THIS IS MY ARCGISONLINE MAP

Getting ready for the Spring term.  I am teaching a couple of classes.  One is a repeat (Intro to Human Geography) and the other hasn't been taught since 2008 (Geography of Water).  


For the Water class, I have to re-work some things.  New edition of the textbook and some new ideas for class itself.  I hope to do some group-based work as well as the usual " bring people up to speed" with concepts and ideas.  The class is a 200 level class and I know I have some repeat students.  This is always nice as those kids know the ropes of my style of  teaching and also can get the class off to a comfortable start.

Other stuff going on for me inside of the College:

Working on a search committee for a new hire in  -- this is exciting stuff as we have a GREAT pool.  We're moving on in the search in the next week or so.  I think the hire could change my teaching at the College (it depends on who we hire).  I am scheduled to teach WITH the person next year but it could be that some of the more physical geography elements of my water class get moved into one of the new person's classes.  Interesting times.

I went to a great workshop yesterday  -- a teaching technology thing.  There's so much to learn.  I cling, though, to the idea that to a person with a hammer everything might look like a nail.... I try to learn stuff but only use it when it actually works for me.


Good Spring to all!

So here we are in late November 2010 -- quite a site!

One of things I have been doing is using more interactive maps in class -- the key is to keep track of the maps with durable links so they can be used again and again.  The NYT maps of migration (remittances, migration totals etc.) as well as their occasional county-scale  maps for elections, geography of foreign born etc.  I also have enjoyed the Christian Science Monitor/PBS collaboration called Patchwork Nation.

I haven't been doing much with this blog.
That might change...
Went to see U2 3D last week -- where was this soccer stadium?
I will work on that and figure it out.

Testing to see if Ian is taking a peek.

Questions & Answers: Gander

I spotted this page trying to figure out the phrase "take a gander" -- I thought that Cockney rhyming slang was involved. No such luck.
Lots of skim on this page.

Informed Comment

A rock-solid up to date blog on Iraq and other doings in the Middle East. Cole is a professor of history.

Fallujah 101: A history lesson about the town we are currently destroying. -- In These Times

Rashid Khalidi is a a prof at Columbia U in NYC. He's a frequent guest on PBS Newshour -- this piece connects the dots on my in-class comments on the British in Iraq. If you have time, scroll down and see the comments -- remember the WWW is open to lots of clickers. You'll see how a single set of events can be appropriated for different points of view. [BTW I got here from the Utne Reader which compiles articles and links on a weekly basis]. * The perspective of this piece will not appeal to all readers *

heraldtribune.com: Southwest Florida's Information Leader

This article addresses another aspect of the geography of the last election -- I am not sure how durable a link it is. Certainly there's a geography to this idea. How would you change the system to "balance" this effect? [p.s. I don't read this paper routlinely, I found the link on another blog -- http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com
It might not be to your political taste, that's OK.
I read it less than I used to during the election season.

Groups, U.S. Battle Over 'Global Terrorist' Label (washingtonpost.com)

I am not sure how long this link will be durable but this considers one of the issues we talked about in class regarding charities which donate to Islamic organizations.

http://www.migrationpolicy.org/

This is a site dedicated to migration information. For our Russia studies -- check out the Global Data in the left hand pane menus and look at the sources for official migration into Russia for the past few years. This site uses government stats as its basis.

Tutorial Page

Here's a neat page on faults -- it's part of a longer sequence. It addresses some cool stuff related to the transform zone and San Andreas.

International Data Base (IDB)

Root site for IDB data -- better entry point than the previous link.
This link will be used for class demo.

Bush Kills - Bush's Record
Best I could do at short notice..... the partisan site does rank TX as #1 in terms of executions -- it doesn't do a per capita rating and is out of date. No time to dig further. I welcome more recent data and will ask someone tomorrow for info.

Texas Tough?: An Analysis of Incarceration and Crime Trends in The Lone Star State

This site explores the TX prison population. The claim to be #1 in terms of TX's proportion of its population "under supervision" appears to be valid based on this 2002 data. Of interest here are the comparisons between TX and some other key states and some issues related to race. I don't have the death penalty data to hand.
I will look a little more. RK

Plate tectonics animation

A slow load but a cool animation over geologic time.
I load it and load it again.... watch out for India moving along....

National Geographic: Roper Geographic Survey 2002

This page has some brief discussion of the Roper Survey we sampled in class. The full report can be downloaded from this page as a PDF. If you wish to read it and can't get it to download, let me know and I will try to help.

IDB Data Access--Display Mode

The mother lode of available demographic data...... a great source for all sorts of current and historical data. Use it!!!!

National Low Income Housing Coalition: The NIMBY Report

This site, mentioned in a student, journal considers specific LULUs that focus less on land uses but on the people who inhabit/use them. In this case, it's housing. It's worth a skim and may give you an idea of the larger picture of this particular phenomenon.

Iraq as an evolving place

The idealism of creating a new liberal democracy in the Middle East "a brand new place" if you like.... is giving way to a more complex situation. Some expected this to happen.... others felt like the power of the US and the vision of its President would triumph in this necessary conflict.
In class, we talked about insurgency and territorial control as well.
Feel free to comment here.