Project Ideas

    I have been trying to come up with an idea that I feel is simply feasible and continue to run into the same problem: too big. The amount of data I am able to access with nothing more than a Google search for any of the ideas I have considered is nothing short of terrifying. However, in the spirit of scholarly adventure, I’ll throw out a few ideas and see what you guys think.

    I’m a sports junkie. My father was a sports junkie and his father before him; so it looks as though this project is going to be geared towards sports. What I had considered doing was some kind of NHL player breakdown assessing the relationship between proximity to a community center with an ice surface and chance at making it to the NHL. Given that I’m looking for recent trends and trying to limit my data base, I thought I might take every player to play a game over the last 20 years and plot them geographically. 

    It’s at this point in time that I run into a bit of a crisis. I can’t decide exactly how to go about best plotting the data I have considered. Obviously I could do a simple tag of each player at their municipality, look at where there were the most players and the least then make assessments about how many minor league rinks they had access to during their youth. Just a couple issues with this however. I have to be careful not to include all rinks for all players as rinks have been built since certain players have joined the league, rendering them nonexistent during their your. Also, I have to have some kind of distance limit for what I consider to be an accessible rink, which seems to me somewhat arbitrary. 

     I also have a few more issues with pursuing this project in its current state. Issues such as am I going to look at statistics for these players and consider the impact of the distance not just on their ability to reach the NHL, but also their level of performance once there? Will I consider the availability of public transit for youth from the city in creating distance limits for what is considered an accessible rink? These are questions which I hope to address in a manner which is responsible in that it does not skew the data.

    The ultimate goal of this assignment would be to create geographic hot spots for youth hockey scouting and identify areas prone to NHL player development. I have also considered taking a more geographic approach, where I look at the relationship between rink availability and temperature, and the impact that has on ones chance to make the NHL. I think it would be interesting to illustrate the relationship between average temperature and the odds of a person from a given place making the NHL/ the odds any given NHL player was facing when they began pursuing their NHL aspirations. 

GIS and Criminology

    When we first discussed Geographic Information Systems in class, I had a difficult time understanding how they could be applicable in a practical fashion. However, as I read more and more on the subject I became convinced of its utility. 

    I wanted to get outside the history box for this assignment and look at applications of GIS that weren’t digitized maps of cities that were hundreds of years old. That being said, I began to explore sociologically geared GIS endeavours. I searched on the internet to see if Toronto had an interactive crime map, and was directed to an article that separated Toronto into various neighbourhoods and examined crime rates. The map was really interesting because it allowed you to break it down by specific crime by year, painting somewhat of a portrait of Toronto’s crime makeup. 

      It’s really interesting to think of the different ways the data gathered could be taken advantage of. I came across a professor from the University of Alberta named Dr. Allan Parnell who used GIS data mapping social inequality to improve community services, one of which was law enforcement. He discusses some of his ideas in an interview discussing how he sees GIS improving the relationship between government and citizen. He looks at the social makeup of neighbourhoods and makes comparative assessments which are visualized through mapping. This could be extremely helpful to sociologists for recognizing patterns which are indicative of potential social issues, such as the relationship between the quality of education available and crime. This suggestion of utilizing GIS mapping as a forecasting tool for things such as crime, as supported in a paper by Elizabeth Groff and Nancy La Vigne provides a look into the potential of GIS in criminology. Their paper also highlights some of the issues associated with the use of GIS mapping of criminal activity for policing purposes, such as displacement of criminal activity and targeting. These have been seen as pitfalls of GIS criminal mapping by some and criticized as leading to unfair policing.

    For myself GIS mapping of criminal activity does present a certain degree of usefulness. That being, I don’t want to live in a terrible neighbourhood where I’m at constant risk of being robbed. This is also a great tool for families looking to buy homes, as there are GIS maps available that not only look at crime, but can also provide information about things such as previously mentioned quality of education. Again however, critics may suggest this leads to perpetually good and bad neighbourhoods. 

      It would seem that this is a form of technology which requires more time before it may be accurately assessed for its effectiveness in this regard. 

