-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: Is GPS All in Our Heads?
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 15:20:05 +0000
From: McEathron, Scott R <[log in to unmask]>
To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship <[log in to unmask]>


It is just an opinion--no real science behind it at all.  I think the
opposite is true.  GPS introduces more people to maps and way finding at
a younger age.  GPS allows you to check, and  if necessary correct, your
"cognitive map" as you go along.  The opinion is based on a flawed
assumption in the article: " a GPS
      device normally provides bare-bones route information."  I guess
if the GPS was from 1990 that might be true.  But now a GPS enabled
device is more likely to have more detail than a paper map--not less.

-----Original Message-----
From: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Angie Cope, American
Geographical Society Library, UW Milwaukee
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 8:14 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Is GPS All in Our Heads?

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Is GPS All in Our Heads?
Date:   Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:26:46 -0500
From:   Joel Kovarsky <[log in to unmask]>
To:     [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>



   From Saturday's _NY Times_:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/is-gps-all-in-our-head.html?ref=opinion>.

A brief paragraph from the article by Julia Frankenstein:

      If maps help us, what is the problem with GPS? A lot: in my opinion,
      it is likely that the more we rely on technology to find our way,
      the less we build up our cognitive maps. Unlike a city map, a GPS
      device normally provides bare-bones route information, without the
      spatial context of the whole area. We see the way from A to Z, but
      we don't see the landmarks along the way. Developing a cognitive map
      from this reduced information is a bit like trying to get an entire
      musical piece from a few notes.

Joel Kovarsky