To help everyone remember what you presented tonight, please write up a 2-3 paragraph summary of your final project and post it here. And, as you think of other suggestions for your colleagues, offer those as comments.
November 7, 2006
October 27, 2006
Simile and WordPress… so happy together…
Someone has already hacked together a plugin for WordPress that incorporates the simile timeline.
See a working copy of it at MissionJournal.org.
October 20, 2006
Week 9 assignment
Dr. Kelly indicated that we would receive word about what to read up on for Tuesday’s class. I haven’t heard anything, have you?
Dr. Kelly, do you have any indication of what we should read for our visitor on Tuesday?
It certainly isn’t like I have nothing to do, but I want to be prepared.
Michelle
October 19, 2006
October 18, 2006
Virtual Jamestown
Don’t let the spartanesque look of the initial web page on the website fool you (http://www.virtualjamestown.org/. This project is rich in primary and secondary sources as well as ways in which both students and teachers can interact. There are ten teaching scenarios ready for use that students, or any user for that matter, can work on that require historical thinking. The maps amd images show how the area was settled and populated from 1607 onward as well as photos of aritifacts with explanations of the artifacts which allow the user to get a good idea of what kind of tools, pottery and various items were used by the Jamestown population of the 17th century. (more…)
Munchen
Muchen is an article written in 1942 by my late grandmother, Elisabeth Gravely. I would love to share this with all of you.
My grandmother was an aspiring actress while growing up in England and always was inspired by the arts. She was casted in some early British films playing the roles of Bessie Surtees and Grace Darling. (I have looked fervently for copies of these movies, but I haven’t had any luck.)
She moved to America in the late 30’s-early 40’s to marry my late grandfather, Dr. William Gravely. While living in America she started her career as a freelance writer for The Post, and afterwards she subsequently became a famous local muralist, whose work was exhibited in such places as The Capitol Lodge and The Reeve Gouche (a once bustling restaurant located in Georgetown that played host to a number politicians.)
This is one of the few articles of hers that I found while conducting a search on Pro-Quest Research Database about a year ago. Thanks to Dr. Kelly’s History 312 class, I found out about this wonderful tool that led me to a gold-mine.
The fellow Karl that she speaks of was a suitor of hers. The story in my family is that when he visited my grandmother in England, he spent a lot of his time studying the British coast line while sailing with my great-grandfather. As it turns out, he was a spy for the Nazis – or at least this is how the story goes. In a letter written by my great-uncle Nory (or, as he calls himself both “Fish Taco” and “S32″…no, seriously) he mentions this account:
“I think my parents were afraid that E was going to marry Karl when she went on that Munich safari. Before that my Dad had taken Karl sailing on the Walrus all the way up the north east coast to Lindisfarne. Karl took continous photographs of the coastline – even when there was nothing to see except sand dunes. That puzzled everyone. Just recently I’ve been reading about Hitler’s invasion plans of England. The main Nazi thrust was of course to be in the south around Dover, but a divisionary strike was planned from Norway to exactly the northeast coastel area that Karl had been so busily documenting. Little did my Dad know that he was entertaining a spy!” -Nory a.k.a- “Fish Taco”, a.k.a- “S32″
Utopia: “Their Souls Are Forever Free”
Along the James River in Kingsmill lies a memorial site called Utopia. The memorial marks a spot around where twenty-five enslaved Africans and their descendants were buried:
“Researchers from the James River Institute of Archaeology discovered the remains of twenty-five enslaved Africans and their descendants located in a cemetary near the site at a slave quarters known as Utopia.
The land where the cemetary was situated was owned by the families of Colonel Thomas Pettus and later by James Bray.
It is estimated that they lived between the seventeenth century (ca 1690) and early eighteenth century (ca 1770). America was not yet a nation during their life time.
The remains of their bodies were moved to protect from further deterioration and are buried under this monument. Their souls are forever free.”
I have visited this site on many occasions while visiting our close family friends who live along the James River in Kingmill. Their house is situated about a hundred yards away from Utopia. This place is very dear to me, and when I visit our friends, I usually make it a point to walk down and visit Utopia. It’s a very peaceful place. I just go to sit and meditate.
Last night, I came across an archaeological database called the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery. The database devotes itself to helping people learn about the enslaved Africans living in the Chesapeake, Carolinas, and Carribean during the Colonial and Ante-Bellum periods. The database also has a big section with a lot of good background information on Utopia.
A nice feature of this database allows one to access artifact queries. An artifact query is a basic inventory of artifacts found at each site. In this sense, a viewer of this database can get an idea of the many possessions these people carried with them. The artifact query section is just one of the many queries that people can access at this database. Click here for more.
I’ll leave everyone with a few pictures that my dear friend, Sally Lewis, sent to me.
Utopia:
May their souls remain free forever.
Another historical goodie on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDqHjA8r6ks
Winston Churchill’s speech the day after the death of King George VI. But the really interesting aspect of this is that it not a simple mp3 file, but rather a video of the ‘78 of the speech distributed by His Master’s Voice (now known as HMV) spinning on the turntable.
Just thought I’d post this for your consideration,
James
October 16, 2006
Why books will always be used!
This was a tough weekend. I usually find time on Friday and Saturday to do the study and reading for this class. But this past Friday and Saturday I was fixing the server that this website lives on.
It just brings home one more point. Books will be used forever. Long after the last plug on a server is pulled, long after the data on a hard drive becomes unreadable due to incompatible hardware, the book will be there. Just like it always has. It can’t be turned off, it can’t be hacked. Anyhow, despite that bit of anti-technical rant, I’ll endeavor to expound on the qualities of a few websites.
Weeks 7 & 8
Posting Update – Third time must be a charm — Ammon,on my second attempt to post the site was completely down from (7:00 PM – 8:43 PM)
I chose to evaluate two websites from a design perspective. By doing so, I hoped to learn the material of the sites, as well as discover ease of use and if the sites provided creative elements that want me to explore what information and tools are contained within each site.