Last class, I was taught how to use Neatline both individually and in a group setting. Each student independently worked on the basics of setting up a map exhibit, and then we were put into small groups to once we all understood the foundations of the tool. My favorite part of this instruction time was the group collaboration. Not only was the work of setting up an exhibit made less daunting by our combined efforts, but it was also enjoyable to witness everyone's ideas about how to make the exhibit better.
During the Neatline tutorial session, I was continuously impressed by the power of the platform. I am a visual learner, so being able to "see" the locations in Home Fire in relation to each other was helpful for me to better understand the text. I also am appreciative of graphic design having been on yearbook staffs for years, and was impressed at how easy it was to make readable, engaging, and visually-appealing projects.
In the future, I look forward to exploring Neatline even more. I am excited to use its ability to show paths, because I have noticed that many novels involve a physical journey. It would be really cool to chart a character's journey and mark waypoints with their significant moments or stops along the way. I am slightly more nervous about the possibility of making exhibits open to the public, because that seems like a lot of pressure to get everything perfect. Either way, though, I think Neatline will be able to help me strengthen my literary analysis skills and I am grateful for that.
I agree with the power Neatline has for visual learners. It can show the same story or timeline of events through a unique medium, offering an incredible new perspective. How Fire was mainly focused in Britain, so there weren't many opportunities for application—so I look forward to examining how Neatline could be used with different books.
ReplyDeleteHeather, I completely agree with what you said about being a visual learner (I wrote about that in my blog post, too). My experience with Neatline was very similar to yours as I realized the power of a platform that can lay out information in such an intuitive way. I'm excited to see how you use it in the future!
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ReplyDeleteI too think that Neatline is a great tool and I'm also excited to use it for future projects! Being able to see the locations in Home Fire on Neatline helped visualize what happened in Home Fire and where it happened, giving us a better picture of the setting and the events. My experience was a bit different than yours as I was at home, but I agree that the platform is quite intuitive. I'm excited to see how you use Neatline for future projects!
Hey Hilary! I am also a visual learner, so I can appreciate seeing information that is neatly located on a map. It sounds like I had more trouble than you with Neatline's technology. Maybe I can learn from you to see how Neatline works! I hope that your future project on Neatline will be a success!
ReplyDeleteHi Hillary, I am a visual learner as well and while I agree the timeline feature is very good for my learning, making the timelines or marking on the maps is a very inefficient process. I feel like I am doing much more work than I should be doing to mark the graphs or even just go back to the neatline project I made.
ReplyDeleteHey Heather! I am not a super big visual learner so this wasn't something that struck me as hard, but it's exciting to see your thoughts on all the potential this tool has for someone who does learn this way! I think tracking the path of a character is a super cool idea, and would definitely give a better idea of contextualizing the book. Maybe I should look into that moving forward as I often don't even really consider a story's location (even though I know I should!).
ReplyDeleteHey Heather! I loved reading your experience of Neatline, especially from a visual learner's perspective. I do think being able to "see" the locations that were continuously brought up in the book brought a whole new dimension and perspective to the book. I look forward also to seeing how Neatline can be used as we continue diving into literature from around the world.
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