...I made a proposal for the final project

For the final project, I think it would really interesting to document everything to do with location in the Harry Potter books. There would be many basic spots such as where Hogwarts is as well and the Ministry of Magic, but there would also be where the quidditch teams are located, where other schools are located, as well as following Harry, Ron, and Hermione through the seventh book as they travel around trying to defeat Voldemort.

We could use something as simple as Google maps or something a bit more complex. On the map we could have descriptions as well as clips from the movies (or just clips we've created ourselves) or pictures that go with specific locations. For example, to show where the ministry of magic is there could be a placement on the map of England in London where exactly it is and in the bubble that pops up when you click on that location a clip of the movie when Ron's dad and Harry enter the Ministry by going down the telephone booth.

There are many possibilities to incorporate video, pictures, and information in this project. I think it would be a very interesting one to do, and anyone who enjoyed reading the books would probably love to work on this. It would require some research to find out where exactly some locations are but in the end it would turn out to be a very fun and cool project that others might actually spend some time looking at if they stumbled upon it on the Internet. So not only would we be appealing to what we've been learning in the course but we are also reaching out to people outside of the course by using a topic that is very popular and well known.

...We Made a Map and Mapped History

The historical event that my partner Adam and I chose was the invention of human flight. I found this particularly interesting because my uncle is a pilot and my cousin is also training to become one. I have flown a lot, as have a lot of other people, and it is very interesting to know how it all started. On the map, Adam and I used pictures as well as information to make it easier for people to understand as well as see the people, objects, and places that were involved with the marvelous creation of the airplane. Using pictures helps to attract more people to read the information provided because that way they can not only read the information, but also look at some of the stuff that the information is talking about. For example, the information for the first flight in Canada is accompanied by a picture of the first glider and the man who made it all happen. The readers eye gets attracted to the picture then to the information. All of the information and pictures found on this event are from Wikipedia. There was a lot to be said about the Wright brothers and their struggles and triumphs while making the first glider and Wikipedia nicely included many pictures to go along with that information.

I would have liked to include a couple of things on the map. It would have been cool to see where the first flight was too and from over waters. It would have been neat to record that and it also would have brought a broader area into the map that we used. We did not include this because we could not find the information. Creating this map would help people understand the history because they would be able to like everything together. Not only do they get the information about the first flight but they also get the background information about the Wright brothers. Also, it shows how this invention started to spread across countries from American to countries like Canada. 

The History pin website was interesting but not very specific. There did not seem to be much information on it seeing as it is saying it has "pinned" things from 1840-2000. There were only 23,778 photo's on it and I'm sure that in America there are many many more historical events that could have been noted. My topic (the invention on flight) wasn't even pinned on there. It noted that there was a Wright Brother Memorial Park but there was no pin for that. The Communitywalk site seemed plain and boring to me. I think it was too simple in the fact that all you do is map out where something and where another thing is and then it draws a line for you. The Flickrmap was the most interesting in my opinion. It can be very personal which is what I like about it compared to the others which seem more standard. 

For the Historypin website I would use this to create a collage of historical events. It has quite a few amazing pictures, and although it does not document everything about American History it can still provide good information through pictures and location. People who would use this would generally be people in school looking for pictures on certain events. It is sometimes hard to find old pictures, but this site seems to have a copious amount of them. 

For the Communitywalk website I would use this to map out directions for where I'm going if it's far away. Also, if I were to use it for a project, like social studies back in the day, I could map out adventures that people like James Cook did and use that on a presentation. People who could use this are people who have a bad sense of direction (using it for getting from one place to another) or like I said, a kid in social studies wanting to map out some of the adventures of famous explorers. 

For the Flickrmap website I would use this to document where I am travelling if I were on a trip. Since you use your own photos It would be a neat way to show your family and friends where you're going and all the amazing sites you're seeing. It would also be more personal because you can have yourself in the pictures! People who would possibly use this site are world travellers or photographers. It is a great way to share what you're doing with everyone.

Here is the google map that Adam and I created on the invention of human flight.

http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&tab=wl