    

My Experience with ORLANDO

    I really enjoyed using the ORLANDO database, in large part because of how well I felt it tied in with the Susan Hockey article, specifically the section discussing consolidation. This is because this is a great example of how enormous amounts of information can be consolidated onto computers in an organized fashion. The superior organization of digitizing the material is made abundantly clear through the simplicity of navigating through the ORLANDO database. Information is separated under sub-headings such as milestones, writings, life, etc. while also providing opportunities to explore other resources through links. This makes getting at the heart of the information you require that much easier, rather than tasking the individual with scanning through irrelevant information.

    I undertook a personal experiment to test just how thorough the database was, as well as to see just how effective it was as a search engine. I googled the names of female British novelists and selected one at random. I inputted the name “Grace Aguilar” from a list I had obtained on-line, and was immediately provided details of her personal life, writing career, time lines of events in her life and writing, etc. I think what impressed me most was not that I was simply provided a list of her writings and life, but also how they interplayed with one another. The site features a section discussing the connection of her faith to her writing, which I felt was a great tool as it contextualized the information the user was being exposed to. This made the database remarkably less hollow, and was the type of feature I saw consistently with subsequent test searches. That being said, I found the ORLANDO database to be designed in such a way that it was easy enough to navigate for even someone with limited technological comfort while not compromising the quality of it’s content. 

How have my studies at Guelph been affected by digital tools and approaches, and what future possibilities do I see?

    The impact of digital tools and approaches on my studies at the University of Guelph has been nothing short of enormous. Simply put, the world is a much smaller place and this is something that has been hugely reflected by my research strategies while at university. The time consuming ritual of flipping through book pages and searching through manuscripts for relevant and helpful information is a thing of the past. Rather, now each assignment I undertake is approached in a similar manner. I use the tools readily available to provide myself with a broad understanding of the topic I am covering. This can be accomplished using a number of tools i.e. websites, search engines, data bases, digitized books etc. Once this has been completed, I typically look for patterns in the source material and use those to develop keywords for my more specific research. 

    From this point forward, the number of digital tools which I can use becomes nearly limitless. As previously mentioned, I have at my fingertips databases, journal articles, books, etc. all of which will be brought to the forefront of my attention with the properly selected keywords. Furthermore, in some cases it is not even necessary to read the entire document for the information required. This is because specific keywords within the document can be searched bringing you directly to the portion of the document you wish to use. It has changed the academic process from one of monotony to one of systematic exploitation of digital resource tools, depending on technological savvy.

    Although the contributions of digital tools to writing and research has been enormous, it does not stand alone. Presentations of mine have been developed on program templates which make the creation of a professional appearing format simple enough for a toddler to do. Furthermore, embedding video into these presentations has dismissed the need for the formerly preferred A/V technology, such as VCR’s/DVD’s. 

     Looking even beyond these two examples, its almost impossible to assess my educational experience at Guelph without giving credit to digital tools. Course websites allow me to connect with my classmates, email provides me a format to request aid at any time of day, class schedules are found on web space specifically designated to each student, even the actual payment system for the university which allows me to remain enrolled is digitized. Digital tools and approaches in education are now so ubiquitous one does not even need be in the same room as a course instructor in order to earn the course credit, as is the case with online courses. Top to bottom, the modern educational institution is one of expansive digital tools influencing approaches.

    Discussing the direction in which one see’s digital tools and approaches heading in the coming years is extremely difficult. This is perhaps the result of many of these ideas we have put to practice today being quite revolutionary. However, if I had to I would venture to guess that the online course experience become more developed. I would not be hugely surprised by increased use of podcasts by instructors, so as to ensure the message of the content is more accurate to their interpretation. As it stands many online courses are essentially a list of readings and online discussions, however I see the instructors role being more greatly expanded. The reason I feel this way is because of the direction technology has already taken education. It would seem that at some point for many the requirement of an actual physical institution will be unnecessary. That being said, the importance of the instructors ability to communicate his thoughts to his class is no more diminished, their role is still very important. This is why I see things such as podcasts and perhaps video conferencing becoming more greatly integrated into digital tools used for the educational experience.