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Humber Arboretum
Nice spot for a walk. The sun was high so the lighting was a little harsh, but still got some decent flower shots.
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Esri Story Maps are alright!
I know that Esri story maps have been around for quite a while, but I am only finally learning how to create them now. For some reason, I was quite resistant to using them, but now that I have created a couple I have to say they could be really useful for teaching both GIS…
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Tips on getting started with teaching GIS online
I was recently contacted by someone asking for advice about developing and teaching an online GIS course. What follows is based on what I wrote in my e-mail response. I’m pretty new to this myself, having taught my first online GIS course last fall, but perhaps that’s a good thing, as the experience of going…
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Live lecture/webinar hybrid experiment
I’m currently teaching two sections of the same introductory GIS course, one face-to-face (F2F), and one online. This morning I tried a little experiment – I taught my regular F2F class in a lecture hall as usual, but I had a live webinar version of it online at the same time. It went remarkably well,…
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Teaching GIS online requires a diverse skill set
I am considering teaching an online GIS course this fall. The course proposal is currently winding its way through various approval processes and so, in the meantime, I am devising a work plan for preparing the course. I’m really excited at the prospect of teaching online, and I’m optimistic that this teaching mode can offer…
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GeoDesign as a teaching concept
I recently had the good fortune to attend a GeoDesign workshop presented by Bill Miller, who is the Director of GeoDesign Services at Esri, and one of the people credited with coining the term. It was a fascinating morning, and it was a reflection of how important this topic is becoming that Alex Miller, president…
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John Snow and serendipity
I was skimming through my Twitter stream this morning and came across a tweet from the intrepid Michael Gould (@michael_d_gould) mentioning David J. Unwin’s digital workbook “Numbers aren’t nasty: a workbook of spatial concepts“. I’m a big fan of David Unwin’s Geographic Information Analysis (co-authored with David O’Sullivan), so I downloaded the workbook (it’s free)…
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Course evaluations: valuable, unvarnished feedback
I just read through the course evaluation forms that students filled out for the courses I taught last winter. There is always a delay before instructors are allowed to see them, both to prevent any rash retribution on the part of a disgruntled professor, but also so they can first be read by the student…
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Paper maps for driving not dead yet
I was recently contacted by a Toronto Star reporter for an article she was writing about paper maps vs. GPS for navigation (Map publishers facing a rough road, Aug. 19, 2011). She was asking whether I thought people used or needed paper maps anymore and if they would still be around in five years. I…
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Engaging new GIS students with web mapping
Simultaneously published at V1 Magazine with thanks to Matt Ball, co-founder and editor, Vector1 Media. Not that long ago, I considered “web mapping” an advanced topic, best left to be taught in a senior GIS course. While that can still be the case, depending on how it is defined, the fact is that creating a map of…
