Through this course, Advanced Cartography, myself and my peers in the Faulty of Geography were developed
- Gained knowledge of the guidelines in communicating information through infographics and maps
- Gained introductory technical skills in Processing, R, Illustrator, and Carto.
- Became aware of the potential for agency and contribution to social justice through cartographic skill.
- Worked collaboratively in a team and with an external community partner to develop practical cartographic deliverables.
This course, Advanced Cartography, has taught me the empowerment that is possible when we can produce convincing visuals to communicate our analyses in social sciences. As Social Science students in the Faculty of Arts, to communicate and prove our research and analyses, the method has always been writing in text. However, as we understand the real world, much of the everyday phenomena cannot only be explained in text or numerical form. As Geography students, we realize the interconnections and the interplay of the physical patterns of the land and the abstract relationships with social and economic networks in creating our world.
Thus, the communicative power Geographic Information Science (GIS) and methods give to social science students to visualize data cannot be stressed enough. When data is visualized, it is expands the accessibility of this knowledge beyond the tight circles of academia and into the wider public more easily.
Furthermore, these skills give me the confidence to be a Geography student where I can stress the importance of how yes! maps matter and therefore yes! the studying Human Geography is relevant for everyday life.
Through the course, I have also realized my strengths and weaknesses. I realized that I am good with acquiring and parsing data, but I find difficulty in representing this data visually…especially creatively in a form of an Infographic. However, through the group project and working with close friends throughout the assignments, I became aware of the necessity of group work in these kinds of projects. Each person has a strength and a weakness, and by working in groups, you are able to balance each other’s skills by dividing the work. Therefore in the group project, while I focused mainly on the data, we balanced each other out as my other group members focused on the visualization process.