Dr. Mueller: There is no problem!
OpenStreetMap endeavors to be many things to many people, academia and students VERY much included! All I was saying is that it can be helpful to find a local ambassador to act as a guide. This isn’t necessary, merely helpful. If I had more bandwidth to offer you (and I am in California, not Pennsylvania) I myself would offer to be that person, alas, I cannot do so. I wish the very best to you and your students and encourage your continuing to use OSM as you see fit. SteveA California > On Apr 11, 2016, at 5:01 PM, Mueller, Thomas <muel...@calu.edu> wrote: > > I am very sorry for my lack of communication. Yes I am Tom Mueller. I have > a class called Introduction to Geography. It is a class of 100 students. I > offered my students an opportunity of extra credit if they completed 3 new > buildings in their hometown (about 45 students took me up on this option.) I > had the students watch the MapGive video and they are submitting the screen > shots to me. I am asking students to make changes if there are problems. I > attempted this type of project about a year ago and did not have any > problems. I am sorry I was unaware that I needed to contact anyone. > > If this is a problem, I will ask my students to stop. I apologize. I was > using this extra credit as a test case for a bigger project in the fall > semester . However if this is causing a problem I will also not proceed. > > Again I am sorry > Tom > From: OSM Volunteer stevea <stevea...@softworkers.com> > Sent: Monday, April 11, 2016 7:35:32 PM > To: talk-us@openstreetmap.org > Subject: Re: [Talk-us] Talk-us Digest, Vol 101, Issue 10 > > At least a couple of posters have responded to the thread: > >> I'm equally inexperienced in the contact department, so take what I say with >> that gain of salt. >> >> This appears to be a class at California University of Pennsylvania >> (calu.edu <http://calu.edu/>), and the last of the users you link appears to >> be Dr. [Tom] Mueller himself. >> >> Perhaps someone with some degree of officialness can contact the professor >> directly (via institutional email, I'd guess) to start the conversation in a >> good-faith fashion. > > I have had excellent results in working with my local University (of > California, also my alma mater) with professors (of Computer Science, > Environmental Studies), staff, interns, contractors, etc. OSM is very > higher-education friendly as there are many ways that using and improving its > underlying data can be beneficial to both the students and back to the > project. My best experiences come from acting in the capacity of a local > “ambassador” to the project, offering longer-term project perspective, > consultation, direction, technical answers, in-person class attendance (once > or twice during a quarter or semester is quite sufficient) and whatever else > might be needed to support the professor and the aims of the class. True, > this is most helpful before-the-fact (students joining OSM and editing) > rather than afterwards, but it can be successful either way. I just think > its easier to do a little discussion and planning up-front to reduce > surprises and anything unexpected. > > If you are in academia as a professor/instructor, new to OSM yourself and are > contemplating using OSM in your class (especially if more than just a few > students will be editing en masse) please endeavor to find some local OSM > person(s) who can act as a guide. While not necessary, this can reduce > misunderstandings, more easily glide into the brief (yet necessary) > additional “mapping curriculum" that must be developed so students are both > good editors yet while still furthering the aims of the class. Our map is a > shared fabric, not only among us, (OSM volunteers who add and edit data) but > also among the wider world who can and do use OSM to teach and do wonderful > things that we might not even have imagined. > > I don’t particularly think any “degree of officialness” (Ph.D. or otherwise!) > is required to contact the professor: simply introduce yourself as an > interested and eager OSM volunteer who wants to help. Then, listen. > > Good luck to everybody, COMMUNICATE, keep learning and most of all, have fun! > > SteveA > California
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