History Trip: Eyes Bigger Than My Stomach

      

      A familiar expression that we have all heard from one time to another.  Whether it is concerning your second plate at an all you can eat buffet or a project that you hadn't fully realized the work involved, the expression rings true.  A Google LitTrip, and the historical equivalent of a HistoryTrip are tremendous resources, and I am truly glad that I decided to tackle one for my final project.  However, my lofty goals required quite a bit more work than I had originally anticipated.
     The image on my left is not a screenshot of my HistoryTrip, but is just an example of how carried away you can get when trying to explain an entire historical movement, in my case the Civil Rights Movement.  The dream was to create a resource for students, who using the Google Earth layer that I created could understand how the Civil Rights movement evolved and how important events, and reactions to those events were.  For example, Brown vs. The Board of Education was a seminal event that nearly everyone is familiar with, however as demonstrated by the riots concerning the integration of the University of Mississippi, this one event was not the end of racism in schools.  It is important for students to make these connections, and I still feel that it is easier when Google Earth is flying you around the United States showing you in all of its 3-D glory the famous historical sites.
       The beginning trouble came with initial research, as I was trying to make the HistoryTrip something usable by early middle school, I needed to explain the events as they effected the movement in simple terms.  Having settled on 20 key moments in the Civil Rights movement, this was an undertaking but again...sometimes you just get wrapped up in it.  When the research was done I had to learn how to create my own place marks, which I was woefully unprepared for.  Perhaps it was my own lack of research or understanding, or I could blame it on ignorance, but I didn't realize the the place marks were not like blog setups, they are all written in HTML code.  Good thing we had the web page design last meeting so I could remember how to do it, otherwise I would have been really lost.  Although it wasn't difficult to do, it was just extra time that I didn't realize I would have to spend.  Instead of dragging pictures in to my HistoryTrip like I can with Blogger, I now had to find the source code for each picture or movie and throw that in instead.  I am a fast typer but <img src="http://www.google.com" width="300"> just does not roll off the fingertips.
         Ultimately this was a great experience, and I found some great projects that people have done that I very well might suggest to our teaching staff.  It is something that was challenging and was glad that I was able to achieve what I did.  Although the product did not match up with my vision exactly, there was something satisfying after writing a paragraph of code, and having everything look exactly how I wanted it.  If this is something you are remotely interested in, I would encourage you to check out the Google LitTrip page, and towards the bottom on the right hand side there are videos that lay out in excruciating detail how to create the perfect LitTrip (or HistoryTrip).  They were an invaluable resource, and although each one took about 30-45 minutes, they were well worth it.
       Now that all of my data has been entered and images and media embedded like they should be, my final step is making the tour that will automate the flying around the United States.  If it is like anything else in Google Earth, I am sure there will be unexpected hurdles down the road.  Regardless, with the end result being something unique and helpful for students, I would pick this final project again.  Maybe budgeting formatting time a bit better, maybe not using as much media, but I would certainly tackle this again.