Saturday, April 2, 2016

Lifelong Learning Theme Lends Itself to Interactive Journalism Experimentation

This week’s assignment brings a romper room of multimedia toys to play with.  Some played more nicely than others, though. 

First up: maps.  I love maps.  I’ve even wallpapered my hall with them. 


Since I normally use Google Maps, my first impulse was to use Google’s services for this activity.  I have since learned how important impulse control is.  When I opened Google Maps, I was presented with an empty map of the world with no instruction on how to proceed, so I Googled using Google Maps and somehow stumbled upon the Google Developers page, which showed me all sorts of complicated things on Google Maps APIs, which I have since found out could mean application program interface” or “American Petroleum Institute,” but it may as well have been one in the same because this was way out of my league, and I scoffed when I saw a button entitled “View Pricing and Plans.”

On to MapQuest then!  This appeared to be much easier to use, although at one point (after I had marked and described all of my locations, of course), I managed to lose everything, but I was quickly able to recreate the map just as I’d had it and save it under my newly created account.  Going back to edit the map was a chore, though, because the log-in screen for MapQuest isn’t very easy to locate; in fact, if I hadn’t saved the account set-up confirmation e-mail message, I might never have found it.  Even then, I went in circles for several minutes trying to log in—I kept getting messages saying no account could be found under my username.  Finally, I was able to log in through Facebook (somehow).

The next task was to create a poll or survey using Polldaddy.  After wrestling with Google Maps and MapQuest, this was a breeze—the hardest part was devising the questions!  Polldaddy allows various types of questions to be asked.  I wanted to try one of the Matrix/Likert questions but didn’t like the way the choices at the top of the chart came out looking squished up, so I abandoned that format.  Polldaddy has several options for the font and style of the survey.  I was able to choose a font similar to the blog font, and after testing several styles, I settled on the default, Surveymattic, because it was easy to read, and the gray coloration fit with the gray background of this blog.  There are also choices for how to embed the survey in the blog: button, banner, or slider popup; within these choices are further choices for customization, although I see now hardly any are compatible with blogger.  The survey link below is supposed to be a gray button, and it's supposed to open up in a smaller pop-up window, neither of which is happening.

Share your experience as a lifelong learner!

The final component of this assignment is a timeline, with the choice of creating one using either Tiki-Toki or Dipity.

I’d seen Tiki-Toki in action recently when the website my English II students were using to research the historic structures on Columbia’s Bull Street property (the former home of the state mental hospital) went down.  The professor at USC (that’s the University of South Carolina, not that other university somewhere in California that tries to use that designation) whose students had created the original site directed me to a Tiki-Toki timeline her class had also created, saving (most of) the day.  I created an account and began working with it, only to be told I couldn’t upload photos or embed the timeline in this blog without paying.  What to do?  Dipity-Do!

Which should be called Dipity-Don’t.

I spent entirely too much time going in circles on Dipity.  I could never find the timeline I had named, and after clicking around on the site, I was told I had created the maximum number of timelines allowed with a free account…even though I had only created one and hadn’t even edited it.  The help feature is a misnomer, and every time I tried to access my account settings, I kept getting sent back to what appeared to be the homepage.

So, with credit card in hand, I upgraded my free Tiki-Toki account to allow photos and embedding.  Creation of the timeline went smoothly after this.  The only drawback is that the timeline insists on use of the full date, not just month and year, so in cases where I couldn’t remember the exact date, I had to estimate.

  
Well played, if I do say so myself.

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