The Scout Report -- Volume 24, Number 33

For researchers, instructors, and others interested in the history of U.S. immigration, the Digital Public Library of America offers this rich collection of digitized resources (including photographs, documents, letters, newspaper clippings, and much more) related to the topic. This collection was curated by Andrea Ledesma and includes dozens of items from heritage and memory institutions, including the University of Minnesota's Immigration History Research Center, the National Museum of American History, the New York Public Library, the Los Angeles Public Library, and many others. Visitors can browse these items by eight thematic categories. For instance, in the Coming to America section, visitors will find a number of items that document immigrants' experiences and obstacles upon arrival to the US. These items include a 1847 book by Fredrich Pauer that "[describes] Texas and the United States for people interested in emigrating from Germany" and an oral history interview with Mustafa Jumale, who, along with his family, immigrated to the U.S. as a small child in the early 1990s due to civil war in Somalia. Other categories include Becoming an American, Discrimination and Reform, and Immigration Since 1965. [MMB]

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Bibliophiles and scholars of cultural history may be interested in The French Book Trade in Enlightenment Europe (FBTEE), an innovative digital humanities project that uses quantitative methods to study eighteenth-century culture by "track[ing] the movement of around 400,000 copies of 4,000 books across Europe" from 1769 to 1794. In particular, FBTEE focuses on the Societe Typographique de Neuchatel, a Swiss publishing house that many scholars regard as being representative of the late-Enlightenment book trade due to their book sales from numerous publishers (along with their own publications) to clients throughout Europe. It is designed to be a user-friendly resource for scholars and students, and visitors will find a wealth of information, including suggested uses and tutorials for its database, as well as a link to the project's blog for a behind-the-scenes perspective. FBTEE began in 2004 under the direction of Simon Burrows, Professor of History at Western Sydney University (Australia). The project was named the Best Digital Resource for 2017 by the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and as of this writing, it has produced two books and multiple academic articles. [JDC]

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SciRev is a resource for academic researchers of all disciplines that allows researchers to share their experiences of submitting articles to peer-reviewed journals. This online platform is headed by Jeroen Smits, an economics professor at Radboud University in the Netherlands and Janine Huisman, an economist at the Centre for International Development Issues Nijmegen. On SciRev, researchers may submit a review of their experiences with a particular journal (after completing a free registration). Here, researchers can share how long the peer review process took and rate the number, quality, and difficulty of peer review reports they received. Other researchers may then search these journal reviews by journal or by discipline. In addition, researchers will find information about the typical length of the peer review process in a variety of disciplines in the statistics section. These statistics come from a 2017 research paper on the topic authored by Huisman and Smits. [MMB]

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For fans and scholars of Edmund Spenser, Centering Spenser: A Digital Resource for Kilcolman Castle has much to offer. This project presents an analysis and reconstruction of the poet's life and experiences at Kilcolman Castle, the now-ruined estate in Ireland where Spenser is believed to have written large parts of his masterpiece The Faerie Queene. One of the many features visitors to Centering Spenser will find is a 3D digital recreation of the Kilcolman Castle complex, which includes interactive and virtual tours, detailed contextual descriptions of objects and structures in the estate, and cross-sectional diagrams of the castle's layout. These reconstructions are based on archaeological evidence as well as the extant ruins and they are accompanied by textual explanations intended to "suggest ways that knowledge of Spenser's material world might help inform our understanding of his creative work." Centering Spenser also includes a timeline of Spenser's life, essays on the historical context of Spenser's activities in Ireland, sample teaching assignments based on two of Spenser's sonnets, multiple bibliographies, and links to many other resources. Centering Spenser launched in 2014 and was directed and written by Thomas Herron, Professor of English at East Carolina University. [JDC]

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Educators in many disciplines may be interested in Developing Evidence-Based Arguments from Texts, a strategy guide from ReadWriteThink. Constructing a logical and well-supported argument is one of the fundamental skills needed to write a successful paper and it is something that many students struggle with when learning how to write. This strategy guide is intended for use with students in grades 6-12, but instructors and teaching assistants at the undergraduate level may also find helpful teaching tips here. It includes multiple suggestions for explaining the difference between argument and persuasion, as well as downloadable handouts, links to sample essays for illustration, and links to related ReadWriteThink resources. This strategy guide was published by the National Council of Teachers of English and authored by Scott Filkins, a high school English and math teacher in Champaign, Illinois. [JDC]

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Financial literacy is an important topic that many feel is not given enough attention. To help combat this, the Australian government has produced MoneySmart: Teaching Resources. Here, readers will find a plethora of free lesson plans, digital activities, and other educational resources created for teachers, parents, children, and young adults. These resources can be browsed by year level, by learning area (e.g. science, the arts, digital technologies, etc.), or by focus (e.g. budgeting, young adults, sustainability, etc.). While all of these resources are designed to correspond to the Australian Curriculum, many of their underlying principles and concepts can also be helpful to learners outside of Australia. MoneySmart is run by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (an independent government body). In addition to its teaching resources, the entire website offers useful consumer and financial literacy information for audiences of all ages. [JDC]

