Course Title: Mapping for Social Justice: An Introduction to GIS
Instructor: Tim Clarke, Digital Learning Librarian, Trexler Library
Date/Time: MW 6:00 p.m. – 7:15 p.m. (in-person)
If you are interested in following along with this course online, please reach out to me directly via email at tclarke@muhlenberg.edu.
Course Description
From GPS to Google Maps, from Life360 to QGIS, the digital mapping tools available today are more powerful and easier to use than ever. At their worst, location-based software can be a pernicious means to track and limit one’s individual liberty. At their best, digital mapping tools help us to record and better understand the social and natural phenomena that surround us. Having a meaningful understanding and hands-on experience with digital mapping tools is an important 21st Century digital literacy skill.
Mapping can empower us to participate in civic projects, citizen science, and activism in meaningful ways, such as analyzing a local election, preparing to run for office, lobbying our towns for safer crosswalks, or monitoring the health of our local streams and rivers, to name just a few examples. Today, we can explore vast amounts of public data or collect data ourselves using our smartphones, network-connected devices, and computers.
This course will introduce participants to several digital mapping tools, in particular, QGIS. Digital mapping software are vital scholarly tools for exploring, analyzing, and visualizing data about places. In the course of learning digital mapping software, participants will use real data to explore real-world problems and will collectively consider how digital mapping tools and techniques can be employed in the service of social justice causes.
About the Instructor
Tim Clarke (pronouns: he/him/his) has a Masters of Information and Library Science (M.L.S.) from the University of Maryland, College Park’s College of Information Studies, and a M.S. in Education from Saint Joseph’s University’s School of Education and Human Development. Tim has been a librarian and instructional designer at Muhlenberg College since 2010. Prior to Muhlenberg, Tim was the Geographic Information Systems and geospatial data specialist at Davis Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a natural resources data specialist for the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission.
Community Guidelines
As the creator of this course, I am committed to shaping an environment where all participants – regardless of age, sex, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, ability, physical appearance, race, ethnicity, nationality, marital status, military status, religion, or socioeconomic status – feel safe, included, comfortable and a sense of belonging in the course. I will make my best efforts to accommodate specific needs. Please reach out to me directly via email at tclarke@muhlenberg.edu.
Some aspects of this course, and some modes of participation in this course are reserved for those enrolled through Muhlenberg College. Other aspects of this course, particularly those shared via this website, invite broader participation. Whenever possible, openly licensed materials and Free and Open Source (FOSS) software is used to foster learning about GIS in the service of social justice.
Below are a few things we shall do as a learning community to help ensure our collective success. If there is something that should be included that is not, please let me know. If there is something we should reconsider together, please let me know.
- Share responsibility for including all voices in the conversation. If you tend to have a lot to say, make sure you leave sufficient space to hear from others. If you tend to stay quiet in group discussions, challenge yourself to contribute so others can learn from you. We are all teachers and learners in this course.
- “Listen” respectfully. Please don’t interrupt or engage in private conversations while others are speaking. Though we are meeting online, be attentive when others contribute. Feel assured that sharing via our classroom’s chat feature is a valued way to participate, and know that all participants will strive to monitor chat, and other features of our online classroom (e.g., virtual raised hand notifications, slow down requests).
- Whenever possible, please participate with your camera on for the benefit of those with sight. There are times and circumstances where this isn’t optimal, and that’s ok. But also know that an online classroom community benefits from strong connections among all participants. In most cases, cameras are helpful for achieving this aim. Recording our class sessions, if requested, must be unanimously affirmed by all present, and objections may be recorded privately via a direct chat message to me.
- Understand that there are different approaches to solving problems. If you are uncertain about someone else’s approach, ask a question to explore areas of uncertainty. Listen respectfully to how and why the approach could work.
- Be mindful about how you use humor or irony in class. Keep in mind that we don’t all find the same things funny.
- Make an effort to get to know everyone. We will have multiple opportunities for introductions, and quick ‘check-in’ and ‘check-out’ rituals at the start and end of each class session. Please know that what you choose to share is a valued part of this course, and how we make what we are learning last in our memories.
(Sources of Inspiration: BUDSC22, DHSI, DLF, NDLC, US OpenGLAM, DigPedLab, University of Michigan CRLT)