Sometimes you realize that starting simple isn’t actually a bad thing and ambition gets the better of you.
In the first crack at the advanced GIS class, I went all in on tackling problems I don’t have answers to. My thinking was, if I don’t know the answer, then students may feel more at ease at trying new methods and experimenting with various approaches. The reality is, none of us know what to do and little to nothing gets done.
The first set back was definitely the website (my fault). Naively, I guessed that Jekyll’s “simple blogging site” would be just a matter of a few mouse clicks, edit these few fields, and away you go. The spread out documentation and lack of good tutorials played the first minor key and set the tune of this composition. The upside is, I now have a working template that I can share with students so they don’t have the same struggle I did.
Not having class the first week of the semester has also created a challenge as we have an unbalanced before-and-after spring break schedule. I’ve opted for a longer second half of the semester project, since exams and projects in other classes tend to slow down a class’s pace.
In hindsight, next iteration should play more to my own strengths (i.e., water); though, I would not have been able to come up with several ideas integral to the class if I hadn’t stumbled at this first attempt.
That’s growing pains for you.