A Geographer Looks at EdTech in 2013 - Part 5 - Coding and Making

--- This post is the fifth in a ten part series examining top 2013 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

Watters identifies two trends, learning to code and the "maker" movement, as her fifth topic in education technology for 2013. There are number of ideas and questions in her discussion. These were of particular interest to me:

• Does everyone need to learn to code? 
• How do we teach coding? When, age wise, does it fit in a curriculum? 
• Are some, notably women, not welcome in the coding world? 
• Where does "making" fit into learning? 
• Can it help address the STEM crisis (real or not)? 

GIS Education and Coding

I wrote about the value of coding for those looking to be GIS users and those with other roles in and around the technology last year. If anything, I feel more strongly now than I did then about everyone but the most casual GIS user getting some hands on coding experience. From an education standpoint, my sense is that every course beyond the intro one (and perhaps that as well) should include some programming. It might be as basic as rewriting an existing script to use new data or different specific parameters, but it should be in there.

How do we teach coding in the GIS education space? Should we even do so? Or should we leave it to the computer science department in a high school or college? Some would argue that having GIS students learn GIS programming within a geography or GIS department is, well, too GIS-y and perhaps not as rigorous as it might be. Others argue that computer science programming is too generic.

One thing I can say for sure is that the required programming course in the Penn State Masters in GIS program sparks many students to describe it as "hard" or worse. I sympathize, but also suspect that the challenge is due in some cases to this being the first time the student has programmed…ever. I think that here in the U.S. we need to follow the U.K.'s lead. Over there computer science is already part of the K-12 curriculum.

But, there is good news on the GIS programming front. It looks like more GIS education programs, including undergraduate ones, are seeing the value of teaching coding. Why just today I read how Eastern Illinois University is adding a GIS programming course.

As for programming being exclusionary, yes I fear that's still the case in many classrooms and workplaces. The reasons are many. I'm hopeful that as women in GIS are finding their way safely to the top levels in GIS (that was my sense of panel on the topic at GIS Pro this year), the same will soon be true in GIS programming circles. I know there are many organizations that offer "girls only" or "women only" programming courses. I'm thinking out loud here… I wonder what the turnout would be for a "women's only" programming workshop at say GIS Pro in 2014?

GIS Education and Making

While "making" tends to be a form of teaching and learning related to engineering of various sorts, I think the ideas behind making apply across the curriculum. In English class writing a story or poem is  making. In gym class building a human pyramid is making. And of course, in biology class, collecting water samples from various places around campus, determining their pH and making of map of the data is making.

That's why I was so pleased that this year's 4-H's National Youth Science Day effort involved "making" as it relates to GIS and geography. There was even a "paper exercise" for groups where computer technology was not available. On the other hand, I read far too many reviews of GIS Day events where students and other visitors listening to lectures and watched demos. That's NOT making.

If making can bring anything to education in general, and geography and GIS education in particular, it's the "hands-on, make things, do things" perspective on teaching and learning. The dryness of geography education was driven home to me just today.

I was asked to review a chapter in new college level human geography textbook. Goodness it was dry! And, the innovations were, well, far from innovative. Let me contrast that with another experience.

A few weeks ago I attended a birthday party for seven year old twins Max and Theo. Among their favorite books is a paperboard one that has a see through human body embedded in it. Each page explores one "layer" of the body. They've had it for a while, since before they were reading. But now, they read. And, on this day, Max realized that on each page there was an experiment you could do! We convinced him to pass on the one that showed the difference in thickness of blood and water (too messy) but he did get into the muscle memory one. The experiment involves standing in a doorway and pushing your palms against the door frames for a minute. Afterward, you step out of the doorway and your arms magically rise!

Why don't college textbooks offer the same kind of engagement for the adult student?

A Geographer Looks at EdTech in 2013 - Part 4 - MOOCs

--- This post is the fourth in a ten part series examining top 2013 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

Watters identifies MOOCs as her fourth theme in education technology for 2013. Watters has followed the ups and many downs of the new teaching and learning paradigm through the year. She argues that if 2012 was the year of the MOOC, 2013 was the year for a bit of backlash or reality check. The most recent "turn" from the MOOC: Sebastian Thrun's Udacity is pivoting from free academic education to focus on corporate training.

