ES - TLT 394, Summer 2011 - Course record

Owned by Tom Hammond
Last updated: Jun 27, 2011Version comment
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Session 1 - Wednesday, 25 May

Before class

  • If you can, take a look at the syllabus and course map. I'll have printed copies of the syllabus in class, so no need to print it out for yourself.

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping
    • Introductions
    • Name
    • Program
    • What you want to be doing in 5 years
    • One thing you hope to get out of this course
    • One previous personal / extra-curricular experience with geospatial tools, and one professional / academic experience with geospatial tools, if any.
    •  
  • Tour of infrastructure: software, wiki, CourseSite
    • Course meeting days...does anyone want to change the time?
    • Writing-to-learn (WTL), getting started
      • Log into CourseSite, enter class forum, start your thread with the specified prompts
    • Review of assignments / expectations
    • Check back
  • Conceptual work: Topics to be addressed
  • Check-back
  • Closure

After class

Session 2 - Wednesday, 1 June

Before class

  • Do the reading (above), do WTL. If you don't know what else to write about, write about your brainstorming for assignment/project topics.
  • If you haven't already, please update your Profile in CourseSite to include a photo.

During class (ppt )

  • Let's go outside! Scaffolded geocache activity & marking a second of latitude and longitude
    • Scaffolded geocache target sheet (Iacocca Hall)
    • Second of latitude and longitude coordinates (Iacocca Hall)
  • 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?
    • 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
      • Trees, cars, and carbon activity at William Penn Elementary -- view relevant links here.
    • 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.

After class

  • Reading: Bodzin, Hammond, Carr, & Calario, 2009; Hammond & Bodzin, 2009; Bodzin, 2008
  • Assignments:
    • Complete the three sketchmaps
    • Start your WTL thread!
    • If you haven't already, download and try out AEJEE and MyWorld--URLs are in syllabus and in the class bookmarks list

Session 3 - Friday, 3 June

Before class

  • Complete reading; download and try out AEJEE and My World (links above); do some WTL
  • Read and respond to a classmate's assignment ideas in their WTL thread.

During class (ppt )

