GIS Education Weekly: Webinars, Workshops and Wildlife Biology

Webinars and Workshops

Webinar: To Geography and Beyond With Google Maps - "In this webinar you will learn how to use Google Maps in a variety of subject areas." The event is February 8, 4 pm EST, costs $20, and is among the offerings at Practical Ed Tech offered by educator Richard Byrne.

Webinar: Open Source Statewide Lidar Visualization in Web Browsers with Howard Butler. Sponsored by ASPRS, UCGIS, and Geo4All, Friday January 27, 2017 5:00 PM (GMT); free.

Massachusetts: Using online software and desktop GIS One-day Hands on workshop - The workshop by Keith Ratner, Professor of Geography at Salem State, and Jeffrey Blossom, Senior GIS Service Manager, Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University is Friday, March 17 2017 at

Salem State University. The fee of $200 includes coffee/lunch and AICP CM credits are available.

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Articles and Resources

Huffington Post: Geographic Illiteracy and the Rise of Trump - Josh Stephens, a former APHG teacher, reflects on the value of geography. One of the better "geography matters" essays I've read lately. h/t @m0gould

Geospatial World: ‘When data speaks for itself, it’s not geography you are hearing’ -
Prof. Michael F. Goodchild builds on the legacy of Dr. Roger Tomlinson at a memorial lecture in New Delhi.

Penn State News: Big Ten’s Geospatial Data Portal connecting access to GIS, historical map data -  The article describes Penn State University Libraries' role in the Big Ten Academic Alliance Geoportal, an online spatial data discovery tool.

Smithsonian: This Map Shows Over a Century of Documented Lynchings in the United States - An interactive map provides a detailed look at almost every documented lynching between the 1830s and 1960s.

TechCrunch: Blackboard cofounder Michael Chasen takes CEO reins at PrecisionHawk - Michael Chasen, a cofounder and former CEO of education tech giant Blackboard Inc., takes the lead from current CEO, Micheal Young, who was co-founder of Red Hat.

Mail and Guardian (South Africa): Why we’re developing DataEducator - The Mail & Guardian and EDGIS have partnered to create DataEducator. It includes matriculation results for almost 300 high schools in the City of Johannesburg metro for four academic years (2012 to 2015) and and includes visualizations of the results using CARTO.

Cartographies of Disease: Maps, Mapping and Medicine, expanded edition. The book builds on and updates its predecessor. In it, author Tom Koch explores maps as a form of thinking about issues of disease and health.  

For those Hosting Conferences

Three Minute Thesis is a competition for PhDs doing research. It's just what you think: participants have three minutes to explain their research to a non-technical audience. I'd love to see this at AAG. And, the idea could be adapted for other types of presentations, too.

In and Out of the Classroom

Billy Gabala, who's studying wildlife biology at UM-Flint, spent about 22 hours a week during the summer finding and updating information about the locations of different kinds of food outlets in the state. He was working for the university’s Geographic Information Systems Center.

Esri India launched GIS Academia Council of India. The council will serve as a platform for GIS knowledge sharing aimed at encouraging GIS adoption and promoting teaching excellence in spatial data management and analysis in higher education across India.

For Students

The Audubon Society is hiring 3 Dangermond Fellows (students in college or graduate school) for a year (June 2017-June 2018) to assist with Audubon’s Enterprise GIS platform. Via @AudubonSocoiety

Programs, Degrees and Courses

Johns Hopkins is advertising its Master of Applied Science in Spatial Analysis for Public Health on LinkedIn. The landing page is interesting in how it explains spatial analysis (John Snow appears!) and for this curious statement: "We currently are not accepting applications to the Master of Applied Science in Spatial Analysis for Public Health from students who reside in Wisconsin. For more information, please contact an admissions representative. Students should be aware of additional state-specific information for online programs." Geography matters!

U.S. Congress Members Offer Bill to Prohibit Mapping of House Disparities Due to Race

U.S. politicians are seeking to prohibit development of geospatial information and analysis about community racial disparities. "The bills would also prohibit federal funds from being used for the HUD database containing geospatial information regarding community racial disparities and disparities in access to affordable housing."