In this post however, the focus is on geography and GIS MOOCs. In our world 2013 was the year of the MOOC.

Year of the Geography/GIS MOOC

I've covered, in some detail, the four geography/GIS MOOCs that I found in 2013:

• Google Announces a Mapping MOOC: Mapping with Google - All Points Blog
• Professional Development MOOC on STEMx and Geospatial Coming This Summer - All Points Blog
• Maps and the Geospatial Revolution (Directions Magazine interviews and more) 
• Pace University Faculty Member Prepares "GIS 101" MOOC - Directions Magazine

That's a nice mix of course providers (public university, large public company, an edu team with a grant from HP, private university) and a variety of platforms (Google's own, Instructure Canvas, Coursera, Blackboard CourseSites) and a variety of sizes (tens of thousands, hundreds, tens of thousands, hundreds).

What's the status now of these and other MOOCs?
Google has not indicated it will rerun its course. While the course was well-liked (review by my colleague at Directions who took it), there was much frustration shared by those who could not download their certificate of completion. Apparently, it was only available for a two week period, then disappeared.

The STEMx MOOC was run for a second time this fall. I've not been able to connect with the writer/instructor. I did catch him before the original session launched. I think there is a lot of potential for MOOCs as professional development. I even suggested one on teaching small ensembles to the assistant music director of my band who also needs continuing ed credit for his "real job" in a public school.

Penn State's Maps and the Geospatial Revolution will be run again in spring 2014. Despite demand for an "advanced" course on the topic, to date creator and instructor Anthony Robinson has stated he will not offer such a course.

The Pace University GIS Basics course is just winding down during the week of Dec 2.

There were a few other courses that tapped into or mentioned geography and GIS in 2013 and 2014. I found, for example:

• Sustainability, society and you (FutureLearn) (Jan 2014) 
• Cultural Geography of the World (edX) (Sept 2013) 
• Water: The Essential Resource (National Geographic) (Oct 2013) 
• Flow (National Geographic) (2014) 

There are a few rumors about other MOOCs and one was just announced today.

Why Geography and GIS MOOCs are Special
The best attended MOOCs are about computer programming, electronics and business, best I can tell. Why? Part of it has to do with the supply of such courses, but part I think too has to do with individuals collecting skills. Many look to a MOOC as tool to get a, or get a better, job. Further, MOOC learners, most of who have bachelor's degrees already, know of these disciplines and their promise of good high paying jobs.

Geography and GIS? Well, not so much. While we may know these are in demand jobs, most of the world is not aware that such jobs even exist, let alone what geography is or what geographers do. Despite our best efforts, few know of the current or future demand for those with geospatial skills. Geospatial MOOCs, as we discussed at some length at a session at the Esri Education Unconference, are about marketing our field, among other things. If that turns into more students paying for courses at community and four colleges and for graduate degrees and certificates, all the better. If, that in turn means filling all those empty seats at NGA and variety of retail stores, again all the better.

A Geographer Looks at EdTech in 2013 - Part 3 - Standards (The Common Core)

--- This post is the third in a ten part series examining top 2013 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

Watters identifies standards as her third theme in education technology for 2013. She details the standard assessments for the Common Core, the Common Core itself and how these standards seem to push adoption and growth of more technology (hardware, software and bandwidth) within education.

In the world of geography we have a newly published set of standards (update to Geography for Life 2012). There are no Common Core requirements that link directly to geography, however. 

Still, for those who want to increase absorption of geographic thinking, there are resources to use geography and GIS to support the Common Core goals, Have a look at content from National Geographic, Seth Dixon, and History Tech (geography games that align with the Common Core).

And, for those who want to infuse GIS in teaching and learning, there are resources to align the technology to the Common Core from  Barbaree Duke (now a colleague of mine at Directions Magazine) and the State of Tennessee.

My suspicion is that at the Common Core and its assessments rolls out over the next years, more resources like these will become available. It's even possible that the Common Core and its assessments might even be an impetus to increase geography and GIS teaching and learning in K-12 education in the U.S.

