Week 9: FINAL BLOG POST!!!!

Project Progress

This week I worked on finishing up my two projects the Interactive Map and the Story Map.  I worked on finding pictures for both maps and finishing up adding history notes to both the interactive and story map.  I am basically finished with both projects, I plan to keep looking at them and making any changes necessary to better my two projects.  The website where I found my pictures I found can be found in my Project Links tab above.  I added pictures from both my personal photos and also images I found on the Internet, I think adding images is very important because it adds something to look at other than only text which may bore the user.  

Semester Overview

This is my favorite class I have ever been apart of.  I had a lot of fun going to France with my classmates and developing relationships with them, Professor Hupy and his wife; and also keeping those relationships when we returned to the United States.  My favorite part of the class was going to France, it was such an amazing experience for me because I have never been outside of the United States before.  I loved being on the Battle Field in Verdun and learning about the history of the battle.  I thought it was really unique that we got to be on multiple World War I battle fields, while having Christina Holstein describe what happened at each location.   Being at Verdun inspired me to base my project around the Battle of Verdun.  This semester also greatly influenced my geography skills.  Throughout the semester I learned how to use templates on ArcGIS to represent the data and history that I found.  These newly learned skills will be very helpful for in the future as the Geography Department is starting to use ArcGIS more and more.  I also greatly benefited from doing blog posts, having my Professor push me to have more in depth and professional looking blogs will help me in the future in the class room and it should help me find a job.  

Group photo in the city of Verdun

Project Overview

As I mentioned earlier I found my inspiration for my project after being on the battle field of Verdun.  I loved walking around, touring forts and being inside trenches.  I was especially interested in the front lines during the war.  I became very interested when Christina Holstein explained how the Germans advanced through the battle with lines drawn on here own personal map.  This lead to me creating a map of front lines and also other elements to help describe the Battle of Verdun.  A more in depth description of how I decided to make my projects can be viewed in my previous blog posts starting with Week 1.   

The first step of the semester started with creating two different story maps one on ArcGIS online and one on Google.  This was done to help our class to become familiar with the templates that we had the option of basing our projects on.  My first story map on ArcGIS can be found here and the other one on Google can be found here.  The Google tour requires an installation of Google Earth plugin.  

First Slide of my practice Story Map 

After practicing with both the ArcGIS templates and Google template I decided I wanted to use the ArcGIS one because it allowed for a map to be edited and drawn on.  This was very important to me because I wanted to create a map with front lines and my options to do this were slimming.  I took some time to play around on this map and figure out what this map has to offer.  I found that it allows for the user to draw lines, and edit these lines by making them different colors and patterns.  This allowed for my map to look very professional and easy to read.  At also allowed for points, areas, and a description text box.  In this description box I added history notes and pictures to make the map very interacting.  After more practicing with the ArcGIS map and Story Map I decided on what my project would consist of.  I knew that I wanted to create two projects: one being an interactive map on ArcGIS and one being a Story Map as a tour of the Battle of Verdun.

My Interactive map on ArcGIS 

I then dedicated a lot of my time in researching and reading on the Battle of Verdun as I knew my two projects would require a lot of history for them to be complete.  I looked at books and websites on the Battle of Verdun, sources like the Western Front Association, History of the Battle of Verdun, and the book Price of Glory  were very useful to me in coming up with a good overview of what I though would be most important in the Battle of Verdun.  After reading these sources I then proceeded to add important information regarding the Battle of Verdun to my map.  I added information of battle plans, who was where when, important generals, and the main forts of the battle.  I also added some quotes to describe the terrible conditions the war had.  Also during my research I had to find good maps that represented where front lines were during the battle.  I did find some really good maps like the one below that helped me draw the front lines.  After finding these maps I then used them as a reference to manually draw my lines on to my interactive map.  The process of how to draw these lines and other map notes can be found in my Week 7 blog.  I found this to be kind of difficult as I had to change or delete the lines multiple times to create the most accurate map.

