Anthony Corbett Course Blog

It’s always a little bitter-sweet, the ending of a semester. You work so hard for a few months and you have an end product that gets a grade, maybe you show it off a little, and that’s it. Boon. Finished. End. Done. Then, afterwards, all your left with is a better understanding of something and a little more insight into the world and how it functions.

So, this COPLAC course… What a ride.

Maybe it was not made clear to me that I needed to design my own website (with my partner, made it a lot easier).  Maybe I figured it would be harder than I imagined. Maybe I didn’t have as much internal support as I should have had on the day Professors Wallace and Welch told us we would be making a website. Who knows. But I was horrified. Then it happened. I look back on it now and it was relatively easy. My partner, Shane, was the biggest help. I’d meet with him and he would have figured something else out, and I would say “Wow, that’s pretty awesome. How’d you do that?” He would walk me through it and then we both knew. It was really that easy. Shane wasn’t afraid to try and fail. And when I knew something he didn’t (rarely happened), I’d show him. It was an awesome collaborative process. Then, one day, we had a website. I poked through the final product the day of our presentation and thought “Wow, that’s pretty awesome. How’d we do that?” It was really impressive to me that two kids, one who can’t figure out how to use a slide-rule, could design a website with nice pictures, colors, text, and whatnot. I owe most of it to my partner. His willingness to try and his not being afraid to fail really made the website. A round of applause for Shane.

Then the other students in the class also helped. I would post a problem of mine onto my blog and within a day there were two or three comments on how to fix it. Or nice words of encouragement. Either way, both were necessary. That’s what got me through the class; the students. Part of it was also competitive. Someone has a really nice website, well then lets make our better. And maybe ours wasn’t better but it was comparable. Each team, in my opinion, made my team work harder to do the best we could. But, I also learned a lot from my classmates. I don’t really know what goes on outside of Berkshire County, all  I have is the news (ew). So, hearing students present on current events and historical ones about where they’re from opens your eyes a little to the world you live in. They’re not lying to increase their ratings, they aren’t doing it to impose some political agenda on you, they just want people to know the truth. It was nice to read and learn so much about things I had no idea about. Isn’t that why we go to college in the first place? To learn more?

Then there were the professors. You’ll both get a student evaluation so I’ll keep this section short. They made the class. Their timely responses to emails, knowledge of website building, knowledge of conflict resolution, knowledge of presenting things, everything was great. Their energy and excitement at the beginning of each class. It’s what made the class, it’s what made the website building a little easier. Like, I said, this will be short. But thank you both. (P.S. I put 10/1 in one of your reviews, meant 10/10. You know who you are!)

I guess I should wrap this up. (Get it? Like a present cause it’s almost Christmas!) The class was great. I really did learn a lot. I’m surprised how much I enjoyed it, I’m not usually a fan of online courses. But this was awesome. I’m also very proud of everyone in the course with me, everyone did a stellar job and made some awesome websites. Again, thank you Shane for your dedication to the class. And thank you Professors Wallace and Welch!

Don’t think I did a post last week, so I’ll review everyone’s blogs in this post, and talk about our plans going forward.

I didn’t do much this week so I have a bit to do to keep up with Shane. Dr. Wallace and Welch’s notes and tips were very helpful so now we’ll just go through and make the proper changes. We’re planning on meeting on Tuesday to unify the website. Also by then we’re going through the whole site individually to check for spelling and grammar. I plan on combining the “Parties Involved” pages to make them just two tabs/pages instead of two tabs with multiple sub-tabs/pages. So, hopefully on Thanksgiving everyone can go through our site and check it out again. I know Shane and I would be Thankful for it!

So, the websites: (I’m doing this after Dr. Welch and Dr. Wallace gave all their feedback so I’m probably repeating a lot, but oh well! The more eyes the merrier! Maybe I’ll see something someone else didn’t.)

Note for all – Check spelling and grammar.

