Distance Learning Strategies

Hello all,
In light of the current situation and the likelihood that many, if not all of us may find ourselves teaching online soon, a few of us thought it may be useful to share teaching strategies or resources that we will be using in our classes for the remainder of the semester. Especially difficult will be field labs that many of us teach. I have set up a Google sheet that everyone should have access to for us to share our teaching strategies. The link is below. Please share any ideas you have and feel free to modify the spreadsheet to add additional information. If you are ok with having others contact your for more information, include your name and contact information in the indicated columns. If you cannot access the sheet,  let me or Peter (pel2@psu.edu) know. Please let me know if you have any questions.

https://tinyurl.com/rg89zyf

Jeff Dubis
jdubis@MAINE.EDU
Instructor of Forestry
Coordinator- Applied Forest Management Program
Chair-Natural Sciences Division
University of Maine at Fort Kent

GIS Videos from Fort Kent

For the past year, I have been recording walkthroughs of various GIS operations used in our classes and labs. These are available on our YouTube page, which is not monetized and available for use in any of your courses if you find them useful. Students in my GIS class are required to watch and take notes on a series of videos before each lab, and students in my Map & LiDAR interpretation course use videos as a reference during labs. I have been finding this far more effective and engaging than purely written instructions.

How to make a georeferenced PDF for Avenza Maps:

Calculating the grade of a road:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROn7pqp-yzQ

Creating a terrain profile graph and using it to identify locations that may need a culvert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_Dsafq14GE

Creating a multi-directional hillshade in ArcMap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkLprGCrB3g

Importing geotagged photos in ArcMap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXl4mhJuBno

80 or so others: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCztJHsMrIm8sf0QyA7uTb6Q/videos

If there’s something you’d like demonstrated that you don’t see here, let me know and I’ll do it if it’s a straightforward operation —

Dr. Neil Thompson
Assistant Professor
Applied Forest Management
University of Maine Fort Kent
Office: 121 Armory Building
Office: (207) 834-7628
Cell: (207) 706-9228Mail: 23 University Drive,
Fort Kent, ME 04743
UMFK Forestry Facebook Instagram YouTube

GIS software changes

On Monday, 2/25 I asked the CEFTS list the following question:

Hello all,

Most of us are using ArcGIS for GIS software. The current version of the desktop mapping software is ArcMap 10.6.

There is a new generation of GIS software, ArcGIS Pro. This is a 64-bit version that has many advanced features and a completely different interface. From what I understand, ArcMap will be phased out in a few years in favor of ArcGIS Pro. ArcGIS Pro is also closely tied to ArcGIS online.

Penn State University will soon be making ArcGIS online and Pro available to the whole University community.

Has your forest technology program have made the switch to the Pro version? And if you have, what has been your experience? Do you think students would benefit from switching or should we stick with the old version for a while? I will compile your answers to put on the CEFTS web page. Thank you for your help.

Peter

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From Gene McCaul at Green River College (2/25/19)

Hi Peter,

Thanks for letting us know. We have not made the switch in our technology program yet and it seems most of the people who employ our graduates have not made the switch themselves, so it has not made sense to us to switch until the employers are ready for this.

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From Russell Strong at Montgomery Community College (2/25/19)

Same as Gene said, here at MCC we are aware that it will be phase out but we are in no hurry to change at the present time because of what graduates will be using when working for employers.

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From Scott Reigel at Dabney S. Lancaster Community College (2/25/19)

Same for us.  I have taught out of the ArcGIS suite and that is what we use, but I make sure that the course includes things such as Avenza, Google Earth, etc.  Most of our students are going to use GIS everyday, but unless in a corporation, large consulting firms or the government, Arc is rare over other GIS software.  So, I have structured in the Forest Mapping for the FMT degree; surveying, topos, aerial and remote sensing measurements, GIS (points, lines, polygons_Attributes tables and databases, queries, etc., GPS functions, etc.)  Our private industry still is big users of Terrain Navigator, other software such as CMT GIS which I use in my consulting business.  I teach as well as use Arc, but no secret:  if you do not use it daily, the simplest procedures are easily forgotten.  

I get so frustrated with how slow Arc is with that Online basemap generation.  Over other software models in which you import the .tif or .sid in to the project.   The spinning globe in the lower status bar is my nemesis! Yes I get the benefits, but for slow internet speeds and working off of laptops in the field..it is inefficient.

Long story, we have not switched either.

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From Neil Thompson at the University of Maine at Fort Kent (2/25/19)

I teach the GIS Applications I course at UMFK, among other things. I test drove ArcPro last year and was not impressed. I will reevaluate in a couple years, I think the software has potential that hasn’t been realized yet, especially with the 64-bit capability. As others have said, I haven’t seen anyone in industry moving that way yet but will be watching for change.

Re: loading basemaps, if you’re using imagery, check out the NAIP direct download site as an alternative. https://nrcs.app.box.com/v/naip States are typically flown every three years, so yours might be in 2017 or 2016. We just got our 2018 at 60cm resolution, both true color and color infrared.

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From Marie Perrin-Miller at Allegany College of Maryland (2/27/19)

At Allegany College we are still using ArcMap for desktop- I can see us switching to pro in the near future based on recent conversations with our advisory committee and employers.

Sonic Tomography Demonstration

During the CEFTS 2012 meeting at the Bartlett Research Center in Charlotte, NC we had the opportunity to see a demonstration of a sonic tomography scan of a tree. This technology uses sound waves to detect rotted areas in a tree trunk. After the meeting, Steve Resh of Allegany College acquired funding to buy a sonic tomography tool for his program. On 11/17/15 Steve graciously came to Penn State Mont Alto to demonstrate how sonic tomography works. Working with second year students in Beth Brantley’s Forest Ecosystem Protection class, two trees were imaged, a yellow buckeye and a larch.

Click on any image to see the album full size.

It was a very successful afternoon. All of us at Mont Alto want to thank Steve for his help!

False Color Example

Sometimes students have a hard time understanding the concept of false color imagery using infrared in aerial photography. I find it helpful to use photographic images, both black and white infrared and various kinds of false color. The artistic work of photographers can make it more understandable.

Today on the Bing.com search engine there is a marvelous false color image of trees and log cabins that is very interesting. Here is a permanent link to the image: https://www.bing.com/?FORM=HPSHCL&mkt=en-US&ssd=20140813_0700 . And I am including a screen capture of the image, too. Enjoy!

falsecolor