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North America's Great Lakes region has been an important shipping and transportation route for centuries. With the archival resource Historical Collections of the Great Lakes (HCGL), Bowling Green State University Libraries provides access to a number of primary source documents relating to the Great Lakes. Here, interested readers will find databases for Great Lakes vessels, ports, and people, all of which can be searched and browsed to yield a wide range of historical information dating from as early as the eighteenth century up through our current decade. For example, by selecting Cleveland in the ports database, nearly 150 online images of vessels, shipyards, lighthouses, and other structures in and near that port are displayed. Searching the vessels database for the Eastland (of Chicago's infamous Eastland disaster) brings up the ship's official registry number, physical measurements, vessel history, and a photograph. While the HGCL's eye-poppingly orange design may initially be somewhat off-putting, its content makes up for the resource's aesthetics and those interested in Great Lakes maritime history should pay it a visit. [JDC]

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For 64 years, one of the world's largest rubber plantations was operated in Liberia by the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company. In 1926, just after Firestone had gained permission for their plantation, the company sent a team of Harvard scientists and medical doctors on a four-month survey of the West African country's interior. A Liberian Journey is a public history resource intended to "inform, raise questions, and elicit stories about [this] transformational moment in Liberia's past." Visitors to A Liberian Journey will find a fascinating collection of photos, archival film footage, diaries, and letters documenting the survey team's experiences. This resource also features oral histories, an interactive map, and a digital exhibit focused on Chief Suah Koko, the Liberian woman who held a prominent leadership role during the Firestone survey (a rarity for her time). Led collaboratively between the Liberian Center for National Documents and Records Agency and Gregg Mitman, Professor of History of Science, Medical History, and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (with contributions from several other institutions), A Liberian Journey is a valuable resource that will appeal to anyone interested in West African colonial history. [JDC]

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Tracking Cuckoos to Africa... and Back Again is a project by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) dedicated to tracking the migration patterns of cuckoos with the aid of satellite tags. Phil Atkinson, head of International Research at the BTO, notes that the cuckoo population of the United Kingdom has been cut in half over the past twenty-five years. In order to gain more information about why the cuckoo population has declined, the BTO recognized that it needed to better understand these birds' annual migration patterns. On this website, visitors can learn more about the fourteen cuckoos that are currently being tracked as part of this project and view the migration routes of all the cuckoos that have been tracked since 2011. To the initial surprise of the research team, tracked cuckoos have taken dispersed routes to their winter destination, the Congo Basin. Visitors interested in following this project may want to start by watching a short introductory video, which is available via the "Read more about the project" link on the homepage. [MMB]

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Visitors to the Naonaiyaotit Traditional Knowledge Project Atlas (NTKP) will be treated to a wealth of Inuit knowledge about Canada's Nunavut territory, accompanied by maps, images, and videos. Readers will find copious First Nations wisdom organized into categories, including traditional place names, Inuit values and way of life, and knowledge and stories of numerous wildlife species. This highly visual resource is built on Esri's Story Maps platform. As viewers scroll through the rich narrative texts in each category, accompanying images and colorful maps appear alongside to illustrate each passage, creating an interactive experience. For example, scrolling through the "Caribou" category reveals an overview of the caribou's significance to the Inuit with a color-coded map of the region's three main caribou herds, a map showing caribou migration paths alongside a narrative of the Inuits' seasonal interactions with the herds, descriptions of caribou habitats and life histories with accompanying maps and images, and much more. NTKP is a collaborative project between the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, Dominion Diamond Mines, Dalhousie University, and Esri Canada. The project's name, Naonaiyaotit, roughly translates to "seeking knowledge in an attempt to understand," and this intent is reflected clearly in this valuable resource. [JDC]

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Fans of long-form journalism may appreciate The Guardian's ever-growing collection of Audio Long Reads, which feature in-depth essays read by voice actors. Each Audio Long Read is selected from the newspaper's long-read articles, which feature examinations of a wide range of topics and issues penned by journalists, academics, and others. For instance, in one recent episode, actress Lucy Scott reads Jacob Mikanowski's "Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is taking over the planet." In this essay, Mikanowski examines how English has spread around the globe and influenced other languages. In another recent episode, Christopher Ragland reads Samanth Subramanian's recent essay about art forgery and the work of "forgery detective" James Martin. Each Audio Long Read is approximately 30- 40 minutes in length and new audio long reads are released roughly twice a week. Interested listeners can check out the podcast and can listen via the link above. Alternatively, listeners can subscribe on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. [MMB]

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Those who dream of traveling to another planet or are just fascinated by astronomy will want to check out Space Exploration, a project from Google Arts & Culture. Here, readers will find a curated collection of narratives, images, and online exhibits related to the history of space exploration. Visitors can explore the International Space Station via Google Street View and view stories and photographs of past astronauts and cosmonauts such as John Glenn and Svetlana Savitskaya. They can also learn about the development of air and space travel going all the way back to Galileo, view a gallery of stunning deep space images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, and see several short film clips representing different eras of space exploration. This project was created in collaboration between air and space museums in five different countries, giving it a multi-faceted perspective on this culturally significant topic. [JDC]