Rail Roads – I really like the look of the site. Nice layout and drop down menus, I didn’t notice and color problems where text can’t be read due to the colors of the page. Obviously there are a couple pages that need to be completed, no worries. The ones you  have done are looking very good. I just experienced some internet lag with some pages that have a lot of videos on them, so maybe try to put less videos on one page? Not sure if that’s possible, don’t want you to break things up too much. But there’s a lot to look at. The videos are really cool, I like the maps to look at and it really helps to visualize everything.  But I think the site is coming along really nicely. When you get all the pages filled in it should be really cool, and very informative.

Keene Pumpkin Fest – I think that a very attractive layout is very important, so I’ll sound like a broken record after I’ve told everyone that the layout of their site is really nice. You guys fall into that category. Its a good looking site with a very strong “About” page. That page alone with the picture makes me want to know what you’re trying to teach your viewers.  I also like that “Pumpkin Fest Through the Years” selection bar on the right side of the page above the calendar, just make sure that you have more than one selection on the drop down. But the pages look awesome. You have a lot of info, I love the pictures and news paper articles. Looks like a really good site. Thumbs up to you two.

Frack That – You two have had a website up and functioning longer than I think anyone, so thumbs up to you for that. It is also really nice looking, good use of colors. I always love clickable links on pages that take you to other pages, I think that’s really fun! Again, nice pictures, I love the pages of just picture links that really nice. The use of links to interviews and regulations that keeps the pages from being cluttered. The website just flows very nicely. But I really don’t have any tips to make it better. Check the use of academic vocabulary, and spelling and grammar like I stated above, but you two have an awesome site and you should be super proud!

Desegregation in Fredericksburg – I have to say, you two have some awesome information. Great pictures, awesome notes and a great bibliography. I also really like the links from one page to the next, that’s a great way to direct people through the website. But, if you could, try to spice up the colors a little. I totally get it if you don’t want to, I just think it’s a little plain, could use some color. But really there’s awesome material here, mess around with the site. You can preview layouts before you apply them so you can make sure everything formats properly. Even so, its a really nice website, love the info, the images, I’m a stickler for bibliographies and yours is superb. Like everyone else in this class, you two should be really proud of what you’ve put together.

So, I know it’s a little late to be giving everyone my notes, however, they may not be to helpful since i’m not very good at this stuff myself. Bottom line, I wanted everyone to know that the websites look awesome, I’d use any of them for my research as a history major. Really proud of the work everyone’s put in. I give everyone a round of applause. Keep it up, just a few more weeks!

Just realizes it’s been a while since I’ve posted an update for you folks.

I believe I’ve posted about the past two milestones. So since the second milestone Shane and I have just been communicating about changing the theme of the website, not so much the layout we both like the tabs at the top of the page. Trying to get some more pictures put up. Other than those things we’ve just been dividing up the work and doing our write-ups for the pages.

Nothing really new, just still chiseling away!

Milestone #2

Missed the mark a tiny bit with this milestone, sort of pulled the old switch-a-roo.

Got a lot done on the website in stead of getting most of our pages written. Got some help from my peers (you know who you are) who helped me figure out how to post timelines and maps onto the website. So, thank you very much. Shane and I have a pretty solid layout for the website. We have what we think will be all of our tabs and pages. Figuring out what we wanted to put up and where sort of helped me figure out how to structure all of my writings from here on out. Shane posted he had a little trouble doing the page write-ups and I agree with him. We really want it to flow and be readily accessible to the general public so we are trying to stay away from what feels like a research paper that we copy and pasted onto our website. So, I feel the writing will just be a little trial and error. We’ll really want some feedback from our peers and professors about how readable the website is once we have some writings put up.

