- Introductions
- Class overview
- How the internet works / intro to the languages of the web
- If we have time: how web maps work
Who am I?
Who are you? What do you want to learn during this class? Which snack do you plan to stockpile at home?
Hello and welcome! I'm really glad you're here.
🌈 Let's just take a second to recognize that it's a really weird and stressful time right now. Many of you are probably feeling overwhelmed, fearful, uneasy, or maybe a bit numb. That's ok. I see you and I'm in the same boat as you.
Because of our extenuating circumstances, along with the fact that I've never done this class online before, I'm going to shift things around a bit and try an approach and class structure I've never used before. All of that to say: I would like to ask for a bit of your patience while we figure this out together.
Here are a couple of principles that will guide this class:
- Hands-on learning is stickiest.
- Looking at a screen for several hours is a lot and we're all looking at screens more right now.
- Discovering something on your own is more rewarding than hearing it from a lecturer.
- Building something real is the best way to understand a new technology.
With those things in mind, here is how I would like this course to go:
- Starting next week, classes will be heavily driven by structured coding exercises. I don't expect that everyone will come out of this class wanting to do software development full time. However, I think a lot of geospatial professionals are hampered by a fear of things they perceive to be too "technical." Together, we'll pull back the curtain and explore some of the guts that make web maps work.
- I would like to reduce the length of these classes to two-ish hours. My workshops usually include a lot of hands-on troubleshooting, which I don't think works particularly well in a large group setting. I would like to supplement the shorter class with 1) a set of take-home code exercises and 2) a couple of blocks of office hours where we can work through any issues you're having 1:1.
- We'll go through each take-home exercise together the following week. I will send exercises out the morning after each class (I sometimes need to adjust the exercises based on how each class goes) and will ask you to send me your completed exercises before the following class. These won't be too burdensome, but I hope to challenge you a bit.
- Starting next week, we're going to work on something real. Together, we'll build a "services locator" map to help people in our communities find the services they need. Each week, we'll build on our work from the previous week, adding new functionality or exploring web mapping principles through our work on the project.
I'm really glad you're here and am really looking forward to the next few weeks we'll be spending together!
