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ES - TLT 394, Summer 2011 - Course record

ES - TLT 394, Summer 2011 - Course record

Jun 27, 2011

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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