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For those interested in information on wildfires in the United States, Esri Story Maps offers an intuitive and user-friendly visualization. Here, readers will find an interactive map showing all the active wildfires in the US (including Alaska and Hawaii), with each fire represented by a glowing flame-like symbol sized in proportion to the amount of acreage affected. Users can click on each fire to learn its name, start date, magnitude, and containment status, and also to find links that will search Google News, Twitter, or Facebook for content mentioning that fire by name. Visitors can also see a list of all the fires visible on the map, with the option to choose between viewing them by age or by size, and a toggle box offers up to a 24-hour animated smoke forecast shown in 1-hour increments. It should be noted that while this map is relatively current, there may be a gap of a few days between fire updates. This map was created in 2018 by Esri staff John Nelson and Jinnan Zhang. The data for the fires comes from GeoMAC, a "multi-agency coordination" hosted by the US Geological Survey, while the smoke forecasts come from the National Weather Service. [JDC]

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New Orleans aficionados, visitors, and residents may enjoy MediaNOLA - a digital humanities project directed by Vicki Mayer, Professor of Communication at Tulane University. The centerpiece of MediaNOLA is the interactive map on its homepage, where viewers can narrow the map's results by searching via keyword or by selecting a number of parameters from various cultural history and geography categories (with the additional option of narrowing searches by time period). Examples include cultural landscapes (e.g. French Quarter, Treme), live performance and public culture (e.g. coffee houses, music clubs), and cultural policy (e.g. educational policy, civil rights policy). Many, though not all, of the map's pins lead to pages with additional information. Readers can also explore MediaNOLA through the "discover" tab, which they may find quicker than the map for finding content. Launched in 2009, MediaNOLA was conceived as "both a destination website and a [pedagogical] tool for writing and mapping history" and features curated written content produced by New Orleans community members and students of Tulane University. [JDC]

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From the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum comes The Brilliant Line: Following the Early Modern Engraver (1480-1650), an interactive web exhibit created to complement the museum's 2009-2010 exhibition by the same name. Nominated for a 2010 Webby Award for Best Art, The Brilliant Line focuses on the work of Renaissance and Baroque engravers - artists whose intricate creations were "composed entirely of lines." This exhibit demonstrates the analysis of RISD printmaking professor Andrew Raftery, who looked at "how Early Modern engravers [...] used carefully ordered systems of marks to create their images." Viewers can explore the details of eight different engravings by artists such as Albrecht Durer and Magdalena van de Passe to learn how techniques evolved over time--for each engraving, an "analyze lines" button leads to an interactive demonstration of the multi-layered process used to create it. This project also includes a map showing the location and year that each piece was created, as well as a video of Raftery demonstrating the engraving process. It should be noted that this resource requires Adobe Flash and is not suited for viewing on mobile devices. [JDC]

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ProtonVPN is a virtual private network service produced by the company that runs the ProtonMail high-security email service. ProtonVPN is similarly designed to be a high-security VPN suitable for journalists and political activists. The service exclusively uses ciphers designed for Perfect Forward Secrecy, which means that a compromised encryption key cannot be used to decrypt past sessions. ProtonVPN's parent company is based in Switzerland, a country with famously strict privacy laws. Switzerland is not a member of either the five eyes or the fourteen eyes global surveillance networks. ProtonVPN also includes a kill switch feature that will disable internet service entirely when the VPN connection unexpectedly drops. Many other VPN systems react to a connection drop as if it were a deliberate shutdown of the VPN and begin sending traffic over the regular internet. ProtonVPN's free tier allows access from a single device from up to 3 countries. Paid plans offer more devices and higher speeds. Client software is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux computers as well as Android and iOS mobile devices. [CRH]

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Vimium is a browser extension that enables mouseless use of a web browser. Using a set of keyboard bindings similar to the venerable vi editor, users can navigate pages, control tabs, manipulate history and bookmarks, and follow links. For example, to follow a link on a page a user can press "f." Vimium will then label every clickable element on the page with a 1-2 letter hint, which can be entered to perform a click on a corresponding element. A list of keybindings is provided on the Vimium homepage, along with a brief video tutorial demonstrating the extension's features. Vimium is free software, distributed under the MIT license, with source code available on Github. Vimium for Chrome can be found in the Chrome Extensions Gallery. Vimium for Firefox can be found on addons.mozilla.org as Vimium-FF. [CRH]

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Originally featured in 09-30-2016 Scout Report, the Global Math Department has continued to add content and recently announced that their newsletter is back for the 2018-2019 school year.

The Global Math Department is an informal network of mathematics instructors who met online (many blog about their instructional techniques and are active on Twitter) and decided to create a series of free, open webinars designed for use by other instructors. These webinars cover topics such as coding in math class and teaching students to make mathematical connects. Instructors can participate in live webinars each Tuesday evening at 9:00 PM EST; alternatively, anyone may view recordings of all past webinars on this website. To learn about upcoming webinars, one can check out the website's calendar. The Global Math Department also publishes a weekly online newsletter that highlights articles related to math instruction and features digital tools that can be used in the classroom. In addition to curriculum and instruction ideas, there are also many tips about blogging and using Twitter on this website.

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