It is, in fact, the end of the summer ‘break’. Both summer sessions went well from my perspective and while the online class wasn’t all that I hoped it would be, I think I did well for a first time through. The key is to not allow any wiggle room in terms of time, structure everything as tightly as possible. I structured half the class (the writing assignments and projects) and left the tests and exams open ended time-wise. Everyone got there writing assignments and projects in on time and most waited ’til the last minute to take the map tests and exams not leaving themselves enough time to do as well as they could. SO…the lesson learned…STRUCTURE EVERYTHING :).
With the fall starting, so too will the Spatial@UNCP podcasts. I am going with an every other Thursday schedule again this year and will probably lean towards mapping and cartography topic in the fall since I am teaching Intro to Cartography. If you would like to join me on a podcast to talk about how you are using geospatial technologies in your class, research or service let me know. If you have anything specific you would like to hear about let me know.
FYI, Geography Awareness Week is the week before Thanksgiving (Nov 15-19) and I hope to have at least one guest speaker on campus to talk about their work in Geography. GIS Day is always the Wednesday of Geography Awareness Week and I hope to do something during the activity hour that day on campus. Of course all of these things are contingent on not being crushed by the fall.