A Geographer Looks at EdTech in 2013 - Part 2 - The Politics of Education/Technology

--- This post is the second in a ten part series examining top 2013 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

Watters second theme for 2013 is "The Politics of Education/Technology." I will stipulate there are all sorts of education/politics/money relationships from the U.S. federal government down to the local level. When it comes to the connection between geography/GIS education and politics the relationships and dollars are far fewer. But they do exist. Here are a few that I ran into this year:

Esri Grows Statewide Education License Holders

I angered the New Hampshire Geographic Alliance when I wrote about that state's K-12 Esri education license in 2012. Here's the latest map of such licenses across the United States. I think there are valid questions to ask about investments in broad education GIS software licensing. In particular:

• Do they preclude the use of other technologies?
• Do they limit faculty to one company's or communities pre-made projects, labs, books and the like?
• Is there a "get the most from your all you can eat" package mentality that encourages implementing and using software that doesn't support program, degree, course or lesson goals?
• Does state education or GIS funding, if any is used to support the initial and longterm license, get diverted from other needs the state might have?
• Are goals set for what sort of teaching and learning will be achieved? Are they measured? How?

Two new Esri state K-12 licenses were announced in 2013: Maryland and Arizona. Both press releases refer to STEM related motivation and goals.

Speak Up for Geography

After a concerted effort in 2011, the folks behind Speak Up for Geography went rather quiet in 2013. The effort aims to get the The Geography is Fundamental Act (TGIF), aimed at professional development for geography education, passed. The bill was reintroduced into the House of Representatives in February of 2013. So far as I know it's still in committee.

AAG Petition

The Association of American Geographers (AAG) regularly announces new signatories to its Resolution to Support Geography Education. While it's great to have so many organizations and individuals listed, the impact of the document is unclear. I think it's time to consider how to leverage this document in new ways.

States Fight to Keep Geography in K-12

Perhaps the loudest cries regarding geography education came as several states explored demoting the course of study in one way or another. In Texas the proposal was to eliminate exams in world geography and world history high school graduation requirements. It passed. In Tennessee, the proposal was for the high school World Geography/World History graduation requirement to be removed leaving geography as an elective. That passed, too. In Massachusetts there are efforts to change in what grades geography is taught.


GeoTech Center

On a more positive note, the National Science Foundation did re-fund the National Geospatial Technology Center of Excellence (GeoTech Center) until about May 2016. Vincent DiNoto will servie as Principal Investigator, based at the Kentucky Community & Technical College System in Louisville Kentucky. The center had been based at DelMar College in Corpus Christi, TX.

A Geographer Looks at EdTech in 2013 - Part 1 - Zombie Ideas

--- This post is the first in a ten part series examining top 2013 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

Back in 2011 I "piggy-backed" on my favorite education writer's list of ed-tech trends for a series of articles. My goal was to put these trends in the context of what geography and GIS educators are doing or not doing. Audrey Watters is back at it this year and so am I.

Watters first theme for 2013 is "Zombie Ideas," or in short, education ideas that come into being, are refuted by research, but refuse to die. They are "reinvented" in cycles.

She cites a return of:

• "bite-sized learning chunks" - education solutions where ideas or skills are broken down into, then taught, as tiny bits
• education portals - websites where content can be found, downloaded or purchased, some include "reviews"of this content
• new or better (?) learning management systems

Let's take these one at a time.

Chunks

I have run into the "bite sized"phenomenon in geospatial and GIS education this year. There's been some discussions of atomizing training modules down to tiny nuggets, both as parts of tech support and training and within formal GIS education.

One great example, and this is pretty well established, is Safe Software's FMEPedia, that company's knowledge base. Among the goodies in there are short snippets of "how to do something." Short is relative; the one I dug up, and I'm pretty sure this is Don Murray, is 15 minutes long. Still, it's one tiny chunk of info about the now huge FME product.

I created similar, if shorter, videos for my students (on demand) when they got stuck in my online class. I don't really believe in nuggetization for its own sake, but I do believe in "just in time" learning.