Map I used as a reference 

After completing my interactive by drawing lines, points, adding history notes, and pictures I then could start my second project.  This story map would use the same map I just completed in its template except it can not be clicked on therefore defeating its purpose.  This story map is very similar to my first project as it covers the same material just in a different way.  The story map was very easy to complete as I already had the history notes and pictures I just have to add them in.

First slide of my story map

I set the pictures in the correct order corresponding to the order of important events during the Battle of Verdun.  For more information on how to use this template you can view my Week 4 blog post.  After completing this story map my two projects were now ready to be viewed by the public and used on our Class Website.

Home page of our class website created by: Zack Robison

Problems and Future

A couple of things I wish I could have done with project: I was hoping to somehow use ArcMap with my project by bringing in a digitized map of front lines.  The map I found on ArcGIS was much easier for me to cuse by drawing the lines manually and it allowed for the pop up box which the digitized lines would not have.  I also wish I would have known what my project would have been on during the trip so I could take more pictures to use and to ask Christina Holstein any questions I had about the Battle of Verdun. 

This week I will finish up my projects for Monday's deadline, I am only going to edit little things nothing too major.  It was a great class and I will miss it very much, I really liked how everyone's projects turned out especially the videos and our class website.  A great overall job by the class.

Week 8

This Week

This week we were assigned to come up with an overview of our project to be used in our website.  The overview must include an introduction, history of our topic, and our methodology, my product can be seen below.  Not much progress was made on my two projects due to Thanksgiving break.  I am still making progress on my two story maps and hope to finish those up soon. 

 Project Overview

Background

As a geography major at the University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire I have the opportunity to go on many field trips across the United States and the World.  When I first heard about this class and how it involved a ten day trip to France I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to take advantage of, by going to a different culture while also getting credit towards my major.   After learning that the trip would involve a study of World War I by actually going on the battlefields, I knew this trip is right up my alley with my interests in Geography and History.

Introduction

During the trip when our class was able to walk across the battlefields and memorials of Somme and Verdun I became fascinated with World War I.  I especially became interested in the Battle of Verdun.  As our class was walking around the area where the Battle of Verdun took place we were lucky enough to have a great tour guide, Christina Holstein, walk along with us.  She would talk about every aspect of the War at each location we were at.  She knew everything about the Battle of Verdun of who did what and when, and if they were successful or not.  Listening to Christina talk made me very interested in the Battle of Verdun leading me towards wanting more knowledge of the battle.  This lead to my project idea of studying and gathering information of the Battle of Verdun and making a map of the Battle that features front lines, forts, and key events during the war. 

History

The Battle of Verdun Started on February 21^st 1916 as the Germans, behind Falkenhayn, launched a somewhat surprised attack on France.  The Germans quickly gained ground on France by capturing the biggest fort in Verdun, For Douaumont.   After losing Fort Douaumount France turned to General Pétain to lead the defenses in Verdun.  After the Germans captured Fort Douaumont the Battle started to stall as little ground was gained due heavy artillery shelling and trench war fare.  The Germans managed some substantial ground and Fort Vaux but eventually the French ended up gaining back the ground and forts lost and winning the Battle.   Because of the constant shelling, bad war tactics, and high ground the Battle of Verdun is considered to be one of the impactful and deadliest battles of all time accounting in huge amounts of casualties for both the French and Germans.  My two projects go into further detail about the Battle of Verdun with an interactive map and a Tour Story Map of the Battle. 

Methods

After having an idea of what my project was going to be I knew that it was going to require me to do a lot of research and reading.  To gather my information on the Battle of Verdun I went online and found many great websites on the Battle of Verdun I also went to the Library and used books from Amazon to complete my research.  Some great resources that cover the Battle of Verdun are: The Western Front Association, The Price of Glory by Alistair Horne, and books by our tour guide Christina Holstein.   I used the website ArcGIS to create my two projects.  This first one creating a map on ArcGIS and editing the map by adding map features as lines, points, and polygons and adding pictures and descriptions to each of them.  The second project called a story map is a template available for use on ArcGIS.  In this template I uploaded the same map from my first project but then added pictures and descriptions to make a tour of the Battle of Verdun.