Spring Break Update

Spring Break Mapping! Africa Maize Production.
Not my favorite. What can I do to make it better?
Please post comments/suggestions below. Thanks!

I hope this blog post finds you all doing very well. I just want to say thank you to the students that chose to fill out the midterm evaluations. I really appreciate the feedback. I will attempt to address the perceived shortcomings of this course the best I can. I want to take some time to address a few of the issues that arose on the midterm evaluations, as we will have a lot to cover when class resumes on Tuesday.

PACE OF LECTURE
Darnit, Garnet! I apologize profusely for lecturing too quickly. It is a bad habit I have; I get excited, carried away, and a little too overzealous in my lectures. Though I love the topic, it truly is inexcusable to not give you enough time to take notes. So I plan on doing a better job of pacing myself.

However, I must ask you a favor. When I go too fast during lecture, please raise your hand and ask me to go back and remind me to slow down. I know it isn't your responsibility to slow the lecturer down, but you are paying for this course! So when I fail to put the brakes on, you have every right to let me know I am going too fast. I will not be mad; in fact, I will really appreciate it.

The hardest part about lecturing is knowing what pace is right for the students in front of you. While I am up there it seems like forever between slides; however, as I recall from being a student, often it is nearly impossible to keep up, because you are writing everything. I understand this, though forget it when I am lecturing, and I will buy the first three people who tell me to slow down during lecture (when applicable) a candy bar of their choice. I'm serious about this -- you are paying to learn, so don't let me cheat you out of information. Again, I apologize.

LAB
First of all, there were several great suggestions regarding how to make lab better and more beneficial. In light of the recent tragedy, I have volunteered to take over labs the rest of the semester. I hope that my being there will do several things:

• Maintain the strong class cohesion that I have really appreciated thus far;
• Better help tie my lectures to your lab assignments, because I will be there to help guide you through any questions you have and I know what I am expecting from you; and
• Allow me to show you a few tricks I have learned along the way; although, by now you are all probably becoming more proficient at some of these programs than I am!

Second of all, I apologize that your lab grades have not been forthcoming at an acceptable rate. Ben was in charge of grading your labs. I do not believe he graded your Brazil lab yet; I will do so this week. I had been grading the in-class assignment you turned in several weeks ago and planned to return it to you the day of the midterm. That morning I heard of Ben's death and did not finish grading it. You will receive it at the end of the break.

I set a personal turn around time of one week on all grading for every class I teach. This is a policy that I have had to break a few times in my career (including once this semester, because you all went the extra mile on the in-class assignment), but I will do everything in my power to turn all assignments around in one week for you from here on out.

COURSE WEBSITES
It has been brought to my attention that there are too many course websites for this course. I agree. I will never "diversify" this much again! I promise. :)

• I prefer to blog.
• I plan to keep using this blog for the following purposes -- to ramble to the class like I am right now.
• Ben preferred to Moodle.
• I will keep using Moodle for all important information, including grades, imperative information, etc.
• Facebook was an experiment that does not seem to have taken off.
• I do not check the Facebook group; so if you guys want to start using it, please feel free.
• I am loath to add any students as "Friends" on Facebook until the semester is over. It isn't because I don't like you; in fact, you are the best class I have ever had! I just want to maintain a little separation while I am in a position of authority.
  

• I apologize for any confusion caused by the myriad virtual existences of this course!

Debunking the FreeHand / Illustrator Argument
To me, the debate over whether you should learn how to design good maps using FreeHand or Illustrator is as vacuous as arguing which computer is the best -- Mac or PC.

Right now probably 10 of you are screaming: "Mac!" The other 20 are shouting: "PC!" Who is right? Is it majority rules? No, I would argue democracy doesn't help us resolve this issue. Is it based on performance? Well, no because both computers use the same chip set. So what the heck are Mac and PC people arguing about? Usability.

We like what we know. More people have been exposed to PCs for a multitude of reasons, not least of which is affordability. Now, that's not to say that Macs don't offer a sexier interface, fewer crashes, etc. (I don't know, actually, I don't use a Mac. I just take my cousin's word for it.) The point is, these two computers do the same thing in the end! People use these computers as tools for a purpose -- write a paper, surf the web, play video games, make maps, etc.

I learned FreeHand 7 when I took this course. I still prefer FreeHand's interface over Illustrator's. It's a question of usability -- that simple. Is FreeHand better for making maps? It is for me. Might some people argue that it is not, because the technology has not been developed in recent years -- yes. But they probably aren't people using this program to make maps anyway. These people are likely using Illustrator to make maps; so of course they think Illustrator is better. Thus, their argument is quite irrelevant to my using FreeHand.

Illustrator is newer. Illustrator is sexier. Illustrator will continue being updated in the future and FreeHand will not. But Illustrator is not better for making maps. In fact, FreeHand does many useful things that Illustrator does not -- like attach text to path. Vice versa, Illustrator has many features that FreeHand does not... which I can't think of right now, because I normally choose to use FreeHand.

The goal of this course is twofold:

1. To provide you with a skill: the ability to start with nothing but an idea (e.g., UFO abductions) and then systematically plan, design, and create a clear and well balanced map; and
2. To familiarize you with a graphics program that you can use to produce maps well into the future.
   

• You can use FreeHand in the future. You simply cannot buy a new version of it.
  

• On Tuesday I will show you a website of a guy who still makes all of his maps using FreeHand 8 or 9. He and his wife have a yacht and work from home, because they have made so much money over the years producing State Park maps using this "antiquated" program. He has a computer running Windows 98, he told me, with FreeHand and Mapublisher and that's what they use. Like a trusty old Chevy pickup truck, I suppose.

This all being said... I would have liked you all to have learned how to use Illustrator this semester. It was my original plan, because I was worried that this debate might erupt. The department does not have a license to Illustrator that they were willing to transfer to our lab due to costs and time constraints.

For those of you who are going to upgrade to Illustrator the first chance you get, there is a free online tutorial at the Adobe site on how to transition from FreeHand to Illustrator (e.g., what tools are the same, different, etc.). I went through it last summer and now know how to do everything I learned in FreeHand in Illustrator. It only took a few hours of tinkering to pick it up. So please do not lose sleep over this. Please.

The Book
I apologize that the book was so expensive and that some of you find it a little "dry." It really is the "source" on cartography right now, though; so I think it is worth it. Nonetheless, at the end of the semester I would really appreciate your thoughts on it and its value.


This has been amazingly long winded. If you have read this far, congratulations! You get extra credit. I'm serious -- please send me an email saying you read this line.

I hope you are all having a great spring break, and I promise not to be this long winded, nor speak as quickly as I just typed this after downing two Earl Grays and chasing it with a Pepsi, on Tuesday.

Be well.