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

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

[demonbelthazor]

"A little computer you use to store notes and phone numbers, I think," Bel said. "I'm not terribly familiar with the things myself."

Re: New Toys

[grand-fallguy.livejournal.com]

Tim had seen laptops, and had finally gotten used to that. "Damn. When're those gonna start popping up?"

Re: New Toys

[demonbelthazor]

"Late 90's?" Bel guessed. "What year are you from anyway?"

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

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter smiled gratefully at Pippi. "I'd might have known this would happen the workshop before I start learning about computers."

Re: New Toys

[strongestgirl.livejournal.com]

"No worries." Pippi grinned. "My friend Annika had something kinda like this so I have a slight head start. The trick with stuff like this is to not be afraid. You may loose some information but it's not like it's gunna blow up in your hand!"

Re: New Toys

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

"Are you sure about that?" Peter asked as his made an odd whirring sound. Looking at the display, he realised that he had somehow accessed the map directory. "Oooh, neat!"

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

[strongestgirl.livejournal.com]

"Ya! C'mere!" Pippi leaned over to Anders and showed him how she got her minicomp to connect to google maps. And then opens up her email.

"This is way cooler then my laptop!"

Re: New Toys

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Whoa. Cool." Anders considered checking his email for a moment, then decided against it. He did, however, hit up Yahoo Sports to check on MLB scores and league standings. This would have no value whatsoever in an orienteering situation, of course, but you did have to keep morale up in case you were ever lost in the woods. Right?

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

[saltandammo.livejournal.com]

Dean looked up and then did a double take. "Dude, what's on your shoulder?"

Re: New Toys

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter looked resigned. "Dean, meet Barney. Barney showed up in my cabin this morning along with about eight of his friends."

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.