Lecture on The Geographer's Craft
1. The Context of the Initiative
2. The Project Ideas
3. Progress to Date
4. Future Directions
Discipline-Specific Tools
- Cartography and Computer-Assisted Drafting
- Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry
- Spatial Statistics
- Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
General
- Communication and Collaboration
- Access to Library and Research Materials and Sources
- Publication and Dissemination
Information technologies have had dramatic effects on all of
these.
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A Generic Definition
GIS is a special-purpose digital database in which a common
spatial coordinate system is the primary means of reference.
Comprehensive GIS require methods for:
- Data input (from maps, aerial photos, satellites, surveys, and other sources)
- Data storage, retrieval, and query
- Data transformation, analysis, and modeling (including spatial statistics)
- Data reporting (maps, reports, plans)
GIS are now used extensively in government, business, and
research for a wide range of applications including environmental
resource analysis, landuse planning, locational analysis, tax appraisal,
utility and infrastructure planning, real estate analysis, marketing and
demographic analysis, habitat studies, and archeological
analysis.
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1. First Computer Techniques Courses Established in 1985
- Laboratory was created based on grants and vendor contributions
- Modest, but continuous improvements made thereafter
2. A Turning Point in 1990-91
- A major upgrade was needed to support existing functions
- A careful reassessment of direction was indicated
- Institutional support was beginning to change and demonstration projects were
possible
- An overhaul of the techniques curriculum seemed justified
3. A New Plan
- Re-think and strengthen introductory training in geographical techniques
- Methods courses should be more closely allied with overall content of the
geography curriculum, not something separate
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- Attempt to reconceptualize the role of geographical techniques in the undergraduate
curriculum by more closely integrating instruction in geographical methods with education in
geography's research traditions
- Based on a problem-solving, rather than exercise-centered approach using
interesting geographical issues and "active learning" strategies to teach "appropriate"
techniques
- Organized around a two-semester introductory course sequence, 2-3 projects per
semester
- Attempts to integrate the teaching of many computer-based techniques included
cartography, CAD, GIS, remote sensing and statistics
- Based upon the gradual conversion of course into hypermedia and multimedia
format to create an on-line electronic textbook
- Takes a broad view of how information technologies are affecting geography and
the academic environment, more than just GIS and techniques. Computer literacy implies
"computer-assisted reasoning"
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Composed of text, images, maps, motion video, and sound linked
electronically by multiples routes, chains, or trails in an open-ended, perpetually
unfinished assemblage described best in terms of links, nodes, networks, webs, and
paths. The term is synonymous with multimedia and closely related to
hypertext.
- Uses text, images, motion video, and sound to take advantage of best and most
appropriate resources, ones with which students are now familiar
- Can promote independent thought and problem-solving skills
- Enriches traditional lecture and discussion formats, does not replace them
- Is intrinsically non-linear
- Can be used to mirror non-linear, associative reasoning and thought
- Linearity can be simulated, if need, to aid navigation
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1. Software tools for hypermedia authoring
- Far easier to create and edit materials
- Can combine two and three-dimensional images, animation, and full-motion
video
2. New Capabilities
- Full-motion video from video disk, VCR, or network with many active windows
- Image capture from slides, photographs, television, VCR, video disk
- Stereo CD-quality playback, AM quality recording
3. New Resources
- On-line library resources and databases
- Interactive discussion and help
- Electronic mail and long-distance discussion
- CD-ROM dictionaries, maps, encyclopedia
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- The Geographer's Craft offered for first time in 1993-94
- New laboratory facility opened 1993-94
- Prototypes of first hypermedia modules developed and tested in 1994-95
- First complete class on network and Web becomes primary means of distributing
course materials Fall 1994
- Use of e-mail mirrors use of office hours
- Laboratory manager and support staff were hired Summer and Fall 1994
- Students respond favorably to Web modules and learn to publish their own
- Students report sense of being part of a world-wide community
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- Students were unaccustomed to problem-solving format. The idea of "research,"
however modest, created a certain level of anxiety. Some of this anxiety was justified insofar as
most students needed a tremendous amount of guidance in fundamental research skills--the use of
bibliography and library resources, weighing sources, the organization of a research report, etc.
- Increasingly, students bring more extensive fundamental skills to techniques
courses, but don't always have the flexibility that would allow them move between software
systems easily and see the connections among these systems--they find something they can use,
but don't know how to move it to where they need it
- Balancing training and education, even over two semesters, is difficult--the two
conflict at many points including the instructor's role: instructor or facilitator?
- Moving "full-scale" student research projects from start to finish should be
reserved for one or no more than two projects
- Evaluating the project as a whole is still difficult
- Hypermedia materials are time-consuming to develop and maintain
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1. More time consuming than preparing conventional course materials
- Like writing in ten dimensions rather than two
- Adding graphics, by whatever method (conversion, capture, scan, etc.)
remains far more time-consuming than conventional methods
2. Matching hardware and software remains a problem
- Hardware configurations are changing rapidly and most standards are de
facto rather than de jure. This is particularly true for graphics, video, and
audio-video
- Running hypermedia software simultaneously with application software
remains difficult
- Mosaic and the Worldwide Web allows one to avoid many of these problems
3. Authoring is a constant compromise between pedagogical aims and software
reality
- Must divide material into "smallest thematic unit," a very fine-grained outline is a
necessity
- Requires managing hundreds or thousands of files: books, pages, images,
videos
- Navigation and disorientation remain a problem
4. Copyright issues remain a problem
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1. Completion and Improvement of the Geographer's Craft
2. Placing More Courses On-line
3. The Virtual
Department Project
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