The visit is organized by The New Mappings Collaboratory, as part of the Geography Department's Spring Colloquium series.

geography.as.uky.edu

Dan Sui is Professor and Chair of Geography at The Ohio State University. His current research focuses on volunteered geographic information and the use of social media as a new data source for geographic research as well as the legal and ethical issues of using geospatial technologies in society. The New Mappings Collaboratory at the University of Kentucky hosted Professor Sui, kicking off an effort to build partnerships around new spatial media education and research.

This workshop explores how community mapping and geospatial technology can be incorporated in the classroom. A primary goal of this technique is helping students develop and demonstrate higher order thinking skills that engage them in the process of discovering and answering questions about their community. The goal is to introduce a range of simple open source/open access mapping tools that can be easily leveraged in class projects to highlight local issues and initiate conversations about community dynamics, space, and priorities.

Students in Matt Wilson's class get to hang out with celebrities like Denzel Washington, Ryan Gosling and even the Turtle-Man. The 'Celebrity Mapping Project' required them to photograph a cut-out of any celebrity, develop a creative caption explaining why that celebrity would be on campus, upload their photographs into a collaborative photo-sharing site, and, finally, place their photographs directly into the appropriate sites on a collaborative map. Learn more about the project!