  • Housekeeping
    • Everyone is launched in CourseSite -- don't forget to keep up with WTL
    • How is everyone for software?
      • Google Earth
      • AEJEE
      • My World (using trial download)
  • Opening discussion of assignments: What do you have in mind for your Google Earth assignment?
  • Conceptual work: Getting started in Google Earth, AEJEE, and My World
    • Organizing framework for geospatial tools: LINIQES: Load, interface, navigate, inspect, query, edit, save
    • Google Earth
      • Load
        • Mix of client-side and server-side data.
        • Satellite imagery: What are we looking at? Mix of current and dated material (see imagery date in lower left); it's only as good as "they" let you have (e.g., contrast One Observatory Circle vs. 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW)
        • Layers -- my recommendation is to turn OFF as much as possible. But I do like leaving 3-D buildings on...sometimes turns up fun surprises (for example, Amsterdam!).
        • File > Open to load a .kml or a .kmz. For our demo, we'll use this file that I created for TLT 406. It's interesting b/c it has points, lines, associated images, etc.
      • Interface
        • Sidebar vs. display area vs. toolbar
        • Sidebar on and off
        • Navigation tools on, off, or auto
        • Sidebar fields: Search, My Places, Layers
      • Navigate
        • Search box, or
        • Double-click on an item in a list (Search or My Places)
        • Double-click on any point on the globe to go there.
        • Navigation tools: Tilt/pan, move NSEW, zoom in/out
      • Inspect
        • Single-click to open up info box.
        • Right-click and select "Properties" or "Get Info" -- gives more access to point/line/polygon data (e.g., lat/lon, URL of any imported images). More importantly, you can EDIT items in this mode (see below)
      • Query
        • Actually, not much we can do here beyond typing in search terms.
        • Some of the other tools are handy--use the ruler to measure, use the time-of-day feature to look at shadows, historical imagery to see earlier images, and the newest Easter egg that I've found: Show elevation profile (draw a path and right-click it!)
        • (And of course Google Earth is not just Earth -- View > Explore gives you options of Earth, Sky, Moon, and Mars!)
      • Edit
        • Add something new: either
          • Search for it and then drag it into My Places and work on it, or
          • Click on Add Placemark, Add Polygon, or Add Path.
        • Editing something once it's been created: Open up Properties (or Info) and modify.
      • Save
        • For our purposes: Right-click the item, folder, or file name and "Save Place As"
        • You can also
          • Save out snapshopts
          • Record a tour
          • Move into Google Maps
    • AEJEE - Note that this runs on Java, so it requires a Java Runtime Environment...and some patience.
      • Load
        • All client-side data. We'll start by loading a blend of demo, downloaded, and self-generated data.
          • Loading demo data: File > open > us_hd.axl. (In case you need to browse to this: The file path is ESRI\AEJEE\Data.) What you're looking at: spreadsheets rendered visually. But we'll get to this in "Inspect"
      • Interface
        • Similar to Google Earth: tools across the top, left-hand layers, main area = display
        • Note importance of layers
          • Turn on/off
          • Re-order (e.g., pull cities layer down in the stack)
      • Navigate: Move about the map in at least three ways
        • Drag the map around
        • Zoom in/out
        • Zoom to full extent or active layer
        • BEWARE getting zoomed in or out too far -- correct using "Zoom to" tools (select layer and then zoom to it)
      • Inspect
        • Identify tool ('i') -- can be hard to use unless you're properly zoomed in.
        • Finder (Binoculars)
          • Try looking in the 'cities' layer for 'Denver'
          • Repeat this for 'San' -- select all the results and look at them on the map. What was expected? What was a surprise?
      • Query
        • Query-builder: Try POP_CLASS = 10. Repeat with POP_CLASS = 9, POP_CLASS >= 9
        • Table of results and displays on map.
      • Edit
        • Modify visuals
          • Right-click cities and select 'Properties'
          • Code cities by POP_CLASS, all one size, use color to differentiate ranks (e.g., red for highest rank -- largest cities -- and green for lowest rank)
          • Right-click states and select 'Properties'
          • Bring up 'Labels' tab and select STATE_NAME
        • Modify data -- all done in spreadsheet editor
          • Add new fields to existing layers: add a column, don't make the new column name more than 10 characters! Save as tab-delimited text
          • Creating new layers: MUST edit outside of AEJEE, bring it in.
            • Can add point data fairly easily -- just give it a lat and a lon
            • Adding lines or polygons is much trickier. Take a look at the demo files of 10grid_hd.axl and 10gridpn_hd.axl to get a sense of this.
      • Save
        • Saves out as ArcXML (axl) files; viewable in Arc products.
        • HOWEVER: Note that each project file is pretty tiny (just a couple kilobytes) -- they're referencing the REAL data sources, down in the data folders. So if you're trying to move data around, move both the project file and the data sources.
    • Transitioning from AEJEE to My World: Just to demo the limitations of AEJEE, let's load some non-demo data
      • Here are files with the streets for our immediate surroundings. Note that part of the challenge in using AEJEE is just file management....
      • WHAT TO DO WITH THESE FILES
        • Download them all to the same folder / location, make sure you know how to find them.
        • Hit the "Add data..." button (between 'Print' and 'Remove layer') and browse to where you stored the data; you should see the .shp files there. Select them and they will become new layers.
        • And here is our scaffolded geocache data as tab-delimited text. Save this file to your machine, then do View > Add Event Theme. Browse to where the .txt file is, select it. BE SURE to specify 'lon' as the X Field, and 'lat' as the Y field.
        • Given that this is pretty boring (b/c we can't see Iacocca Hall -- we don't have the satellite image here, and we don't have a polygon for Iacocca), you can also look at some (very dirty) sewer data for the Southside: sewers.txt (htp://coexs.dept.lehigh.edu:16080/~tch207/broughal_geospatial/data/sewers.txt), same process as before.
    • My World
      • Load
        • Here, everything is built in: The "Construct" tab is where you assemble your data. You can add your own custom data, but for the moment, just
          • Set the Library to "United States"
          • Pull the following to the "Layer List" column: U.S. States, Counties, Rivers, Major Highways -- whatever you like.
          • To get our geocache data: Do File > Import Layer From File. Browse to wherever you stored the file, and note that this program is a little smarter -- given lat and lon, it recognizes them automatically.
      • Interface: You have the usual menus, but the tabs are the key
        • "Construct" is where you assemble the dataset
        • "Visualize" gets you more screen space and lets you see what's in each data layer. This is also a good place to re-order / re-stack layers, adjust colors, icons, turn layers on/off, etc. (You can do these in "Construct" as well, but you'll have a more cramped screen.)
        • "Analyze" is where you run your queries.
        • "Edit" lets you change your data set or add new layers from your own data.
      • Navigation:
        • The same tools and concepts apply: drag, zoom, zoom-to-active
        • Important new tool: Step forward / step back among views
      • Inspect: You still have an Inspect tool, but you can do a lot more browsing using the records fields to the right.
      • Query
        • This is actually pretty different: The Analyze tab is where you do this, and it's all split out by function. Note that this tool lets you do a lot of math (calculations, graphs) as well as maps. For example: Figure out a series of steps to see if the %age of older persons really is higher in Florida, Arizona, etc.
        • Another bit of added value: You can save your queries / analyses as new layers. For students, this is VERY handy.
      • Edit
        • Obviously, the Edit tab is the place to be. Double-click on a layer and you can see the spreadsheet, add new records (entries) or new fields (characteristics to existing records).
          • Time permitting: Example of adding new data to an existing data file: I've done a little work moving some Holocaust data into GIS. Sources are these two graphs from Yad Vashem: 1, 2.
        • You can make an entirely new layer (points, lines, polygons, etc.) by clicking the "Create A New, Empty Layer" button (the sheet-of-paper looking thing)
      • Save
        • The important thing here is to do "Save Project As..." to preserve (a) the integrity of the original data, and (b) whatever changes / analyses you've made.
  • Closure: More thinking about assignments

