Techno Tracking

Forget the typical map on the huge bulletin board with thousands of different colored pushpins marking varied locations. Think instead of computers and online GIS aka Geographic Information System. Basically, mapping software that merges cartography, data base, and statistical data into one program and permits users to superimpose information onto local, community maps.

One sociology professor at California State University at San Marcos has utilized this mapping technology to assist her students in learning about their socio-ethnic surroundings in a more profound manner. This GIS technology has allowed Theresa Suarez to connect the dots for her students between racial and ethnic theories and real life applications.

Theresa Suarez believes that this software has augmented online learning in ways that go beyond the usual scope of teaching. Her students placed virtual pushpins on different areas they frequented like the grocery store, work, school, the beach, and even places they did not go.

Then, her students had to use the demographic data to interpret boundaries between racial and ethnic areas such as various infrastructural breaks. Eighty percent of her students said that the GIS assignment helped them to view social research in a different light.

Sociology or the study of society is a field of academia that obviously benefits from the use of innovative technology. Just because students are taking the majority of their coursework online for a particular class, like Suarez’ students, doesn’t mean that they can’t benefit from increased interaction via virtual software and communication.

Since sociology, as a social science is constantly evolving, it makes sense that professors make good use of new theoretical aides to help bridge the gap between ideologies and applications for students. Because ethnic studies is interdisciplinary in nature and pulls from traditional disciplines like history, anthropology, and ethnology, it makes sense to incorporate technological solutions as a means to relate the varied specialties.

Students who are participating in online courses, such as sociology, have the edge in terms of being able to interpret social research in new ways by actively participating in online technology. Suarez believes, because of GIS mapping, that she is creating “social scientists-in-training” regardless of where her students’ careers take them in the future. Online education will continue to expand its technological frontiers and students who have made the decisions to obtain their degrees through virtual schools will be impressed with the great strides that have been made on the technological front.