GIS Education Weekly: Commercial Products from USD and TAMU, Drone Classes, SAG Winners

Bringing Location-Based Learning to Life

WISE's User Interface

The University of San Diego's World Interactive Study Environment won an innovation award from Campus Technology. The tech will be in use in Summer 2015 course on art history based in London. The Google-based social/learning/data capture network is also in use in courses based in San Diego. The school is considering commercializing the in-house developed tool.

Anonymous Funder Backs Drone Education in Detroit

Base 11,  a non-profit from California, is planning to invest up to $1 million from an anonymous donor to bring a drone school and makerspace to Coleman A. Young International Airport in Detroit. There, students and the public can learn about the technology.

Base 11's for-profit subsidy will run an unmanned aerial systems (UAS) business from the facility at the airport. The effort has a few goals: to help Davis Aerospace Technical High School, which lost its accreditation get back on its feet and, in time, the development of a dual enrollment option with a local college.

Subscribe!

If you'd rather get these weekly posts via e-mail, sign up here! And, please share these with others involved in teaching and learning GIS! Thanks!


Day of Geography

Geospatial Niagara is planning for this year's Day of Geography (DOG). Organizers are looking for geographer to share posts about what they do.

Geo-professionals. Share your work day for the benefit of students around the world. 11-16-15 http://www.dayofgeography.com for info.

Here's some coverage from last year's DOG.

Texas A&M GIS Professor to Bring Product to Market

The CartoFusion Technologies website calls SituMap, "A digital platform for rapid and easy-to-use spatial planning and management applications." The press release lays out the plan to take the platform to market.

The app, called SituMap, created by Dr. Richard Smith, Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Science and Geospatial Surveying Engineering at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, is the first product for a newly created company, CartoFusion Technologies (CartoFusionTech.com).CartoFusion Technologies will soon conduct product feedback analysis to determine SituMap pricing, how it will be advertised, and other factors. Within the next six months, the company will begin to drive for sales to the wider community.

I'm not sure what the underlying technology is used; perhaps it's noted in the nine minute video introduction on the site. H/T @gisuser

Another Blog Post on GIS Data Sources

Vickey Chen, who earned a PhD in ecology, offers 8 Free Geospatial/GIS Data Sources for U.S. Areas. There's a nice table that compares the sources from government and non-governmental sources.

National Council for Geographic Education Wins Esri Special Achievement Award

Ready for the acronym version? NCGE Wins SAG Award. Here's how @esrieduc announced it:

NCGE has been awarded one of the #2015SAGawards for the work that they are doing in support of geography/GIS in education. Congrats! #EsriUC

NCGE is 100 years old this year. Esri gives out about 70 such awards each year.

Here's another winner noted by @esrieduc:

Congrats Loudoun County Public Schools: All 80 schools have ArcGIS online orgs & use GIS!

And one more:

S.W. Indian Polytechnic Institute has provided trained GIS students to the tribal workforce community for 10+ years!

Subject Matter Experts Wanted for USGIF Pilot Exam Study at Esri UC

USGIF (http://usgif.org/) is seeking Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to take Universal GEOINT pilot exams at the Esri UC on Tuesday 7/21, supporting development of its new professional Universal GEOINT credential. USGIF seeks SMEs for two exams: (a) Remote Sensing & Imagery Analysis, and (b) GIS & Analysis Tools. These exams will be administered by GSX with USGIF proctors. There is no cost for exam takers, and those who pass exams will receive credit towards Universal GEOINT certification.

I saw the post on a LinkedIn GITA group. H/T @GITAassociation.

American Geographic Society Endorses Geo for All

From the press release:

The American Geographical Society announces its endorsement of the “Geo for All Initiative”, developed by the International Cartographic Association (ICA) and the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). “Geo for All” aims to provide expertise and support for the establishment of Open Source Geospatial Laboratories and Research Centers across the world for supporting development of open-source geospatial software technologies, training, and expertise.

Lonely Trailblazers: Examining the Early Implementation of Geospatial Technologies in Science Classrooms

Esri's Tom Baker has made Lonely Trailblazers: Examining the Early Implementation of Geospatial Technologies in Science Classrooms available to read for free via ResearchGate. The chapter is from the 2014 Springer book titled Teaching Science and Investigating Environmental Issues with Geospatial Technology: Designing Effective Professional Development for Teachers. The article is by Baker and Joseph J. Kerski.

Esri GIS Education Conference

EdUC starts on Saturday. Follow @esrieduc and #esrieduc for news. Also check out the Facebook group. I will not be attending this year; I have something even more tiring planned.

Recent posts from Ignite Education this week:

• Esri UC Q & A Takeaways