Villagers Will Visit Trails From Home Computers

Jessieville EAST students help map and record where plots are located at Shiloh Cemetery. From left, Jessica Buford records the tombstone's information, Marina Sweeten photographs the plot, Austin Araco documents the work, and Joseph Herrington and Paige Williford look at the cemetery's map. (Holly Dasté photo) Hot Springs Village trail enthusiasts or home-bound seniors will appreciate the work being done this summer by Jessieville High School's environmental and spatial technology students.
Jessieville's EAST program, under the guidance of facilitator DeAnn Bliss, was awarded $10,000 to fund two EAST Integration and Community Enhancement projects.
One project, "Following the Trail," includes making virtual reality tours of three of the more-popular Village trails.
Students Austin Araco, Hunter Griffin, Caci Herron, Matthew Trostel and Michelle Trostel have used global positioning system devices as well as advanced software to create virtual tours combining panoramas, pictures, video, audio and objects in 3D.

Jessieville EAST students are creating virtual reality tours of some Hot Springs Village trails. From left, Hunter Griffin plots the site on a GPS device, Austin Araco documents the work, and Caci Herron photographs the trail view. (Holly Dasté photo) The virtual tours can then be placed on a digital trail map, where viewers can click on a certain area of the map and get a 360-degree view of the trail from that spot.
The students are creating tours of the Cedar Creek Nature, DeSoto Multipurpose and Hernando trails, which will be available to view at www.jvilleeast.org/ hsv_trails upon the project's completion.
It is hoped that the tours will also be available at http://www.hsvpoa.org/.
The second project Jessieville EAST students are completing under the EICP grant funds is Shiloh Cemetery on Highway 7, just north of Home Plate.
Again using GPS devices and virtual-reality-tour software, students Jessica Buford, Joseph Herrington, Marina Sweeten and Paige Williford are plotting where each tombstone is located at Shiloh, a cemetery that is not organized in definable columns or rows.

Jessieville EAST student Michelle Trostel photographs a Village trail view as part of the virtual reality tour. The idea is to help visitors quickly find a headstone without having to walk through the entire cemetery.
Using CemEditor, a specialized software program, the students collect data and photos of each tombstone.
After plotting Shiloh, EAST students will help other local cemeteries, such as Rock Springs, Green and Mountain Valley, create detailed maps and information for its visitors.
The EAST Initiative is an educational model that is engaging students in sophisticated service-learning projects that involve relevant teamwork and cutting edge technology.
The EICP program leverages EAST program capabilities with community needs outside of the traditional school day.
"The EICP program is a wonderful extension of the non-traditional learning opportunities that the EAST program offers more than 13,000 Arkansas students throughout the school year," said EAST president Matt Dozier.
"The students spend up to six weeks of their summer focusing on a project within their community, honing their problem-solving skills and sharpening other skills such as leadership, teamwork, marketing and their understanding of technology.
"It's almost like getting a full year of EAST crunched in to a smaller time frame, and it serves as a tremendous launching pad for larger projects and the students' ongoing relationship with their communities."