Digimap for Schools

1. Use of digital technology to represent
the Ioliare Tragedy
Moray House
27th March 2017
Anne Robertson, EDINA, Information Services

2. HMS Iolaire
• Scottish Gov’s WWI Commemorations Panel
identified this event as one to be marked and
given extra attention
• Stornoway, Ilse of Lewis, loss of 205 local men
returning from WWI
• Remains one of the worst maritime disasters
in British waters
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3. http://digimapforschools.edina.ac.uk
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4. What you can do with Digimap for Schools
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Add photos, text, look at change over time
= create a sense of place

5. HMS Iolaire – scene setting
• Early hours of 1st January 1919, WWI had ended
two months previously
• Home leave was granted to thousands of Naval
Ratings over Christmas and New Year
• For the men of the Western Isles long journey by
train from south coast of England to Glasgow,
Stirling, Perth, Inverness then onto Kyle of
Lochalsh where two ships waiting for the men -
SS Sheila and HMS Iolaire
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6. Map based presentation of information
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8. Using place to portray an event
• Read an account – often events described
happen somewhere;
• Identify place names, land marks, physical
features, distances;
• Different scale can allow quite different
representations
– Large scale (e.g. 1:500) == small area, local detail
– Small scale (e.g. 1:250,000) == greater area
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