| Faculty and Curriculum Chronology Geography at Laurentian University (opened
in 1960) has been taught since 1962. At that time, the single geography faculty member was
attached to the Geology Department and had to develop and teach, on his own, a curriculum
that included introductory, economic, and European geography. Student demand for geography
courses during the mid- to late-1960s enabled both an increase in the number of geography
faculty and the creation of a separate department. By the early 1970s the department grew
to its present complement of 8 faculty members, 1 technologist, and 1 secretary. Although
it is still one of the smallest departments at Laurentian in terms of faculty numbers, its
programs have been very successful as reflected in total student-courses taught, second
only to psychology in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. All teaching is done
at the undergraduate level with programs offered in both English and French as languages
of instruction. Members of the department participate in graduate level instruction
through their participation in graduate committees within the university and externally.
The framework of the undergraduate program was struck in the 1970s and reflects both
older traditions of as well as newer developments in the discipline. After completing
introductory human and physical geography courses in first year, students in their second
and third years are instructed in three primary categories of the discipline: analytical
studies, systematics, and regional studies. Regional studies are enhanced by the fact
that, in addition to their methodological or thematic specialties, the geography faculty
have worked (or lived) on every continent of the world with the exception of Antarctica.
Fourth year students employ the skills and knowledge developed in those three categories
of courses as they engage in applied geographical analyses emphasizing regional resources
development and planning, urban planning, applied GIS, and social development studies.
This basic program structure or framework has not had to change over the past thirty years
because it is robust and flexible enough to allow for the deletion/addition of courses as
the discipline evolves and student interests change.
In addition to its own separate programs, the department participates in a number of
inter-disciplinary programs in collaboration with the departments of biology and geology.
As well, a number of our courses act as service courses for those departments and programs
that range from anthropology to recreation studies in the school of human movement.
Facilities Chronology
During the 1960s, teaching materials included the rudimentary but still essential
wall and topographic maps, charts, globes, and air photographs. Along with the expansion
of the number of faculty members in the 1970s came additional lab space and many of the
technological "toys" of the day including a large-format camera in a well
furnished dark room and the introduction of computers into the undergraduate curriculum.
Early on, students "marveled" at their capability to rapidly generate maps using
the SYMAP software, even if to do so they had to struggle with punch cards and to endure
3- to 7-day turn-around times with the central computing facility of the day (an IBM 360).
The latter was soon replaced with interactive computing capability and students found
themselves undertaking multivariate statistical analyses and some elementary digital
remote sensing analyses using the "dumb" terminals that were acquired for both
faculty and student use.
The LU Department of Geography has been assisted by a series of very supportive Deans
in its attempts to keep abreast of technological developments. And, because of its
relatively small class sizes, quickly incorporated these developments into classroom
teaching. As indicated previously, computer instruction/use and statistical analyses have
been routine at the second-year level since the late 1970s. Throughout the 1980s the
fusion of teaching/research and computer technology expanded rapidly with the introduction
of personal computers. Initially that had its greatest impact in the teaching of
quantitative methods and remote sensing courses. In addition, and now after close to
fifteen or more years of word processing, many faculty, students, and staff don’t
know what a typewriter is....!
In many respects, the 1990s have seen relatively little change. Certainly, our
computers are faster and software enables us to do much more. Indeed, through research
grants, university budgets, and generous endowments from local citizens, the geography
department has been able to create four computer labs that, we are told, would be the envy
of undergraduates (and even some graduates) at much larger institutions throughout Canada.
What has changed in this era of facility development is the fact that these computer
facilities are no longer restricted to "techniques" teaching or research. With
the WWW, they have much broader utility and allow for "computing" across the
entire curriculum. As elsewhere, that broadening will be expanded rapidly as internet
capabilities and tools increase and have an impact on how and what we teach within our
undergraduate program. |
