Exhibitions

In this paper we propose the use of ‘Encountering’ a location-based game (LBG) based on the Wherigo platform to facilitate interdisciplinary student learning about places on field courses. Deploying a mobile, digital map-based platform addresses significant challenges – such as the sacrifice of context specificity and methodological applicability and depth. It also runs the danger of ‘gamifying’ the fieldwork, blinding the participant to their own agency and emergent encounters. Interactive and layered digital map interfaces have affordances that can potentially overcome such challenges. We claim that one such affordance is the ability to play through the map. In other words, maps – and digital maps in particular – offer the possibility of decoupling results-orientated actions from free-form serendipitous engagement with the field. Our argument is two-fold. First, that LBG toolsets such as Wherigo can provide a ‘common ground’ for students engaging in place-based interdisciplinary research, by providing a material, cartographic basis for playful investigation. Second, that they can facilitate the production of ‘spaces of epistemological failure’, allowing students to challenge taken-for-granted conceptual and methodological axioms within and across disciplines.     

Photogrammetry education for multidisciplinary geomatics in China

After briefly reviews the history of photogrammetry education in China, the development of undergraduate and graduate program, and the corresponding curricula design are analyzed by use of the data from Wuhan University in which the photogrammetry is awarded as the state-level key discipline. The academic educational program of photogrammetry in universities has trained students to perform tasks in all fields of the photogrammetric profession. In recent years, the nature of photogrammetry is changing and multidisciplinary geomatics are developing very rapidly, the educational program of photogrammetry has also changed in new concepts and structures to adapt very new technologies and the extension of the field. Finally, the prospect of photogrammetry education for the requirements of multidisciplinary geomatics is proposed. The growing interest in fast and accurate 3D spatial data collection (such as city modeling and digital earth) results in the increasing need of photogrammetry as principal tool, photogrammetric courses are therefore requested to be up-to-date and to become one kind of the fundamental professional courses for university geomatics and remote sensing degree programs.     

Conceptualizing Scale in the Science of Broadening Participation of Underrepresented Groups in Higher Education

The Association of American Geographers Catalyzing Research on the Geographies of Broadening Participation Creative Scholarly Retreat explored ways in which geographers can advance approaches to broadening participation of underrepresented groups in higher education and the scientific workforce. Conversations during the retreat revealed the need for theoretical models to guide research and policy development. In this article, I ask how the geographic concept of scale can inform the problem of broadening participation of underrepresented groups in higher education. First, I explain how the concept of scale can drive future research using the literature within geography. Next, I propose the situational matrix as an analytical schema using the concept of scale. I then analyze various scales first as ordering devices and then as politically produced entities in conversations about underrepresentation in higher education. I conclude by arguing that identifying the scales that are in operation and then figuring out ways in which they function simultaneously and even in mutually contradictory ways will push the project of broadening participation forward.     

NEW PUBLICATIONS

Ten Years o f Physicogeographic Research in Hungary

Antarctic Snow and Ice Studies     

THE ARCHIVES OF THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN GEOGRAPHERS

Although numerous courses in geographic information systems (GIS) have been introduced into the geography curriculum over the past few years, there has been remarkably little debate over the issues involved. This paper first discusses the arguments for geography as an appropriate disciplinary setting for GIS teaching at the undergraduate level. This is followed by a discussion of the nature of GIS courses and their appropriate place in the undergraduate geography curriculum. The final section of the paper describes the NCGIA Core Curriculum project and examines its significance in this broader context.     

首都基础教育均衡性评价模型设计与实现

随着北京社会经济的快速发展、人口的快速增长以及人民生活水平的不断提高,人民群众对于优质教育教学资源的需求越来越强烈,而教育的公平性和均衡发展也受到了人民群众和政府越来越多的关注。基础教育的均衡发展更多的需要依靠教育主管部门的政策支持,而政策的制定又需要根据教育均衡发展的实际情况有针对性的制定,那么首先就要对首都基础教育的均衡情况进行分析。本文基于GIS技术和统计学方法,采用差异系数法,选取相关指标,建立首都基础教育均衡性评价模型,利用ArcEngine组件和.Net技术集成开发并实现模型,对首都基础教育均衡性、资源配置均衡性、教育质量均衡性做出评价,为教育决策部门提供决策支持。     

建设校园人工湿地 开发湿地文化资源

广雅小学在开展绿色科技教育,推进"为了环境可持续发展的科技"教育的基础上,借鉴国内外湿地建设的成功经验,结合时代特点、地域特色、以及当前的人才需求,应用人工湿地这一种以生态处理水污染为主的科学技术,侧重其湿地的科技功能与文化功能,即在校园内建设人工湿地科普园,还原湿地生态景观,使湿地的天然景观和原始野趣与校园建筑相得益彰、完美结合,使湿地科普园成为融生态环保、地貌气象、科技教育的特殊"课堂",为学生开展实践活动提供广阔空间。     

面向GIS专业本科生的经济地理学教学研究

GIS专业是一门新兴的综合性交叉学科,《经济地理学》为GIS提供了重要的理论基础和应用基础。本文从GIS专业的学科专业性质、人才培养目标出发,对《经济地理学》课程的定位与目标、教学内容与方法进行了探讨,以期提高GIS专业学生应用《经济地理学》基本理论、基本方法和解决现实问题的能力。     

The New Zealand Coastal Society: What does it do and who is it for?

Abstract:   This article briefly outlines the aims and activities of the New Zealand Coastal Society, a technical interest group formed in 1992. It explains the history of the society, who its members are, and addresses the question of who would benefit from joining the society.