Pondering the Possibilities…
After reading an article on the “Crisis Mappers” in academia who literally map world crisis to be used for research I began to ponder just how many ways GIS can impact our work. While I may not study contemporary crises, there are so many crises that do impact my work, such as The Seven Years War and The French and Haitian Revolutions to name a few. I can visualize how mapping communication between France and its colonies during these crises could shed light on my own work. I am imagining a cross between the crisis mappers’s work and the Mapping the Republic of Letters project. Beyond mapping crises, or mapping travels from a literary text, I think the idea of mapping communication in general is pertinent for many humanists. We can take the idea of communication past personal letters and consider other mediums of communication as well, for example newspapers. I can envision mapping the frequency in which the haitian revolution was mentioned in French newspapers over time. What are other ways that mapping communication can add to our work?
February 8th, 2012
Ah, April! Very nice. How could you apply Yuan’s three categories of GIS to these questions?
February 9th, 2012
April — I found this link on the GIS website
http://edcommunity.esri.com/arclessons/arclessons.cfm — it gives examples of other ways to use mapping in a variety of domains at every level of education. Looking at these different approaches to GIS helps me be a bit more creative in my own work.
Also — there is no “lesson” for foreign languages — perhaps we should create a lesson plan and submit it to Esri, so that other foreign language educators could benefit from it? (And add a line to our CV … but of course, it’d be collaborative AND digital — that kind of work doesn’t belong on a humanist’s CV!!)
February 10th, 2012
This is a great idea! I think you should seriously consider doing the foreign language lesson.