Otherwise, I believe it’s coming along nicely. As far as research, Shane and I wanted a combination of primary and secondary sources around 15 to 20 and I believe we have 16 or 17. Shane’s grandmother does landscapes of Berkshire County and she’s letting us use a few to post on the website. Like I said earlier, we’ve got all of our pages laid out, just need to make the website look pretty. Otherwise, I think the website is coming along well. For this milestone we wanted to have all of our write-ups done for the pages but instead we got a lot done on the website which feels pretty good, that was really the scariest part.

Feeling good about this milestone!

This is gonna be a short post. Not much new has happened. Shane and I got together, talked about the set-up of the website a little. Spent some time looking at the website, remembered how to change the menu bars. One question for the group: How do I go about embedding (hopefully that’s the correct term) a map or a timeline into the website? Couldn’t figure it out for the blog post we had to do, should know now.

Other than that we’re just plugging away!

Milestone #1 

My largest setback was the fact that Shane took all of the books about Shay’s Rebellion out of our library. But other than that we’re both in pretty good shape. So, together we have a number of books and journal articles. Otherwise we’ve had no real setbacks. It’s been relatively easy finding sources, like I said our library had a number of good books on the rebellion. I poked around JSTOR and found quite a few journal articles; “Shays’ Rebellion: An Episode in American State-Making,” “A Sign Taken for History: Daniel Shays’ Memorial in Petersham, Massachusetts,”  “Shays’s Rebellion and Its Aftermath: A View from Springfield, Massachusetts, 1787.” That’s just to name a few. 

To split up the work for our first milestone, Shane and I decided to split up what information each of us would be looking for. He looked for sources that focused more on the effects of the rebellion while I gathered as much information about the rebellion as I could. I hoped to find a number of different sources that would provide a good basis for viewers who knew little to nothing about the rebellion. I’m hoping these sources provides us with lots of names, dates, and places so we can have a number of dates for our timelines, places for maps and people to find images of to decorate our site with.

The time Shane and I have spent together we’ve discussed our findings and it is clear that we both have good amounts of information. From the reasons the rebellion started due to a depression in 1785, a weak national government, and worthless paper currency. The battle at the Springfield Armory where half a dozen rebels were killed and the rest routed and the battle of Petersham (a place in Massachusetts I’ve never even heard of, had to look it up on a map). These led finally the implications the rebellion had on the National Convention and the writing of the Constitution. We have a number of good strong sources to flesh out all of these topics and more.

All in all, the project is coming together swimmingly. Shane hopes to head to the Springfield Armory to take some pictures. I’ll probably find mine online of people involved in the rebellion and whatnot. We have a number of resources from different years dating back to the early 1800s all the way up to 2013. We have a good grasp on the basic information and and looking forward to start working on the maps, timelines and write-ups for the website.

Another week fighting the good fight.

Milestone #1 is looking pretty good. Gathering all of our information to start getting into the nitty-gritty of the website building. In reality it’s been a pretty uneventful week. Researching, scouring the library, scouring the internet. Shane and I worked together a bit, be it in person or over good.docs. Not much else to update everyone on. Not many roadblocks, it’s been a pretty good process so far. The biggest problem Shane and I have is the fact that we live 45 minutes from each other and we both work full time. But we’re making it work. Livin’ the dream!

Hoping to start the website next week and really start getting work done on it. Hopefully everyone else is doing well on their projects.

Been a long weekend.

Shane and I spent a good couple of hours at our school’s library going over the Project Contract, the website design, how we’re going to pull this off. Made a bit of headway. It’s actually kind of interesting to see how well the two of us work together. I know that really has no bearing on what stage our project is in, but it’s important (in my opinion) for groups to work together. We tend to have the same feelings on most decisions for the website, on what’s important and unimportant, etc. It makes the project go much more smoothly.

As for the project itself, we have been spending most of our time on the contract, not to worried at the moment about other parts. First things first. Google.docs is a life saver. Since Shane and I both work full time and since I live 45 minutes from the school and him it’s a little difficult for us to get together more than a few times a week. However, we’ve made it work.