FMEPedia works, and my informal videos worked, because users or students were just at the right place in their working or learning to understand and digest the nugget offered. There was actual authentic (or simulated) work going on. Snippetization without that framework sounds most dull and ineffective to me.

I'm curious how snippetization might relate to bagdification in GIS. Both Skidmore and American Sentinel GIS educators are exploring badging, which also breaks downs larger learning activities into smaller ones.

Portals

For better or worse geography and GIS education is too small a niche to have too many portals for content. There are  few specialized ones. For example:

• Esri ArcLessons (and now free to site license holders: SpatiaLabs)
• Pace Universities Online Video Collection for ArcGIS (a key part of a MOOC)
• TeachGIS (a portal for educators)
• National Geographic Education

How valuable are those or others like them to you as geography or GIS educator? Or do you get more valuable (and perhaps more authentic) content from the wildness of the Web?

I know I do. I post articles, interactive maps and the like via Twitter (@adenas) that I would use in class over some of valuable but far more cookbookier offerings sometimes found in those portals. Other educators share this sort of content too, including @APHumanGeog. I'm with Watters here; we still need to do our own curating for educational content. The good news: there are more and more shiny new resources created out of the real news of the day. The hard work for educators (and this to me is what makes us educators) is crafting these into authentic learning projects and activities.

Learning Management Systems

I don't have much to say here save these seem to be a necessary evil. Most educators are simply users of whatever others have selected and must grin and bear learning management systems (LMS). So, sadly, do our students. My only thought: let's work hard so that LMSs do not get in the way of teaching and learning!

What GIS People Need to Know about MOOCs

Last month (Sept 2013) at the GIS-Pro Conference in Providence, RI I gave a lightning talk (five minutes, 20 slides that advance every 15 seconds). The goal was to provide those in the geospatial industry an overview what they needed to know about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). I thought it went great and URISA videotaped it and published it on YouTube. It's below.

You can find all the talks (well, except one) on this channel.

New Website and Possible New Campus for Unmanned Vehicle University

I've written about Unmanned Vehicle University several times in recent years (1, 2, 3). I realized I'd not received an e-mail from them in some months, since January 2013. I'd been getting an e-mail roughly monthly before that with an invitation to start a degree or an announcement about a book or a new publishing program.

When I visited the university website I was surprised to find it was redone. The old slow, frankly archaic version was replaced by a slick modern one. And, clearly, the team that put it together did their homework. They removed all links to my coverage in the media area, some if it not quite so positive, I confess. They de-emphasized the school's licensing (noted here) and accreditation (no mention I could find) and simplified the process of admission to four steps: download catalog, fill out form, fax or e-mail application (no, you can't apply online), pay money. There are even testimonials from students, though some are not as positive as others.

So what else is new at UVU since January?

There are a number of new offerings, mostly videos on DVD, on topics such as UAVs and firefighting, UAVs for police work, driverless car design , a DIY drone kit, starting a UAV business, among others.

The university is hiring a COO, instructors and international directors.

There's a list of current job openings (some of which had expired).

The university has partnered (not clear how) with an unmanned vehicle industry headhunter.

UVU was selected for a training contract with an unidentified overseas customer for $435,000.

A press release (from the above contract announcement) from April offers these stats about the university. UVU graduated 150 students from courses (not necessarily degrees or certificates) in 2012, and anticipate 300 students enrolling in 2013. Other PRs about the new courses, the granting of a trademark, etc. are listed on a press release site, not the university's own website.

The university notes financial aid is available from two private employers via tuition assistance (US Airways and URS) and the State of Arizona. It also points students to a federal program for workers who lost jobs because of foreign trade.

The university started a crowdfunding campaign to raise $10 million to build a campus.

Currently, all of our courses are online and our students are all over the world. We need your help to fund a brick and mortar campus. The funds will be used to build classrooms, administrative offices and student housing and provide scholarships. All donors will have their name and level included in the UVU donors book. Gold level donors will have their personal or business name engraved on bricks that pave Unmanned Leaders Plaza which will host statues of unmanned air, ground, sea and space vehicles.

To date, there has not been a single donation. The "pitch video" on the crowdfunding page is an introduction to the university's three day course.