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Patents granted per 1,000 children, by metropolitan area
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Wandering Cartographer: Buffering (or haloing) text over complex backgrounds using the Screen blend mode - Tutorial on print mapping using QGIS and InkScape from 2014. Via @mappingmashups.
Collaborative Librarianship: A Spatial Collaboration: Building a Multi-Institution Geospatial Data Discovery Portal - "The Big Ten Academic Alliance Geospatial Data Project began in 2015 to provide discoverability, facilitate access, and connect scholars to geospatial resources. Our project leverages a multi-institutional collaboration and open source technologies to improve discovery for users of geospatial data and scanned maps. We outline collaborative workflows and strategies for a successful multi-institution collaboration." Published Nov 2017.
Ed Tech Strategies: Evidence from the K-12 Cyber Incident Map shows that student data security is a growing issue that must be addressed - The K-12 Cyber Incident Map is a visualization of cybersecurity-related incidents reported about U.S. K-12 public schools and districts from 2016 to the present. @douglevin notes "Nonetheless, to suggest that we have enough money to purchase/adopt technology, but not enough to secure it is problematic."
Last week I noted Wired's excited article about jobs for cartographers. If you need more data, try this page from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Geography Matters
ITPro: Does geography matter in a digital marketplace? - "With Amazon attracting lots of tenders for its new headquarters, does geography matter so much for online companies?"
Reaction: Geography matters. Why do we insist on treating it as a joke? - "... But intelligent people seem to stop giving a toss when the question comes to geography."
Supporting GIS Education
Your Health
Penn State News: Educators’ chronic stress has adverse health outcomes, according to study - "Teaching continues to be linked to high levels of chronic stress, according to health researchers from Penn State and the University of Virginia."
Penn State News: Educators’ chronic stress has adverse health outcomes, according to study - "Teaching continues to be linked to high levels of chronic stress, according to health researchers from Penn State and the University of Virginia."
On and Off Campus
Maravi Post: USAID Inaugurates GIS Laboratory at Malawi College of Forestry and Wildlife - "The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on Wednsday opened a Geographic Information System (GIS)/Remote Sensing (RS) Computer Laboratory at the Malawi College of Forestry and Wildlife located in Chongoni, Dedza District." The college trains technicians for Malawi’s Departments of Forestry and National Parks and Wildlife.
The Western Star: Grenfell Campus geography students propose ways to enhance Corner Brook’s waterfront - Four groups of students presented plans for a local plot of land as part of this year’s Geography 3350: Community and Regional Development and Planning class. The course, in its second iteration, uses the City Studio concept of collaborating with various community groups to come up with community planning ideas.
The Tennessean: Gallatin, Meharry students map safe places to walk - Students from Gallatin and Station Camp high schools near Nashville worked with students and staff from Meharry Medical College for the National Community Mapping Institute. They were mapping hazards to pedestrians and cyclists using Mappler.
Contests
The GeoTech Center provided further details on the 2018 Undergraduate Geospatial Technology Skills Competition. Students will prepare posters that highlight use of GIS software and their communication skills. Applicants must be U.S. residents 18 or older, enrolled in a geo course in spring 2018 at a two or four-year U.S. institution. The winners will be awarded registration, travel, accommodations and presentation privileges for the 2018 GeoEd Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. Deadline: April 20th at 1pm ET.
Sergio Acosta Y Lara and Geo for All colleagues in Uruguay hosted a nationwide competition using gvSIG. I pulled these details from the Spanish recap. Several government agencies were behind the effort: The Ministry of Transport and Public Works, the Secondary Education Council of the National Public Education Administration -ANEP-CES and Centro Ceibal.The software was taught via e-mail, video conference and MOOC and secondary students presented their projects via video conference. The top team received cell phones, a tour of MonteVideo, backpacks and more.
Events
Harrisburg University of Science and Technology is hosting a free GeoDev Summit March 5, 2018.
Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) will hold its second annual Public Safety UAS Conference for first responders and public safety professionals on March 5-7, 2018.
Courses and Programs
Penn State's Adrienne Goldsberry is profiling updates to the online geospatial program's courses. She interviews JD Kronicz about his Geog 497 GIS for Transportation and explores Jan Wallgrun's Geog 585 – Open Web Mapping. Both courses are set to run during Spring 1 term, January 3 to March 14. (I continue to serve on the Penn State MGIS advisory board.)
Austin Community College will offer its competency based GIS certificate online starting in spring semester 2018. The first cohort will include 16 students. Cost: $1700. It seems to include both proprietary and open source software.
GvSIG Blog: Free course about Geographic Information Systems applied to Municipality Management: List of topics and 1st module, ‘Differences between SIG and CAD’ - "We launch the first module of an ambitious free course to acquire the necessary training to apply Geographic Information Systems to the municipality management. This course is based on the use of the gvSIG Suite products, a catalog of open source software solutions for working with the ‘Geo’ component, consisting of desktop, mobile and web solutions. It is important to note that at the end of the course you can obtain an official certificate issued by the gvSIG Association." The course will run until March but will be open and free into the future. To gain a certificate, the student must complete an evaluation and pay E30.
University of Michigan Teach-out Teach-Out: Solving the Opioid Crisis - The short MOOC offers details on the epidemic from experts at the university. A teach-out is a "just in time" kind of education. This one is open for the month of December and closes 1/1/18. I'm in.
Esri published the MOOC calendar for 2018. I want to share these two related resources:
- For Students: How to Succeed in an Esri MOOC
- For Educators: Best Practices for Instructors: Assigning an Esri MOOC to Students
OpenStreetMap News (teachable moments)
Polygon: Pokémon Go’s maps now look a lot different - Pokemon Go is now using OpenStreetMap in some countries.
Katherine Maher of Wikimedia Foundation tweeted: "The Open Street Maps [sic] mailing list discussion around a potential Code of Conduct is painfully familiar. Rule of thumb: if you have people arguing against a CoC, you probably need a CoC."
Stace Maples comments: "I’m of the opinion that in addition to DEFINITELY needing a #CoC, @openstreetmap needs a #SocialContract ala The @debian social contract. #WePutPeoplesDetailsInThere" I had to look up the Debian Social Contract. Wikipedia describes it as a document that "frames the moral agenda of the Debian project." That's why I follow people like Stace.
Stace Maples comments: "I’m of the opinion that in addition to DEFINITELY needing a #CoC, @openstreetmap needs a #SocialContract ala The @debian social contract. #WePutPeoplesDetailsInThere" I had to look up the Debian Social Contract. Wikipedia describes it as a document that "frames the moral agenda of the Debian project." That's why I follow people like Stace.