It’s not much of a stretch to say that most GIS instructors are likely also techies (Mirriam-Webster: “a person who is very knowledgeable or enthusiastic about technology”), myself included. It follows then, that we would also be interested in exploring the use of technology for how we teach, not just what we teach. I attended [...]
In my last post, on GIS training vs. education at university, I referred to a paper by Fagin and Wikle (2011) who had conducted a survey of GIS instructors in the U.S. regarding perceptions of the importance of various GIS subject areas. One finding that I thought deserved its own post was that “Most respondants [...]
Many undergraduate university students take GIS courses with the expectation that these courses will increase their chances of finding gainful employment upon graduation. While I believe that the GIS courses I teach can help students develop marketable skills, I think that there are sometimes differing opinions between instructor and student about what students should learn, [...]
This morning I spent 3 hours watching my students write their final exam. It’s a strange experience, as I want them all to do well, but know that some will and some won’t, for a whole host of reasons. You might think that spending 3 hours pacing around a room might be dull (and I [...]
I had my last class of the term on Tuesday and will not be teaching again until January, 2012. I have been approved for a half-sabbatical which officially starts July 1, but I am gearing up for it already. The official term is “study leave”, but most people tend to call it a sabbatical. The [...]
Every summer, I perform a self-imposed curriculum review of the five GIS courses I teach each year. I think about the topics included and their sequence, and which course they belong in. I make notes to myself throughout the year about what topics need work, what examples worked well or fell flat, or what new [...]
Simultaneously published at the ESRI Education Community Blog with thanks to Dr. Tom Baker, Education Manager, ESRI Inc. Many people working in the cross-disciplinary field of GIS education may have few co-workers in their organization that they can learn from, brainstorm ideas, or even just “talk shop”. They may be looking for ways that they [...]
I am currently in the process of re-evaluating my PowerPoint slide designs and templates that I use for my lectures. As a rough estimate, I have somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 slides spread over many files. Over the last ten years, I have used the same template for all of them, with minor modifications. In [...]
Like many technology-oriented people, I consider myself to be a bit of a perfectionist. There’s something about the crisp, exact, digital world that makes me want to fuss over pixel, every detail. To be clear, I’m not saying this in a braggy, interview way (“My worst fault? Well I guess you could say I’m a [...]
One of the courses I’m teaching this term is a senior GIS capstone course, with the simple title GIS Research Project. Students in this course are wonderful to work with. They have all taken at least three prior GIS courses, and often cartography and remote sensing courses as well. Of the approximately 160 students that [...]