Submissions Process
Read the Call for Maps and Call for Presentations sections below for detailed information on the types of submissions we’re hoping to get for the conference. Click here to submit a presentation proposal. Click here to submit an entry for the map gallery. The deadline for all presentation and map submissions is September 21, 2012.
Call for Maps
The Map Gallery will be open for the duration of the conference and will feature paper posters and web-based interactive maps that highlight the many ways GIS is being used and integrated in the undergraduate curriculum. Faculty, staff and students from all disciplines are encouraged to submit maps. Prizes will be awarded in several categories (details coming soon!).
Call for Presentations
We are seeking 3 presenters and 1 chairperson* for each of the 5 sessions. When you submit your presentation proposal you will be asked to specify the session it is intended for. For each session we welcome theoretic contributions, pedagogical explorations, or more conventional research contributions as examples.
*The chairperson’s role will be to stimulate and guide discussion amongst attendees. If you are interested in serving as a session chairperson, please contact Janine Glathar at jlg046@bucknell.edu or (570) 577-1990
1a (Concurrent with 1b): Mapping Human Activity–Qualitative Analysis GIS
GIS can support deeper understanding into present and past ways of life in any field – in fields such as history, literature, ethnography, urban studies, or art.
How can the power of maps be made more widely available to non-quantitative students and scholars? Examples of successes and innovations are useful to share. How can the technical threshold for GIS work be made less forbidding to the computer-averse? What data sources and analyses are well suited to these purposes?
1b (Concurrent with 1a) – Quantitative Analysis & Technical Applications of GIS
GIS is critical to much research in the field sciences and quantitative social sciences – geology, ecology, oceanography, archaeology, demography, economics, etc.
What advances, and what challenges, characterize the developing field for students and scholars? How can technical students be induced to become more successful spatial thinkers? How can researchers use GIS to bridge the divide between lab work and field work – with remote sensing or with advanced field data collecting methods, for example? How does GIS integrate into conventional methods courses?
2 (Single group): GIS in Pedagogy
Teaching GIS is always challenging.
What recurrent challenges do you face as a GIS teacher, and how can you respond? What new resources should other teachers be aware of? What new systems of pedagogy have proven successful? How does a teacher simultaneously address the rigid technical issues of computer use and need to be engaged with the liberating power of maps? What styles or sequences of courses – self-guided technical courses, introductory, advanced independent studies, etc. – have proven efficient to generate student competence?
3a (Concurrent with 3b) – GIS in Community Outreach & Service Learning
An emerging central pedagogy in many fields is direct, field-based community outreach – in problem-based ‘clinic’ courses, through providing technical support for community members, in internships, and through service learning components of other courses.
GIS provides a natural tool for supporting community outreach, to help communities learn about themselves and their own problems. What successes and innovations can you share? How can GIS best be made accessible to community members who face political, equity, or environmental problems? What resources should all teachers be aware of? How are technical results best reported to non-technical audiences? What risks – physical, legal, or moral – can field such courses confront?
3b (Concurrent with 3a) – Software & Data Issues in GIS Instruction
Technical support for GIS in education faces many unique challenges – the mix of high tech software with relatively inexperienced users, the endless variety of projects that appear, and the number of obscure data sources (and data forms) to be mastered. This session gives an opportunity for GIS support professionals to compare notes on chronic and emerging challenges to the support task, and a forum to share successes. Possible topics include web-based GIS, database management and managing local file systems.