Now, National Geographic is re-affirming their commitment to geography education... through a highly interactive and integrated community that includes educators, explorers, storytellers, and photographers.National Geographic is moving toward a model that will provide full-time National Geographic staff in each of six regions across the country.
The regional model is designed to provide more funding directly to educators, facilitating more professional development, projects and programs to improve geography education.Funding is changing.
The New Hampshire Geographic Alliance will not receive any funding from the National Geographic Education Foundation after 2018. However, there are new education grants and fellowships that teachers and scholars can individually apply for. State Alliances will no longer have host agreements between institutes of higher education and National Geographic. Alliance Coordinators will no longer be an official position.Bryant also offered these ways to continue to engage with National Geographic:
- Become Nat Geo Certified
- Become a member of the Nat Geo online community (2018) by clicking here (if you haven’t joined the community already via earlier communications.)
- Attend a state education hub meeting (all states in 2018)
- Attend a regional hub meeting (six in 2018)
- Attend a Geo-Inquiry professional development opportunity (2018)
Calls for Papers
Press release: Call for Abstracts: 2018 State and Future of GEOINT Report - "This year, for the first time, USGIF is also reaching out beyond the in-person exchanges and announcing a virtual State and Future of GEOINT Call for Abstracts for those who cannot attend in-person but would still like to write for the report." Groups of three authors, from different institutions, put together each article. Submissions are due Sept 8.
Articles and Resources
The Atlantic: The Value of Bringing Drones to the Classroom - "The Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative, a nonprofit that helps 21 school districts in southeastern Kentucky improve their education systems." The focus seems to be on career prep rather than enhanced learning of other subjects. That said, things are different in New Jersey: "Some New Jersey educators have worked drones into lessons about longitude and latitude..."
PLOS One: The world’s user-generated road map is more than 80% complete - That would be OpenStreetMap.
Keweenaw Report: GRACE Interns Research Community Issues - High schoolers from the Michigan program did GIS research in their towns. There's a bit more on their work from my colleague Charlie Fitzpatrick at the Esri Education Blog.
Tib AV (University in Hanover, Germany) Portal: FOSS4G Videos - This is a searchable archive of about 650 videos from 2014, 2015 and 2016. The videos are under various open licenses.
Certification
YouTube: QGIS Certification Overview - There's a 17 minute overview of plans for a QGIS certification program. Tim Sutton does the show and tell. Basically, organizations become certifiers, and certify their students. Via @timlinux.
Programs and Degrees
The University of Georgia's department of geography is participating in the university's "Double Dawgs" program. Students can earn a BS and MS in geography in five years or fewer.
New Maps Plus (University of Kentucky) announced a new course offering: MAP 675: Collaborative Geovisualization.
For Students
UAV Coach, "a leading information and training source for drone professionals and enthusiasts worldwide" offers a scholarship for high school students (16+) for its online test prep course to help drone pilots pass the FAA’s Part 107 exam. The scholarships are reviewed on a rolling basis, with no limit on how many will be given. But students might want to act fast, the first 100 applicants will also have their FAA test fee ($150) covered by the scholarship.
For Women
As Women in GIS (WiGIS) moves to become a nonprofit organization, it is seeking feedback, via a survey, from women who are either working in GIS or seeking to start a career in GIS. Among the proposed benefits explored in the survey are mentoring, scholarships, and networking.
Privacy, Ethics and Data
Fox Business: Texas schools create high-tech ID badges to track students on buses - New “Smart Tag” badges use RFID to make sure students get on the correct bus and get off at the correct stop. This doesn't sound quite right: "Additionally, badges will have a GPS to monitor traffic and route times so students never miss the bus."
Future of Privacy Forum: Location Controls in iOS 11 Highlight the Role of Platforms - This look at location privacy features in the new operating highlights some key questions developers and users need to ask.
The Guardian: Home Office used charity data map to deport rough sleepers - "Emails show that deal with Greater London Authority helped it target homeless EU nationals for removal." This sounds like a case study in data gathering and use that could be valuable in exploring legal and ethical issues in GIS. Via @re_sieber.
Certification
YouTube: QGIS Certification Overview - There's a 17 minute overview of plans for a QGIS certification program. Tim Sutton does the show and tell. Basically, organizations become certifiers, and certify their students. Via @timlinux.
Programs and Degrees
The University of Georgia's department of geography is participating in the university's "Double Dawgs" program. Students can earn a BS and MS in geography in five years or fewer.
New Maps Plus (University of Kentucky) announced a new course offering: MAP 675: Collaborative Geovisualization.
For Students
UAV Coach, "a leading information and training source for drone professionals and enthusiasts worldwide" offers a scholarship for high school students (16+) for its online test prep course to help drone pilots pass the FAA’s Part 107 exam. The scholarships are reviewed on a rolling basis, with no limit on how many will be given. But students might want to act fast, the first 100 applicants will also have their FAA test fee ($150) covered by the scholarship.
For Women
As Women in GIS (WiGIS) moves to become a nonprofit organization, it is seeking feedback, via a survey, from women who are either working in GIS or seeking to start a career in GIS. Among the proposed benefits explored in the survey are mentoring, scholarships, and networking.
Privacy, Ethics and Data
Fox Business: Texas schools create high-tech ID badges to track students on buses - New “Smart Tag” badges use RFID to make sure students get on the correct bus and get off at the correct stop. This doesn't sound quite right: "Additionally, badges will have a GPS to monitor traffic and route times so students never miss the bus."
Future of Privacy Forum: Location Controls in iOS 11 Highlight the Role of Platforms - This look at location privacy features in the new operating highlights some key questions developers and users need to ask.
The Guardian: Home Office used charity data map to deport rough sleepers - "Emails show that deal with Greater London Authority helped it target homeless EU nationals for removal." This sounds like a case study in data gathering and use that could be valuable in exploring legal and ethical issues in GIS. Via @re_sieber.