Leadership and Outdoorsmanship, The Preserve, Thursday Morning

[harringtongreen.livejournal.com]

In the same clearing as last week, Honor stood at a folding camp table, leant over a map. To her right, a small, portable GPS device could be seen; to her left, two different compasses – one military issue, the other a simple device built into a short ruler, designed for orienteering. Several minicomps were lined up along the front edge of the table, enough for each student in the workshop.

On the other side of the clearing, the two large carafes have been set up again – coffee and hot chocolate – though some water in a closed, insulated pitcher has been added as well. It seemed that Mac decided the mornings were too warm for coffee alone.

Nimitz was stalking around the outskirts of the clearing. With his head lowered and eyes alert toward the trees, it was pretty clear he had staked out his playmates for the day.

Honor tossed a glance his way, then looked up as students began to arrive. "Good
morning," she said. A taut smile crossed her lips, not quite reaching her eyes. "I hope each of you had a relaxing weekend...in the air conditioning.

"Today, we’re going to go over the basics of map reading, using a compass, and orienteering. If each one of you would grab a minicomp, you’ll find that there are uploaded documents and programs to help you with this section of the workshop. I’ve also been able to install a GPS program – global positioning system program – to assist you as well. The minicomps are for you to keep until the end of the workshop; I ask that you return them in the same condition they were issued."

She waited a few moments until each student had taken a minicomp, then watched as they attempted to power them up and pull up the various programs. "They work on the same principle as the Palm Pilots or the Pocket PCs, though they’re a little more powerful. You can use your fingers on the touch screen, but if accuracy is an issue, I’d recommend the stylus."

The taut smile returned as she waited another few moments for the students to complete their exploration of the new toys. Finally, with time ticking away, she drew attention back to herself. "If you’ll find the directory of maps, you should find one marked ‘Alexandria_topographic’ with yesterday’s date. Please pull that map up..."

Honor spent the remaining class time reviewing how to read a topographic map; an overview of how to read a basic compass and a lensatic (military) compass; and basic orienteering skills and symbols. Interactive quizzes over the symbols and the map skills were included on the minicomps.

Those students tinkering further with the minicomps might also find access to the internet, and links to mapping websites and a local orienteering club for further reference.


"And with that," she said, finally, "I think I’ve overloaded you quite enough. You’ll be receiving instructions later in the week regarding next week’s location.

"Dismissed."

Comments

Sign In

[harringtongreen.livejournal.com]

...

Re: Sign In

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter Pevensie.

Re: Sign In

[demonbelthazor]

Belthazor

New Toys

[harringtongreen.livejournal.com]

Each person has their own learning curve... share what you find!

Re: New Toys

[demonbelthazor]

Bel fiddles with his minicomp, wondering if it could map the Underworld.

Re: New Toys

[grand-fallguy.livejournal.com]

Tim, not the most computer saavy guy to begin with (he could use word perfect and play number munchers at school), was at first at a loss with the minicomp.

"The hell's a palm pilot?" he muttered.

Re: New Toys

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter, having never used a real computer, took a very, very long time before he started to figure out the logic of this one.

Re: New Toys

[strongestgirl.livejournal.com]

"You just touch the thing you want to look at." Pippi offered.

Re: New Toys

[strongestgirl.livejournal.com]

Pippi is happily fiddling with her minicomp.

"Ohhh! Internet!"

Re: New Toys

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Dude!" Anders looked over. "You can get online from these things?"

Re: New Toys

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders had fiddled with the Palm Pilot that he'd gotten from Bridge for Christmas often enough that he wasn't hopelessly lost when it came to the minicomp's screen. He was, however, somewhat disappointed that it didn't dispense jujubes.

Re: New Toys

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

Peter played with his minicomp for a little bit, comparing it to the GPS tracking unit he was working on in Computers yesterday. This was way more advanced than his work, obviously, but he made note of things he could reasonably work into his own GPS unit.

If he could get his own GPS unit to work properly to begin with, that is.

Re: New Toys

[saltandammo.livejournal.com]

Dean played with the minicomp, calling up all the maps and finding the way to connect to the internet. Oh yeah, he was going to have fun with this.

Idly, he wondered if there was a way to add an EMF tracker to it.

Re: New Toys

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter nodded at Dean as he played with his own minicomp. The gnome that was sitting on his shoulder, fussing with his hair, waved.

"Someday, this thing will even make sense," Peter said with a grin.

Re: New Toys

[conathon.livejournal.com]

Sawyer was used to using this stuff and he just stared at the crap she'd given them. This was going to be quite easy, all thanks to Daddy taking him hiking an d camping for days on end when he was younger.

Re: New Toys

[threeweapons.livejournal.com]

Alanna had not trouble reading a normal map. Alanna had some serious trouble with new technology. "Hit that." Faithful pointed out every few minutes. Juding by Alanna's scowl, it wasn't helping.

Re: New Toys

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

Pip flipped through the mini-comp features with interest.

Coooooooool.

Re: New Toys

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

Ooh shiney.

Whilst she wasn't exactly an expert with technology, Elizabeth could figure out how to use the minicomp pretty quickly.

Afterwards

[harringtongreen.livejournal.com]

Honor took a few minutes after class to pack up her things. If anyone needed to talk to her, she probably wouldn't mind the interruption... even if she does seem a bit distracted.

Re: Afterwards

[strongestgirl.livejournal.com]

"Professor Harrington? Do we need to plug these in or something? To recharge them?"

Re: Afterwards

[harringtongreen.livejournal.com]

She looked up, seeing Pippi standing before her with the minicomp. A smile crossed her lips, despite her preoccupied mood. Honor was, of course, concerned about sharing technology; Andrew had been less than thrilled. Distributing the minicomps, however, was a way to assure that each of the students had the same basic ground to build on. Not unlike when the school systems began issuing laptops, she thought.

"Actually, the charge on them should last you to the end of term. If you have any problems, though, let me know. I should have some spare power cells at home."

If anyone wanted to keep them at the end of term, something else would have to be worked out. Maybe she could find someone to actually build replacement cells? That, however, would be something she could deal with later -- if the situation arose.

Re: Afterwards

[grand-fallguy.livejournal.com]

"Will we be provided compasses next time or should we buy or make one ourselves?"

Re: Afterwards

[harringtongreen.livejournal.com]

Honor looked over the table, then closed her eyes, shaking her head. No, this was definitely not her day. "My apologies," she said. She handed over a lensatic compass from a box under the table. "These were supposed to go out as well."

Her smile was definitely rueful in nature. "Thanks for reminding me."

OOC

[harringtongreen.livejournal.com]

Links busted? Information overload? Find a really good cup of coffee in the DC metro?

Re: OOC

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Do we get to keep the computers? :)