After class

  • Reading
    • Doering & Veletsianos, 2007 - JoG
    • Edelson, 2004
  • Assignments
    • Work on Google Earth markup assignment
    • WTLl

Session 4 - Monday, 6 June

Before class

  • Complete reading

During class (ppt)

  • Meetings to discuss assignments, project: We will do these next Tuesday; sign up for a time slot , please.
  • I want more data! Finding data online . Raw data example: census.gov's MAF/TIGER database; processed data example: UIC's Bringing Historical Data Alive .
  • 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 / .prj / .sbn / .sbx / shp.xml ; census_1790-1860.shp / .shx / .dbf. If you'd rather just play along in My World, here's the handy, single project file.
    • Example #2 (you'll work on this solo or in pairs): The Great Migration via My World. You'll need the project file (uic.edu/educ/bctpi/historyGIS/greatmigration/GreatMigrationV42.m3vz ); 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 -- how is it coming?
  • Sign up for Wednesday's meetings!!
  • Looking ahead to Friday's session: What do you have to do between Wednesday and Friday?

After class

  • Reading
    • Edelson, Smith, & Brown, 2008
    • Shin, 2006
  • Assignments
    • Sign up for meeting time!
    • Complete and turn in proof-of-concept
    • WTL

Session 5 - Wednesday, 8 June

Before class

  • Complete and turn in your Google Earth proof-of-concept
  • Complete reading.

During class (ppt)

  • Meetings
    • 4:00-4:20 - Sonya
    • 4:20-4:40 - Marissa
    • 4:40-5:00 - Eric
    • 5:00-5:20 - Jeanna
    • 5:20-5:40 - Denise
    • 5:40-6:00 - Ashley
    • 6:00-6:20 - Nick
    • 6:20-6:40 - Kate
    • 6:40-7:00 - Wil

After class

  • Reading: Ch 1 plus skim two others from the Milson, Demirici, & Kerski book
  • Assignments: Complete and turn in Google Earth assignment, do WTL

Session 6 - Friday, 10 June

Before class

  • Complete readings

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping
    • Google Earth final assign turn-in...questions? Issues?
    • Looking ahead to GIS assignment
    • Getting organized for Monday!
      • 4 pm, main campus...flagpole
      • bring a smartphone!
      • Download and install app -- links / details t/k
    • BTW, I screwed up on the reading...there are TWO Doering & Veletsianos, 2007 articles I want you to read, believe it or not.
  • Conceptual work: Inquiry, scaffolding, and online tools for geospatial work
    • Opening experience in inquiry (sorta) & scaffolding: Trees, cars, and carbon
      • Handouts -- to be provided
      • Web links for the activity
        • Let's first take a look at some tree identification tools.
        • After you ID the tree, we'll need to
          • Identify its tree categorization (e.g., a hard hardwood or a soft hardwood).
          • Calculate its total green weight using one of the spreadsheets linked from this page. (You'll also need to turn the circumference into the diameter...just divide by pi)
          • Calculate the dry weight--you'll need the moisture ratio, and it's at the bottom of the page.
          • To get the carbon, divide in half. (I think it's actually .48, not .5, but in the interest of keeping it simple...)
    • De-brief--
      • How was this inquiry?
      • What kind of scaffolding was in place? How can it be improved?
      • What are the instructional follow-ups?
    • Example of inquiry and scaffolding: Environmental Literacy & Inquiry project. I've selected one curriculum (Energy) and just one lesson (Oil) out of a total 40-lesson sequence.
      • Pair up as partners. One partner will do this in My World, the other half will do it in a new web interface.
        • For those working in the client-side GIS, you'll need this My World file: Oil_Map.m3vz. (Remember: Downloading My World files can be tricky!)
        • For those working in the browser-based version, everything you need is here: gisweb.cc.lehigh.edu/energy
      • You'll be getting paper copies of the handouts; if you want digital copies, see the lesson page.
    • De-brief: How was that inquiry? How was it scaffolded? How did the two interfaces compare?
    • The importance of going online
    • A sampling of browser-based tools
    • And of course, your desktop tools also talk to the web: dynamic, internet-based data sets can be viewed in Google Earth and My World.
  • Closure

