i found the tool pretty simple and straightforward to use and will have no problem helping my peers learn how to use it.

i did find myself getting frustrated with a few of the site’s quirks like the seeker jumping to where it was previously in the clip you selected instead of staying where you placed it and the fact that you are not able to replace clips by dragging one on top of the other, but i mostly got used to them and don’t see them as an issue for someone who is unfamiliar with video editors.

in my case, the narration/recording features and the callout text did not work on either my default browser (Firefox based) or safari – and so i resorted to a few workarounds to solve the problems that these issues created. i hope to be able to use these features better as they either update the program or improve browser compatibility.

project wise, i continued the work i have been doing with renaming and organizing image files – and met with Jake and Emily to share any updates and learn more about activities going on at CERA.

see you next week 🙂

⋆˙⟡ steph

project reflection

So far, I have been able to start the StoryMap site and have begun to gather and organize resources like images in order to start adding more information to the site. I have been able to meet with my project leads somewhat frequently and often had updates to give them about my progress. Over the rest of the semester, I would like to make a lot more progress with making each individual section of the map – like the tour and the timeline. I would also like to finish organizing the resources, mainly images, provided to me by my project leads by season and content so that I can easily add them to the StoryMap.

When the project first started, a big issue was how the WordPress site and StoryMap would be linked together. I managed to figure out that a published StoryMap can be emedded into a WordPress site and I’m now planning on embedding each Story Map I create into the CERA WordPress Site, and plan on documenting how I did it in order to help future fellows, or site maintainers, keep both the WordPress site and the StoryMaps up to date.

Content wise, Jake, Emily and I agreed to split each task timeline into the seasons that it occurs in – like prescribed fires and planting. This should make it easier to navigate the information provided and make absorbing or just looking at content less overwhelming. I wonder if I can get a map of CERA with all of its key location in order to make the map tour of the facility from Jake and Emily, and if I can split the content into separate pages – with outlines for what happens in each season.

I look forward to making more progress in the next half of the semester and in the year to come.

⋆˙⟡ Steph

week 6 [10/06 – 10/12]

this week i worked on the gale digital scholar lab.

i found that using it at first was more challenging than i thought it would be as it is not as straightforward as it seems. as a result, i think i would find helping someone else learn how to use it somewhat challenging, but not impossible. the analysis run portion of the training was interesting to me as i found the fact that ngrams could produce graphs based on the text to be quite useful for things like frequency counters.

i found adding content to content sets frustrating at first as there is no button next to the content itself, it is at the top of the page instead, which confused me. additionally, having to check that your file was successfully uploaded and checking the box in the successfully uploaded list seemed tedious to me as well.

i would still like to explore more analysis tools offered by the program like sentiment analysis and topic modelling, as well as learn more about how to perform an in depth text analysis.

looking at the gale research showcase i found students also took similar steps to the ones we took in the training – curation, cleaning, and analysis. looking through some of the projects made me realise that the tool could be used for other forms of analysis. i was looking at a project on Roberto Calvi’s Trial which clued me into other uses, like comparing texts in order to form a conclusion instead of just literary analysis like i initially thought. i think with time, i would be able to use the tool in different ways in order to produce various projects.

project wise, i worked on renaming and sorting image files in the project folder, it’s been taking a lot longer than i thought it would – i guess i underestimated the scope of the task.

i hope to continue my work on the project folder and work on more trainings in the coming week. additionally, fall break is coming soon and i can’t wait for some period of rest.

⋆˙⟡ steph

week 5 [09/29 – 10/05]

this week, i worked on the ArcGIS training. i found it to be interesting as StoryMaps is also hosted by Esri and may be the primary platform i use for my project.

when looking at the data provided, i noticed that the data on the first line of the file contains all the headers related to the data in the table – which made it easier to figure out which data related to which field in the dataset. from my cursory analysis, i thought that the dataset would be able to help answer questions about the population in Grinnell in 1900 and what has changed in the town as time has passed i wasn’t sure that i knew what variables i would like to map as i had yet to discover the platform at the time.

i felt that basemaps such as imagery and imagery hybrid would make it pretty difficult to view the data being plotted on the maps as they either obscure it, or make it difficult to focus on as there is so much going on on the map. at the same time, i thought that different basemaps would convey different bits of information to the viewer and would serve different purposes.

i discovered that as you change the drawing style and customize the appearance of a visualization, it can become more complex and either more or less readable. additionally, depending on the visualization, having large elements could obscure smaller ones on the map and make it very cluttered.

i think that pop-up elements enhance the map viewing experience they give the viewer more information about what it is they are looking at without making the map difficult to understand. i think they are used most effectively in maps with small visual elements (or to declutter maps in general).

the choices you make as a map creator like color, contrast, base maps and fonts impacts the visual and accessibility experience of your map. when making digital maps it is also important to consider screen readers as well when building maps in order to ensure as many people can access the maps.

project wise, i had a meeting with my project leads and discussed what my next steps should be. i will be working on renaming photos in the project folder and starting to build the website out.

⋆˙⟡ steph

week 4 [09/22 – 09/28]

this week, I worked on the omeka training. it wasn’t really difficult to learn how to use, but i would say that adding an item and filling in its description became tedious (especially because there is no way to save descriptions if you navigate backwards, which happened more times than i would like to admit).

i wouldn’t mind helping someone learn how to use omeka, as the user interface and guide are not that complex. additionally, i would like to learn more about making custom exhibits and adding custom themes, or custom layouts.

project wise, i worked on a few StoryMaps tutorials to get myself familiar with the software and see what i could do with it.

i also realized that there seems to be an issue with this sites’s theme on the blog page. i hope to fix it over the course of next week.

⋆˙⟡ steph