Gretchen Peterson and Bright Rain Solutions created Kids Map It, a simple tool for mapping. It uses a drag and drop paradigm and is built on open source. I'm sure input from educators would be appreciated.
USGIF GEOINT Certification
A very long article in Trajectory (USGIF's magazine) details its plans for individual GEOINT certification that will launch this fall. It's called the Universal GEOINT Certification and will be available to U.S. and international GEOINT practitioners in multiple industries, military, academia, and federal, state, and local government jobs.
Bottom line:
USGIF’s Universal GEOINT Certification is designed for GEOINT professionals across the globe with at least three to five years of real-world experience and a working understanding of physical and human geography. To achieve certification, candidates must pass a series of rigorous exams based on the fundamentals of remote sensing, GIS, data management, and data visualization.2015 Undergraduate Geospatial Technology Skills Competition Deadline Now June 19
The deadline was originally last Friday; now it's tomorrow. Last minute entrants can find details here. Last year's contest was ultimately cancelled. I hope that does not happen again!
GIS Education Resources for Educators
AGI Educator Resources
The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) offers a Critical Issues Website
...an information hub and an excellent resource for the classroom. Users can start with our geoscience basics and primer pages, which offer quick summaries of topics such as drought, mining, renewable energy, and earthquakes. These introductory pages provide links to more detailed information in a variety of formats, from frequently asked questions, interactive maps, webinars, and case studies, to a database of in-depth research publications.I wonder if more educators could find the page if it had a more search friendly name?
Fulcrum for K-12 Field Education
GEMS World Academy in Chicago, IL is using Fulcrum, a field data collection tool from Spatial Networks. I was impressed to see that its teachers set up a custom tool using Fulcrum so that even first graders could collect data in the field with their iPads. Never heard of the school? Me either.
GEMS World Academy-Chicago is part of the international GEMS Education network of schools, which educates more than 140,000 students around the world.The schools is sharing how it uses Fulcrum at two U.S. education conferees.
GEMS World Academy (GWA) will offer experiential Field Studies workshops at both TechWeek Chicago (June 22-28) and at ISTE 2105 (June 28-July 1). These workshops will focus on field explorations with iPads and feature Fulcrum to collect and present multimedia data in multiple forms for use in learning. If you will be at either of these events, come learn about technology and innovation at GEMS World Academy, how the school leverages Fulcrum.It seems that in the past the company has offered group discounts for educational institutions.
Thematic Cartography Guide
The folks at Axis Maps offer up a Thematic Cartography Guide, also known as A short, friendly guide to basic principles of thematic mapping. It's under a Creative Commons license so it'd be excellent for educators.
Esri Officially Launches GeoInquiries
The press release on the Earth Sciences GeoInquires came out on Monday, the first day of Esri's T3G 2015 event. (Readers of this blog learned about GeoInquiries in February.) The release hints at high school level history GeoInquiries coming later this year. There's a preview of one on the Dust Bowl.
T3G Resources
Esri is sharing presentations, datasets and some videos from current and past T3G events.
GIS Day 2015 Activity: Ash Cloud Apocalypse
Esri UK and friends are already planning their GIS Day 2015 event:
Between 16 to 20 November get your Geography students involved with a local disaster risk mapping activity. Are you ready for the Ash Cloud Apocalypse. Could you survive? Know your risks!Raphael Heath, Head of Geography, Royal High School Bath, GDST and is supported by ESRI UK and the GDST (Girls Day School Trust). Among other things, Mr. Heath or perhaps his school "is one of Esri UK's Centre of Excellence in GIS Education."
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University of Kentucky's New Maps Plus Graduate Program Launches
It's time to explore and apply (by Sept 20; classes begin Oct 4) for the new graduate certificate program and the upcoming Masters under the New Maps Plus brand. It's marketed as an "Online Graduate Education in Digital Mapping." I know many of the faculty and yes, this is would qualify as a "supergroup" in this space.
The university ran this article on Monday.
Which Virginia County is a National Leader in GIS Education?
Chris Bunin teaches history at Albemarle High. He says the county is a national leader in G.I.S.
"This is really the epicenter of G.I.S. integration connected to president Obama's Connect ED Initiative to bring workforce technologies into the k-12 classroom," says Chris Bunin.There is also a push to use GIS in middle school. A video accompanying the article shows ArcGIS Online. The comments are interesting, too!
CourseTalk Report on Online Courses
CoureTalk is a site for reviews of online courses and MOOCs. Its report, What Reviews Divulge About Online Education (pdf), is clearly aimed at touting the site's relevance, but I found a few interesting data points:
Wentz New Dean of Social Sciences at ASU
- Paid courses were rated on average 1.4 stars higher than free courses.
- No direct link was found between the hours of study expected of students and user ratings.
- 78% of users reported having experience with a subject before enrollment, from informal
exposure to professional experience.
Elizabeth Wentz, professor and director of the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, has been appointed dean of social sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University effective July 1. She will also serve at the next president of UCGIS.
Hackathon for Uses of DigitalGlobe Imagery
The University of California San Diego held a hackathon aimed at exploring the use of DigitalGlobe satellite imagery for policy uses.
The day-long hackathon was unlike most hackathons. The teams were not asked to come up with a finished app or clean-cut solution, but rather, to ask big policy questions that might be addressed with satellite imagery that is accurate down to a resolution of half a meter (about 16 inches).The school is one of two that have access to a huge DigitalGlobe archive and to me this looks like a chance to ask students to figure out more ways to use (and thus sell) the imagery.
More on AP GIS&T Course
I noted the call for participation from the AAG to help develop and review a proposal for an Advanced Placement GIS&T course requested by the College Board last month. I also commented on the idea of such a course. I was surprised to hear so little about it in my Web travels, but now find Anthony Robinson (Penn State) and Diana Sinton (UCGIS) are chiming in on the ICA/OSGeo list.
Scoring the AP Human Geography Exam
A Newcomer’s View of the 2015 Advanced Placement Human Geography Reading is Susan E. Hume, NCGE President's view as a first time reader.
GeoMentor Newsletter
The AAG announced its monthly GeoMentor newsletter with the inaugural June issue (pdf). There's a challenge to readers, a reprint of the first GeoMentor profile, and a count of GeoMentors (233). You can sign up for the GeoMentor or other AAG newsletters here.
GeoLearn Ups Course Count to 65
GeoLearn offers video-based online learning and continuing education credits in the geospatial arena It's added "nine new courses on geodesy topics by retired NGS Chief Geodetic Surveyor David Doyle" which brings the total to 65. Most students and educators would consider each course a "lesson," but in continuing education unit (CEU)/professional development hour (PDH) terms each is worth 1 CEU/PDH is and typically called a "course."
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