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Using ArcGIS maps and tables in PowerPoint
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…
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Perfectionism, procrastination, and an unpolished first video demo
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 every 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…
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Group learning in a GIS capstone course
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…
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GIS textbooks I have taught with
In my last post, I wrote about my search for the perfect GIS textbook and the fact that I have not yet found one (and likely never will). Today I thought I would mention some books that I particularly like – I am not pretending to give any of them a full, rigorous review, but…
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Searching for the perfect GIS textbook
If you’re reading this, chances are you are a fellow geonerd, and may have a shelf of GIS books that you have collected over the years (or maybe that’s just me). One of the great perks of my job is that, from time to time, I get free GIS textbooks sent to me from publishers…
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Testing practical GIS skills
This morning, students in my intermediate GIS course wrote their midterm test. While they were writing, I started thinking about the evaluation process and wondering about ways I could improve it. In my three lecture-oriented undergraduate courses, students are evaluated using a midterm test, a final exam, and a series of lab assignments. My traditional…
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Model GIS Curricula
I thought I would follow up yesterday’s post on ESRI technical certification and my GIS curriculum with a discussion of the UCGIS Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge project. I don’t think that ESRI is in any way intending their certification program to be a model curriculum for the entire field of GIS, but it got me…
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ESRI technical certification and my GIS curriculum
When ESRI recently announced their new Technical Certification Program, I was really interested in what they specified as required skills, particularly for their ArcGIS Desktop Associate and ArcGIS Desktop Professional designations, since those are likely to apply most directly to my students. I was impressed with the number and range of skills, and it seems…
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Learning from my alumni
Last night I had the pleasure of having a drink with a former student of mine, who is now a rising star in a large and prominent market research company. He’s a great guy, who finished university years ago, but always makes the effort to keep in touch. I hadn’t seen him in a while,…