GEOG 4043/5043: Cartography 2

Lectures: MWF, 11:00-11:50 in KESDA (GUGG 6) with Ken Foote.

Labs: M 9:00-10:50 and W 9:00-10:50 in KESDA (GUGG 6) with Dan Trudeau.

Schedule (subject to change). Any changes of assignment and assignment deadlines will be announced in class and posted here.



This page contains the class schedule by week | January 16 | January 23 | January 30 | February 6 | February 13 | February 20 | February 27 | March 6 | March 13 | March 20 | March 27 (Spring Break) | April 3 | April 10 | April 17 | April 24 | May 1 |

Related pages: General Information | Lecture and Discussion Notes | Assignments | Cartography 2 Homepage | CU Geography Homepage |

January 16: Multimedia, Interactive and Web Cartography: Overview of Issues and Skills

Topics and tasks: Introduction to course. Complete final enrollment. Overview of laboratory resources, access, and use.  Practice with Internet resources. Overview of file use, transfer, conversion, compression, and decompression. Discuss problems involved in navigating the Internet. Demonstrate how to access and use on-line class materials.

Required Reading:


January 23: Principles and Processes of Cartographic Design in Hypermedia Environments.

Topics and tasks: Overview of the HTML and the basics of Web publishing. Consider principles for organizing Web pages and sites including issues of planning and design.

Required Reading:

Supplemental Reading:

January 30: Animated Maps; Java Applets; JavaScript Applications

Topics and tasks:  Temporal and non-temporal animation will be discussed from theoretical and practical perspectives.  Lectures will focus on the use of animation as a visualization tool while labs will concentrate on the many tools that can be used to produce animations in a variety of graphic formats. Learn how Java Applets and Javascript code can be incorporated into webpages.  Although we won't be writing original Java or Javascript code, many useful freeware examples can be found in the web.  You will learn how these examples can be customized to use in your pages and projects.

Required Reading:

Supplemental Reading:

 February 6: Project 2: Urbanization of Boulder and CU Campus.

Topics and tasks:  Overview of urbanization and campus mapping project.  This is an example of the interaction of technology, environment and society at a variety of scales.

Required Reading:

Further Reading:


February 13: Project 2: Developing the Data and Maps for the CU Urbanization Project

Topics and tasks: Topics and tasks: Overview the CAD files that are available for campus as well as the archival photos and maps that can be used to date change.  Select study area and plan approach to mapping and checking changes.
 
Required Reading: 

Further Reading:


February 20: Project 2: Developing the Website for the CU Urbanization Project.

Topics and tasks: Consider issues of web design for CU campus project and the challenge of showing change through time through animation or side-by-side comparisons.  

February 27: Project 3: Virtual Fieldtrips into Boulder County's Geological History.

Topics and tasks: Introduction to the topics for the third assignment.  This project involves collating geospatial and attribute data from a variety of sources.

Readings:


March 6: Project 3: Developing the Data and Maps for the Geological History Virtual Fieldtrip.

Topics and tasks: Lectures and labs will focus on gathering and collating the files and information needed for this project.  Select study area and theme.

 March 13: Project 3: Developing the Website for the Geological History Virtual Fieldtrip.

Topics and tasks: Lectures and labs will focus on the steps needed to gather and collate the information needed for these maps.

March 20: Web Site and Map Accessibility.

Topics and tasks: For people with visual, tactile, and auditory disabilities, multimedia, interactive, and web maps present barriers to accessing information. Much can be done to minimize these barriers through careful design.

Readings:


March 27: Spring Break.


April 3: Usability Testing and Project Evaluation.

Topics and tasks: Usability testing and project evaluation are methods for checking whether our designs for maps and web sites are reaching their goals. Multimedia and hypermedia are new media with strengths and weaknesses different than conventional media. We cannot assume that our good design intentions will translate into projects that will be easily comprehended by users. Instead, we must test and evaluate our projects as they are developing and in final form.

Further reading:


April 10: Backoffice Issues: File Organization, Website Maintenance, Planning for Change.

Topics and tasks: Online maps also require attention to a number of "backoffice" issues that are not always apparent on the screen. They require care in organizing files at the start of a project and continuing attention and maintenance once online. Several strategies are presented and discussed for planning and maintaining websites.

April 17: MapServer Strategies.

Topics and tasks: Consider how mapserver technology is changing the way maps and GIS functions are being made available in the Web. Consider different approaches to implementing mapserver and WebGIS techniques.

Required Reading:


April 24: Trends in Multimedia, Interactive, and Web Cartography.

Topics and tasks: The final lectures will focus on 1) The new role of the cartographer in the multimedia and web worlds; 2) Recent experiments in multimedia and interactive cartography; 3) New directions in virtual reality, hand-held, and mobile technologies; 4) Changing trends in education and training; and 5) Barriers and constraints to change .


May 1: Presentation of Final Projects.

Topics and tasks: Presentation of final projects. We will also cover how to archive and move projects from server. The schedule of presentations can be found here.

May 8 (Monday): Final Projects On-line and Documented by 1:00 pm (time of the final exam).


Last revised 2006.1.27. k.foote@colorado.edu