How to Teach an Old-ish Cartographer

Sally Hermansen,
Faculty, Geography Department, UBC, Vancouver Canada
sally.hermansen@ubc.ca

#nacis2015

Transcript

1. How to Teach an Old-ish Cartographer NEW TRICKS Sally Hermansen, Faculty, Geography Department, UBC, Vancouver Canada sally.hermansen@ubc.ca
2. UBC Geography • 3 GIScience courses • 2 Cartography courses –  Introduction (traditional thematic statistical mapping course, AI) –  Advanced (theory and special topics) • 1 remote sensing course
3. Trends  in  Cartographic  Teaching  and  Research     60s 70s 80s 90s 00s Government production Thematic Mapping Empirical Cognitive Research: Cartographic ‘Rules’ Communication Vision, Cognition, Perception Eye Movement Studies Map Use and Map Design GIS data input analysis Social theory Community Mapping VGI Web mapping Geospatial Data Visualization Human/machine interaction Volume teaching research year Rise Peak Decline Comeback 10s 20s last  year,     this  year    
4. Last  Year  2013   Advanced  Cartography     •  Popular  course   •  Good  evalua@ons   •  Community-­‐learning  final  project    
5. Web  Mapping:   One  Lecture   One  Assignment  in  Tilemill/MapBox   One  Discussion    
6. Problem… •  Very little theory or practice with web mapping •  Community-Based Final Projects –  Many communities now want web maps –  Students did not learn enough to make interactive, interesting, visually appealing web maps from the wealth of geospatial data available to them –  Very difficult to mark 400 level/final year final projects of very simple web maps with stick pins and a popup…
7. Like  this…  
8. Whereas  at  the  4th  year,  they  should  be     doing  something  like  this!  
9. Solution…
 Joey Lee joeyklee • USA | Canada • http://jk-lee.com An admin leave $ Some funding Meet Joey
10. ACQUIRE Obtain the data FILTER For data of interest Data Visualization Pipeline (Ben Fry) MINE Apply statistics, GIS analysis to discern patterns REPRESENT Choose visual model: maps, charts, graphs REFINE Improve Basic representation INTERACT Add methods for manipulating data or controlling visual data; VGI Citizen science Internet Public/private Data Integrity PARSE Provide structure and order Coding R, Python, Excel ArcGIS, QGIS, R, Processing Mapbox Studio ArcGIS Processing Adobe lIlustrator
11. Trends  in  Cartographic  Teaching  and  Research     60s 70s 80s 90s 00s Government production Thematic Mapping Empirical Cognitive Research: Cartographic ‘Rules’ Communication Vision, Cognition, Perception Eye Movement Studies Map Use and Map Design GIS data input analysis Social theory Community Mapping VGI Web mapping Geospatial Data Visualization Human/machine interaction Volume teaching research year Rise Peak Decline Comeback 10s 20s Transforma)ve:   Geospa@al  Data  Viz  Pipeline      Vision,  Cogni@on     Map  Use  Map  Design  
12. Fall  2015  (now!)   (blogs.ubc.ca/advancedcartography)  
13. Blue  =  Joey  Web  Map  @me   4  weeks:   Coding     Data  Viz     Pipeline  
14. (infographics)  
15. Introducing  Programming   For  Geospa@al  data     Tools:     •  Ben  Fry’s  framework   •  Joey’s  github  tutorials   •  Online  videos   Process:   •  Studio  tutorials  (4wks)   •  NOT  in  geog  labs,  on  own  laptops   •  Joey  explains,  students  do     •  A  lot  of  copy  and  paste  of  code,  and   •  2  assignments  where  students  work              on  their  own     Assignment1  Coding  in  Processing   Assignment  2  Data  Viz  Pipeline  R,Leaflet     Joey  +  Jay  to  help  students     during  tutorials  
16. Blogs.ubc.ca/advancedcartography   Under  pordolio  tab  are     Finished  assignments     Assignment  1   Coding  with  Processing     -­‐  2  hour  in  class  tutorial   -­‐  one  week  to  complete          Assignment      
17. Example  Joey’s  tutorials  (for   Processing,  R,  leaflet)  
18. Assignment  2     Data  Viz  Pipeline   Acquire,  Parse,  Filter  and  Mine   •  Students  go  through  Data  Viz  Pipeline  for  3-­‐1-­‐1  City   complaint  data  (3  weeks  in  class  tutorial)   •  Students  take  311  tutorial  and  edit                for  City  crime  data  (2  hours  in  class,  one  week  on  their  own)   •  Students  hand  in  individual    interac@ve  map  layers   •  Joey  puts  into  class  web  site  
19. Represent   Assignment  2    
20. Refine,  Interact   Assignment  2    
21. How is this working… •  lots of problems during tutorials – downloading libraries, pathnames, glitches (24 students with different laptops, versions of R, backgrounds) •  last minute changes to software, not enough testing •  But…most students seem to be doing OK •  2 web/coding assignments only 20% final mark •  Final projects will be choice: –  Interactive Web Maps (with TA help if necessary) or –  Infographics (AI, students do not need help) •  Need course evaluations/discussions with students •  This has been challenging for me…
22. Future Next year no extra funding + no RA (Joey) and no TA (Jay) + ever-changing software = Convince Dept Head I need TA support Questions –  mix of ‘traditional’ and new? –  mix of theory and practice? –  Data Viz programming and web mapping software? –  Name of course?
23. But I am stoked… and will figure out how to do it all again!