Pedometer Readings - 9

Over nine weeks the 19 students walked a total of 11,004,385 steps.

This week, each day the average number of steps walked by students was 9,812 steps.

Changing Perceptions

First impressions of Downtown Kitchener, September, 2012

New impressions after two walking tours, November, 2012

Pedometer Readings - 8

Over eight weeks the 19 students walked a total of 10,042,805 steps.

This week, each day the average number of steps walked by students was 10,042 steps.

Pedometer Readings - 7

Over seven weeks the 19 students walked a total of 8,777,463 steps.

This week, each day the average number of steps walked by students was 11,450 steps.

Pedometer Readings - 6

Over six weeks the 19 students walked a total of 7,414,931 steps.

This week, each day the average number of steps walked by students was 10,249 steps.

A Walk Through Downtown Berlin, 1912

Pedometer Readings - 5

Over five weeks the 19 students walked a total of 6,267,084 steps.

Each day the average number of steps walked by students was 10,255 steps.

Pedometer Readings - 4

Over four weeks the 19 students walked a total of 5,186,511 steps.

Each day the average number of steps walked by students was 10,458 steps.

Nature Hike to 'rare'

The blue line represents the route followed by the class through the 'rare' property near Blair, Ontario.  It was recorded by a Garmin GPS device and later uploaded to Google Earth.

The image on the right is a cross-sectional profile of elevation along the route shown above.  The trail is approximately 4 kilometres in length with an average elevation of 275 metres above sea level, ranging from a minimum of 268 metres a.s.l. to 283 metres a.s.l.

Reflection 2

For this second reflection I want you think and write about your experience on the walk with Dr. Milne through the rare property.  To help guide your reflections draw on the discoveries you recorded in the journal entry format.  (Note that you are not asked to submit a journal entry but rather a reflection.)  In considering your experience identify 5 things you already knew, and five things you didn’t know before the walk and how you learned them.  As further stimulus for your reflection consider the appropriateness on this occasion of the poem ‘Nutting’ by William Wordsworth.

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/nutting/

As well as submitting your reflections on MyLS, also please bring a copy to class on Thursday and we will have a roundtable discussion of the walk.

Finally, you can ignore for now the reading listed on the course outline for this week, i.e. de Certeau,1984.  We will look at that later.

Journal 1 - Sensory Descriptors

Click to enlarge

This is a word cloud of the main sensory perceptions identified by students on their first walk.  The descriptors were extracted from the 3894 words that they wrote in their journal entries.

Pedometer Readings - 3

Over three weeks the 19 students walked a total of 4,098,332 steps.

Each day the average number of steps walked by students was 10,896 steps.

Mysterious Circle Created in Waterloo Park

Pedometer Readings - 2

Over two weeks the 19 students walked a total of 2,794,149 steps (revised).

Each day the average number of steps walked by students was 11,168 steps.

Goosechase Laurier

Josh's Map of the Goosechase Scavenger Hunt

Pedometer readings - 1

The students in AF101e wore pedometers for the week of September 13-19.  There were 18 records submitted for the period.  A few data items were missing or anomalous due to defective devices, and possibly errors in recording.  Overall, the students walked a total  of 1,109,804 steps.  Each day the average number of steps walked by students was just less than 10,000 steps, with Saturday having the most steps.

Reflection 1

For your first assignment, the key questions to reflect on are:  What did you expect? What are you expecting now?  This assignment asks you to think about, and put into words, your own emerging understanding of this walking seminar.   This will require that you think about your initial impressions of the course when you were recruited, your knowledge of the course now that you have read the syllabus, and your expectations of the activities and assignments ahead.  In developing these ideas, you might make reference to the people who you have spoken to, the materials on My Learning Space, and the reading by Lee and Ingold (2006).  The main idea is to identify what you have learned and how you learned it. 

Welcome to the Fall term 2012

A big welcome to the students in AF101e Walking: pathways to discovery.  I wish you all a stimulating and successful first term.

Walking Concept Map

Here is the first draft of a concept map designed to address the question:  what opportunities are there for incorporating walking into teaching and learning? (click to enlarge). By the look of it, there are numerous possibilities!

Experiments in walking - 2

The word cloud, or Wordle, is another technique I find effective for representing a collective response to a walking activity.  In these word clouds the more frequently used words are more visually prominent in size and colour.

Below is the Wordle generated from the word-pairs submitted by students in response to a short walk from Laurier to Uptown Waterloo on a cold and snowy Valentine's day.  On this walk I asked students to comment on their walking experience rather than the cityscape they were walking through. 

Click enlarge - x to return

Experiments in walking

This Winter term I have incorporated walking pedagogies into two other undergraduate courses (GG265 and GG461).  Its been instructive and a lot of fun to develop and test a variety of walking activities with these students.  Here is one of the latest experiments piloted by students in GG265 Urban Spatial Behaviour.

In groups of three, students retraced their previous path through Uptown Waterloo, but this time in the reverse direction.   I asked them to write a creative expression for some location or moment along their 30 walk to and fro Uptown Waterloo.  The expression was to follow parameters linked to concepts introduced in previous modules, and determined by the roll of three dice.   Using these three parameters (structure, perspective and activity) the students were asked to write a creative expression of the city characterizing the influence of structure, heightening a particular perspective, and based on the idea of an activity.  

Structure   (black die)	Perspective   (white die)	Activity  (red die)
Nodes	Artifact	Playing
Edges	Wealth	Working
Districts	Place	Moving
Landmarks	System	Speeding
Paths	Problem	Relaxing
Beginnings	History	Walking

Here is what the students came up with:

Roses are red

We wish Silver Lake was blue

But its not

Because its clogged by goo

Rose are red

Violets are blue

We move along pathways

To get different views

The power corner is a landmark representing the place of Waterloo and the people working here.

Frolicking through the snow, without snowshoes, surrounded by edges.

A constantly moving system of roads that come together in a powerful node (power corner).

Moving through the network of interconnected paths of travel allows the mind to perceive a sense of place.

Walking on edges of the past, present and future.

While speeding through the various different edges, one observes changes and differences in wealth.

Calmly distinct boundaries are evident from the distinct hierarchical structures that exist within housing.  The facilities belong luxury and relaxation (cosmetic surgery clinic).

The system of streetlights stops speeding cars when crossing important landmarks such as the power corner.

While following our path we approached a problematic intersection with speeding cars.

The historical landmarks bring a state of relaxation to all who walk by.

Next steps

This blog was first used by students at Wilfrid Laurier University in the Fall of 2011 as part of a first-year seminar focused on walking (AF101e).  My learning from this experience, as the seminar instructor, was tremendous.  I want to acknowledge the contribution of the 20 students taking the seminar and thank them.  Most of the blog entries up to this date were initially written by those students and then edited and posted by me.

The next steps are to continue to use this blog as a resource for other courses that I lead in which there is a walking component. I look forward to the path ahead.