(This was the final assignment of Jim Casey’s Fall 2013 honors course at the University of Delaware, “Rewriting New York City.”)
In this last assignment of the semester, you will translate the argument and evidence used in your research paper into a walking tour.
Tour guide: A walking tour guides the sensory experience of an audience according to a particular theme. Use your map to produce the spaces that you want your audience to experience. Think creatively about the kinds of specific clues and signposts that you can provide for your audience to spotlight spaces in the city. What should their perspective be? Is it worth going to the top of the Empire State Building or does your tour help us see the foot traffic on 5th Ave as more interesting? If someone visits a particular place, what should they do? What should they eat, listen to, or touch?
Sales pitch: Establish why someone should take your tour with a brief introductory sales pitch. Begin by telling your audience what compelling questions or issues you will explore. These should echo the research question that you used in the research paper. Then, share some of the conceptual issues and ideas that helped you answer these questions. What curiosities and knowledge do you want your audience to have after the tour? Don’t forget a time estimate.
Text: The map should be filled out with the language that you polished during the research paper. Of course, this is a different setting and you will need to adapt the language to fit for length and interest. Experiment with different amounts of text. What gets too busy? When can you add more? Can you embed hyperlinks as a shorthand for certain types of content?
Technology: I will not evaluate the maps for the success of their use of the mapping tools, but I will account for the effort given to achieving a successful product. When you are building the tour map, you should embed some kind of multimedia with every stop. Embedding images, videos, songs, sound, or other types of media can greatly enhance the substance of your walking tour.
Itinerary: The map should give a walking itinerary of at least 8 stops. If the audience needs to take a subway, taxi, or Citibike, give them explicit instructions (e.g. Board the ACE train at Chambers Street and get off at West 23rd St.).
Copyright: Because these maps will be online, you cannot simply take media that is copyrighted. If you need to find images, consider using the Flickr search for “Creative Commons” images: flickr.com/creativecommons/.
Opt-out: You are not required to post your name and work online. If you would prefer not to share your work, then please speak with the instructor to make arrangements.
Example: http://storymaps.esri.com/stories/highline/
Draft #1: Nov. 25 Final draft: Dec. 4, due by e-mail to jccasey@udel.edu
ArcGIS Story Maps Instructions
This sign means click: >
Accessing the site:
- Login in arcgis.com
- Username: [DELETED]
- > My Content
Creating your map:
- > Create Map
- After the map loads, click Save.
- Give the map a catchy title, and include your first and last name in the title.
- > Save Map
- > Share
- Check boxes > Everyone (public) and > University of Delaware
- > Make a web application
- Go to the second page of templates to find “Map Tour” in the top left.
- > Public, and in the dropdown menu > Publish
- Enter the same title as your map, and include your first and last name in the title.
- > Save and Publish
- > Go to the item now
Building your map:
- Open > View Application
- Download the CSV template.
- Replace the appropriate boxes to fill in your content.
- Save the file.
- Referenced in a CSV
- Upload the CSV file.
From there you can edit using the basic interface on the website.
ArcGIS has no automatic save. Save often!