The Light Source Metaphor Revisited—Bringing an Old Concept for Teaching Map Projections to the Modern Web
OPEN ACCESS
Loading...
Author / Producer
Date
2019-04
Publication Type
Journal Article
ETH Bibliography
yes
Citations
Altmetric
OPEN ACCESS
Data
Rights / License
Abstract
Map projections are one of the foundations of geographic information science and cartography. An understanding of the different projection variants and properties is critical when creating maps or carrying out geospatial analyses. The common way of teaching map projections in text books makes use of the light source (or light bulb) metaphor, which draws a comparison between the construction of a map projection and the way light rays travel from the light source to the projection surface. Although conceptually plausible, such explanations were created for the static instructions in textbooks. Modern web technologies may provide a more comprehensive learning experience by allowing the student to interactively explore (in guided or unguided mode) the way map projections can be constructed following the light source metaphor. The implementation of this approach, however, is not trivial as it requires detailed knowledge of map projections and computer graphics. Therefore, this paper describes the underlying computational methods and presents a prototype as an example of how this concept can be applied in practice. The prototype will be integrated into the Geographic Information Technology Training Alliance (GITTA) platform to complement the lesson on map projections.
Permanent link
Publication status
published
External links
Editor
Book title
Journal / series
Volume
8 (4)
Pages / Article No.
162
Publisher
MDPI
Event
Edition / version
Methods
Software
Geographic location
Date collected
Date created
Subject
Map projections; Computer graphics; Visualization; 3D; Education; Teaching; Multimedia; Open educational resources
Organisational unit
03466 - Hurni, Lorenz / Hurni, Lorenz