After class

  • Reading
    • Doering & Veletsianos, 2007 - JECR
  • Assignments
    • Work on GIS dataset assignment
    • WTL

Session 7 - Monday, 13 June

Before class

  • Complete reading
  • Don't forget we're meeting on main campus!

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping – GIS assignment check-in
  • Conceptual work
    • Augmented reality
      • Activity (Alex Robilotto & Denise Bressler)
      • De-brief
    • Spatial thinking
  • Closure

After class

  • Reading
  • Assignments

Session 8 - Wednesday, 15 June

Before class

  • Complete reading, do WTL
  • Complete and turn in GIS proof-of-concept

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping
    • Sign-ups for next Monday
    • GIS assignment?
  • Conceptual work: Talking about maps, in four passes
    • Quickie overview of visual design
      • ...apologies for repeating items from TLT 406, but they're necessary stage-setters
      • To discuss correlation vs. causation, in addition to Snow's cholera map, I'm lifting a map from this article about maps and advocacy in The Economist.
    • Map design issues, examples
    • Warming up to maps and advocacy
      • Examples of (causal-use) geospatial / visualization tools, examples
        • NYTimes' visuals to summarize World Cup games. Example: England-US, 12 June 2010 .
        • Flickr
          • flickr.com/map -- more than 80 million geotagged images! (Warning--this thing tends to crash my browser. I'm using Firefox, so perhaps try something else?)
          • Example of a group's pooled images placed on a map: Islam group's map.
        • Playing with space and time: animation of immigration, 1820-2007 (note that there ARE bugs/errors in this thing)
        • Playing around with unconvention uses of data: "Seven Deadly Sins" visualizations from KSU (can also get the dataset and documentation from same site).
      • Playing with perception
        • Jamestown maps
        • Maps of the Middle East
        • Mapping crime
          • Tampa, FL - Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office interactive map of crime.
          • [FamilyWatchdog.us|http://www.familywatchdog.us/Search.asp
            ]: Wow. Just wow. Way to (a) strike at our paranoia while (b) making a profit.
    • Examples of maps used in advocacy
  • Closure

After class

  • Reading: Handouts of chapters from Monmonier & De Blij
  • Assignments

Session 9 - Monday, 20 June

Before class

  • Complete reading
  • Complete your GIS assignment and upload it to CourseSite

During class (ppt)

  • Meetings
  • 3:00-3:20 = Eric B.
  • 3:20-3:40 = Kate A.
  • 3:40-4:00 =
  • 4:00-4:20 = Marissa
  • 4:20-4:40 = Jeanna
  • 4:40-5:00 =
  • 5:00-5:20 = Ashley
  • 5:20-5:40 = Nick
  • 5:40-6:00 = Sonya
  • 6:00-6:20 = Wil

After class

  • Reading - none -- just finish up the "How to Lie with Maps" excerpts. Don't forget to return them to me when you're done!!
  • Assignments -- work in final project

Session 10 - Wednesday, 22 June

Before class

  • Complete reading
  • Work on final project!
  • WTL

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping
    • Next Monday's class time
    • Signing up for presentations
    • Still grading GIS assignments
  • Conceptual work
  • Closure

After class

  • Reading
    • Koehler & Mishra, 2008
    • Bednarz, 2004
    • Go back to Milson, Demirici, & Kerski (in press) and see Ch. 34 & 35
  • Assignments
    • Sign up for presentation date--either next Monday or Wednesday
    • Prep for presentation
    • Work on final project!
    • WTL

Session 11 - Monday, 27 June -REMINDER: Class starts at 5:30 pm!

Before class

  • Complete reading

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping
  • Presentations!
    • Kate
    • Ashley
    • Sonya
    • Jeanna
    • Marissa (may not happen until next session)
  • Special presentation by Ann Bebout: Spatial thinking in geology & geophysics
  • Closure

After class

Session 12 - Wednesday, June 29

Before class

  • Complete reading

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping
  • Presentations
    • Wil
    • Denise
    • Eric
    • Nick
  • Graduation ceremony

After class

  • Reading
  • Assignments

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