Story Map: Mapping John Denver's 'Take Me Home Country Roads' - An introductory geography course at WVU explores the song to learn about geography. As a big fan of John Denver, marching bands, and geography, I can confirm this story map has it all. Via Allen Carroll.
New York Times: Develop Students’ Geography Skills With Our ‘Country of the Week’ Interactive Quiz - Lessons from the Times.
Penn State: Researcher asks ‘what causes maps to go viral’ on the web - The researcher in question? Anthony Robinson.
Workplace News
KSDK: Federal agency [NGA] admits to years of racial discrimination - "NGA workers have filed more than 33 federal discrimination complaints against the agency since 2005. In a statement, the NGA said they're working to develop more networking and mentoring opportunities for minorities in the agency."
On and Off Campus
OSGeo: "It is our pleasure to announce that 10 GSoC (Google Summer of Code) students have successfully completed the program this year through OSGeo! You can find out more about the completed projects at: [link] A total of 1,072 students from 59 countries completed the 2018 GSoC program; see the final announcement at [link]" Via OSGeo-Discuss.
University of Wisconsin: PhD Student Meghan Kelly Publishes in Rolling Stone Magazine - "Rolling Stone requested a reference and locator map to supplement an article investigating the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. ... With a quick turnaround of a week, Meghan Kelly—Geography PhD student and the Cart Lab Project Assistant—took on the project with the help of the Cart Lab collective."
WaPo: This 4-year-old spotted an error on the WMATA map - "Theo had spotted what Metro spokesman Dan Stessel called a 'rogue, outdated map.'"
Middlebury: Student Maps and Maintains Trail Around Middlebury - Middlebury College students regularly intern with the Middlebury Area Land Trust. They are responsible for both trail maintenance and GIS mapping.
Geo Ed Tech News
Evening Standard: This child-friendly smartwatch keeps you connected to your child without screens - This child focused offering includes GPS tracking, waterproofing, a camera and integration with Alexa.
FE News: New Mapping Service Available - Jisc launched a free geospatial data service for further education (FE) colleges, akin to "continuing ed" says Wikipedia, to support student mapping across a variety of subjects.The services gives UK FE colleges free access for three years. Higher ed organizations have access to a different package. The FE bundle provides access to the Ordnance Survey data, aerial photography, historic data, geology data, marine and environmental data.
Programs and Courses
Southwestern College: Introduction to Drone Safety and Applications - The free self-paced 10-18 hour course is for students (non-credit) and educators (PD credit). This PDF has some information and points prospective students to Palomar College's Canvas log-in. I found this course outline.
Certifications and Competitions
GISCI: GISCI Announces 2018 Fall Exam Test Period - It's in December.
GeoTech Center: 2019 Undergraduate Geospatial Technology Skills Competition - Poster competition winners will be awarded registration, travel and accommodations to the 2019 GeoEd Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. Registration is not yet available, but submissions are due February 15, 2019 at 1pm Eastern. Note to educators: Consider assigning the poster as an assignment and having the whole class enter the competition. How cool will you look when one of your students is a finalist or a winner?
Awards
SDSU: Crowdsourcing Layman Knowledge for Urban City Planning - Piotr Jankowski’s community-driven research has earned him a Fulbright Scholar Award to support a six-month research stay collaborating with other GIS researchers at the University of Poznan in his native Poland.
USGIF: USGIF Awards Highest Amount of Annual Scholarship Funds to Date - "USGIF recently awarded $126,000 in scholarships to individuals studying GEOINT and related topics."
USGIF: USGIF Awards Highest Amount of Annual Scholarship Funds to Date - "USGIF recently awarded $126,000 in scholarships to individuals studying GEOINT and related topics."
Class Central: Top 50 Free Online Courses of All Time - On the 2018 list you'll find one GIS MOOC, Esri's Cartography. The course was identified as the only one from a company. Thanks to my colleagues who launched the program and grew it over the past four years. You learned from each new course and set in motion a path that led to this well-deserved honor.