All in all, we’re trucking along. Rollin’ wheels and shiftin’ gears as one might say.

Guess I need to work on this whole “blog” thing. I’ll be honest I’m not a big computer person so remembering to do this escapes me most of the time. However, it is nice to see where everyone else is with their projects and makes me feel like my own is at the right stage.

So, along with being horrible at blogging and keeping you guys and gals up to date, I’m also pretty bad at setting up websites. Mostly because I’ve never done it before. However, I feel that Shane and I have quite a bit of useful information. We have a lot of strong sources, primary and secondary, images, figures. Lots of stuff to sort through. That will be another challenging part, sorting through it all. Of course we want people to read the website and not just look through the pretty pictures and timelines. As a history major, I find the real meat and potatoes to be in the written parts of a project and not so much in the extra-curricular aspects. But as Shane mentioned in his blog post, we’re going to struggle to make our website not just a lot of endless paragraphs on endless pages.

So, that’s why it’s nice to see what my classmates are posting about! I believe you folks will really help bring out the creativity in Shane and I. Give us some ideas about what we could do with our own website, ideas on how to structure it, so on and so forth.

Project Proposal – COPLAC Conflict in America

Professor Wallace and Professor Welch

September 21, 2017

Title:

The Rebellion to End all Rebellions

Mission/Goal of Project:

Shays’ Rebellion may be one of the most famous, or infamous, rebellions in the history of the United States. Taking place in central and western Massachusetts and lasting only several months from 1787 until 1788, it claimed no more than a few dozen lives on both sides. However, it changed the way the U.S. government would function. It brought up questions of rebellion and how the U.S. government would, or could, handle them especially when they turned violent. The resolution to the rebellion was violence, despite a few legislative actions trying in vain to end the rebellion in peace. Putting down the rebels seemed to be the only solution many leaders came to and this solution brings up questions of how to deal with rebellions, and even protests. It begs the question of how should the U.S. government deal with these problems in present day America? Should we use violence or can they be settled in a more peaceful manner? Did the changes to the US government brought on by Shays’ Rebellion truly benefit in ending future rebellions peacefully?

For starters, many people today are not sure what Shays’ Rebellion even is so the opening page for our site should have its own “who, what, when, where, why and how.” This gives the reader/viewer a background before they delve into the real meat and potatoes of the event. Off of the main page are several tabs which describe different stages in the event; the forming of the rebellion, Shays’ assault on the Springfield Armory, The Battle of Sheffield, just to name a few. Off of these pages there is a general description of what happened at the specific instance, will be more in depth information about people, places, and what sort of effects the events had.

Technical Details:

A lot of pictures and words. That is the general technical theme of any historian when trying to figure out this grand world of websites and how they should look. We plan on making use of photos of places with historical meaning, all of these important places are within driving distance for the two of us. We are both confident that our background as history majors will lend to properly laying the information we have found into proper context. Additionally, unless you know central and western Massachusetts, you’ll most likely have no idea where any of this is taking place so we intend to use the google maps to make it easy to follow where the events take place. Timelines are a perfect way to show off pictures and tidbits of information for those of us who are less adapted to reading long paragraphs about people who died a couple hundred years ago. It is very important that people know where and when this event took place. The area is very interesting and how it all unfolded was heavily impacted by the economic and social implications of the time; the number of poor rural farmers and military veterans who lived in the Massachusetts at the time was insurmountable. At this time, all the newspaper articles have been digitally transferred. With no pictures of the actual documents, we are looking into possibly finding the original copies of these papers. With the possible absence of these documents, photographs of them will only help to enhance the experience on our website.

We are going to try to lead away from the typical history website where everything comes across as dull, like you are reading a textbook. We would like to present this information as a narrative and not a website where the facts are just spewed back out and a conclusion is drawn. We would like to keep the attention of the reader by keeping the website in a narrative form that drops in primary resources we think would help immerse the read fully in our topic.