Page Comparison

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• Let's go outside! Scaffolded geocache activity
• Back inside: Debriefing, reviewing, discussing; what are the instructional implications? Things to address
  • Investigating our geo-locating tools. We have a 'dry' tool (the hardware) and a 'wet' tool (our brains), plus organizing frameworks (cardinal directions; equator & PM)
    • How does a GPS work?
    • How did our GPS equate with the popular usage of the term? ("I don't need a map--I have a GPS in my car") 
    • What else can a GPS do?
    • How did we orient ourselves outside? What cues did we use? 
    • Did we think in terms of N/S/E/W or Eq/PM? Did anyone make an 'airplane'?
  • Investigating the display & markup tool (Google Earth): What does that file look like? How did I make it? How can you make one yourself?
    • kml file of geocache locations
  • Extending the activity: Geospatial awareness/skills --> inquiry - -> community investigation.
    • Broughal 'sewers' unit -- view the full documentation , if you wish
    • Local history activity on Henry Noll. We've documented it via a Wikipedia entry ; see also the Lehigh "Beyond Steel " archive project
  • Remaining time: Playing with Google Earth
  • And an FYI: What we did was not geocaching, it was a scaffolded geocache. See geocaching.com for the real thing.

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Before classDuring class

• Do the reading, do a WTL post
• Fiddle around with Google Earth and AEJEE and/or My World. Your longterm goal is to get to work on your project, but your intermediate goal is to get comfy (enough) with the tools, to develop your schema of what the tools can (and can't) do and lower your cognitive load when it comes to the procedures you'll need when working on your project (e.g., loading data, arranging visualizations, do queries/analyses, saving and re-opening projects, etc.)

During class

• Anyone doing anything interesting with their GPS unit? Any interesting fiddling with Google Earth, AEJEE, or My World? It's quiet in the 'Help Me!' forum and that means that either you're getting along swimmingly or you're not digging into things.
• I want more data! Finding data online
• Instruction with GIS: Essential concept of scaffolding
• Instruction with GIS: Examples
  • Example #1 (I'll demo): Pre-Civil War census data selections in AEJEE. If you want to play along, files = states.shp / .shx / .dbf ; census_1790-1860.shp / .shx / .dbf
  • Example #2 (you'll work on this solo or in pairs): The Great Migration via My World. You'll need the project file (); note that there has been some weirdness in the past about how to get this. You may have to download it, open My World, then from inside My World do a File > Open. 
    • Question to answer in your WTL thread: Agree with, disagree with, and/or qualify the following definition: "Great Migration n. the large-scale movement of African Americans from the South to Northern cities in the early 20th Century" (Danzer, Klor de Alva, Krieger, Wilson, & Woloch, 2008, The Americans: Reconstruction to the 21st Century, p. R58)
    • Essential affordance: Screenshots! --Please include one in your WTL posting. For tips on how to do them, see the 'Help Me!' Forum.
• Assignment discussion

After class

• Reading
  • Shin, 2006
  • Edelson, Smith, & Brown, 2008
• Assignments
  • Complete proof-of-concept Google Earth markup assignment
  • Starting thinking about GIS dataset assignment
  • WTL

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