September 12, 2011. Today was a great day. I arrived early to make sure all the computers were working and that I had enough handouts for my Human Geography students. Ethan arrived early to make sure the GPS units were charging for an outing with my GIS class. My students arrived and began a lesson created to help them learn about Territorial Morphology and Boundary Typology using GIS. Working with a partner they navigated the world map looking for prorupt and perforated states – “Does Vatican City count? What about Azerbaijan?” – it’s clear that many of them haven’t looked this closely at a world map in a long time. “Where’s the Danube?” “What’s next to Egypt?” I love hearing the students talk to one another, and help one another. I love the occasional “oh cool” that slips from their mouths. But mostly what I’m so happy about is that none of the computers crashed. Not one. For the entire class period. Success!
I think back to September 2010. Students enter the Spatial Analysis Lab in the brand new Carole Weinstein International Center and begin what I tell them is going to be a very exciting lab. They open the file, as instructed, and within 5 minutes computers start crashing. When they don’t crash they run so slowly that instead of hearing the occasional “oh cool” I hear the occasional “oh damn”. Students are rubbing their heads in frustration. “GIS”, they say, “stinks”. Some students must exit completely, others begin texting while they wait for the computers to restart. I’ve lost them. I’d spent so much time creating these lessons – with the help of a Course Enhancement grant from the CTLT – only to face this. The problem? Data storage and retrieval. Netfiles. The solution: a Server. It’s the only way to efficiently serve large amounts of data to a lab (or classroom) full of students simultaneously. But, how to get there? Money, cooperation from IT and IS and many other acronyms. Training. More training. Loading data onto Server and rewriting all lessons for the new year and BAM!
Today, students completed their GIS Lesson without any technical difficulties. No performance issues. No slow drawing maps. No crashing. This is beyond great. This is where I wanted to be. Instead of being frustrated by the technology they were able to complete their lesson during class time. They are gaining familiarity with concepts of human geography, spatial thinking, and rudimentary GIS skills. In the first 3 weeks of school, our lab has been used by: 4 SAL interns, 4 Geography Faculty, 1 Biology Faculty, 1 Chemistry Faculty, 20 FYS – Biology students, 23 GIS students, 22 Human Geography students, 13 Mapping & Sustainability students, and 30+ Physical Geography students. We’ve made maps for the Law School, the School of Continuing Studies and the Jepson School of Leadership Studies. I’m so proud of how far this lab has come, and so excited about its future. Yes, Vatican City counts. The Danube – Europe. And it’s Libya. Libya is next to Egypt.