Comments on: GIS Boot Camp vs. Traditional Teaching http://gispathway.com/2009/02/16/gis-boot-camp-vs-traditional-teaching/ ...helping guiding you to success in the world of GIS! Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:31:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Tripp http://gispathway.com/2009/02/16/gis-boot-camp-vs-traditional-teaching/comment-page-1/#comment-204 Tripp Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:03:23 +0000 http://gispathway.com/?p=1314#comment-204 It is a balancing act... Do we present to the students WHAT buttons to push? Or, do we teach the students WHY we're pushing those buttons? The first approach fails because those buttons change, are moved, renamed, etc. The second approach fails because students don't get the hands-on experience and confidence they need to further their GIS education. When learning how to do regression, EXCEL and/or R is presented as a tool in which the calculations can be made quickly, not as the "regression tool". Similarly, when learning about GIS or geospatial techniques, ArcGIS should not be presented as the "GIS tool", but as one of many softwares that can facilitate your analysis. I think this is where the opensource GIS community can come into play offering more choices and at a price many of the students and cash-strapped schools can afford. But, then again, ESRI has 80% of the market (http://www.gisjobs.com/survey_usa/). My $0.02. -Tripp It is a balancing act… Do we present to the students WHAT buttons to push? Or, do we teach the students WHY we’re pushing those buttons? The first approach fails because those buttons change, are moved, renamed, etc. The second approach fails because students don’t get the hands-on experience and confidence they need to further their GIS education.

When learning how to do regression, EXCEL and/or R is presented as a tool in which the calculations can be made quickly, not as the “regression tool”. Similarly, when learning about GIS or geospatial techniques, ArcGIS should not be presented as the “GIS tool”, but as one of many softwares that can facilitate your analysis.

I think this is where the opensource GIS community can come into play offering more choices and at a price many of the students and cash-strapped schools can afford.

But, then again, ESRI has 80% of the market (http://www.gisjobs.com/survey_usa/).

My $0.02.
-Tripp

]]> By: Kim Klinker http://gispathway.com/2009/02/16/gis-boot-camp-vs-traditional-teaching/comment-page-1/#comment-132 Kim Klinker Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:51:25 +0000 http://gispathway.com/?p=1314#comment-132 Hi! Saw that you wrote about our student project. One change I've made this semester is trying to integrate the project and lectures along the way (not 5 weeks of lecture and 10 weeks of project). Based on the student responses some students felt we could have completely scrapped the lectures, others wanted more time to understand what they were doing, etc. I agree a variety of approaches works best. Having a project to undertake requires TRANSFER of knowledge and skills that cannot happen when following a set of carefully crafted instructions. Thanks for thinking about the University of Richmond & Go Spiders! Hi! Saw that you wrote about our student project. One change I’ve made this semester is trying to integrate the project and lectures along the way (not 5 weeks of lecture and 10 weeks of project). Based on the student responses some students felt we could have completely scrapped the lectures, others wanted more time to understand what they were doing, etc. I agree a variety of approaches works best. Having a project to undertake requires TRANSFER of knowledge and skills that cannot happen when following a set of carefully crafted instructions. Thanks for thinking about the University of Richmond & Go Spiders!

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