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Thursday, November 8, 2018

GIS Education Weekly: Proposed University of Wyoming Geography Dept. Reorganization

Programs and Courses
This navigation tool appears on every
page of the UW site. Irony?

University of Wyoming: UW Proposes Changes in Geography Education, Research, Service - "...the University of Wyoming has proposed a reorganization of its geography instruction, research and service. The changes would result in the elimination of UW’s current low-enrollment geography undergraduate degrees and Department of Geography graduate programs, while maintaining a commitment to geography instruction as an integrated and stand-alone subject to support interdisciplinary education at the university." More info here.

Jamaica Observer: Geospatial technology programme to start in January 2019 - "The HEART Trust/ NTA, has partnered with the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, to develop a geospatial technology centred training programme, which will become available to the public in January 2019."


The Sonoma State Star: Sonoma State offering new major this semester - "Beginning this school year, Sonoma State has introduced a new major, called GEP. GEP stands for Geography, Environment, and Planning. This new major merged the Geography department and the Environmental Studies department into one. The university described one of the major’s goals as striving to 'bridge the natural and social sciences in order to produce more holistic and systemic analysis.'" There are five different concentrations, including one in geospatial science and technology.

On and Off Campus

Wayne Stater: Freshmen win the 8th annual geography bowl - Team Boot Gang, aka Nick Gligorevic and Mika Williams, are the first freshmen who have won the geography bowl.

Sunbury Daily Item: Estate of geography professor gives $700,000 to Bloomsburg University - "A $700,000 gift from the estate of John Enman, Ph.D., professor emeritus of geography at Bloomsburg University will further support students, faculty and programs in the Department of Environmental, Geographical and Geological Sciences (EGGS)."

Boundless to Sponsor AGS Geography Teacher Fellows Program at Geography 2050 - "Boundless, the leader in open and scalable GIS, today announced it will sponsor the American Geographical Society (AGS) Geography Teacher Fellows Program at Geography 2050 Fall Symposium, taking place Nov. 15-16, 2018 in New York City, for the third consecutive year."

My Horry News: AAST students collect grave site information for new mapping tool - "Academy for Arts, Science and Technology (AAST) juniors majoring in computer science garnered location data for grave sites at Ocean Woods Memorial Cemetery in Myrtle Beach, taking pictures of tombstones as well as documenting dates of birth and death and text on the gravestones." These are  high school students; they have majors.

Up North Live: Owosso students learn geography through post card project - "Mrs. West's class at Emerson Elementary started the project at the beginning of the year and they have been reaching out to other classes, businesses and family members from all over the country to send them postcards."

Resources

TCPalm: Property tax specialist's case study helps book demystify geographic information systems - "The International Association of Assessment Officers has published a new book, GIS for Property Tax and Assessment Professionals, to help assessors understand and use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for all sorts of office operations."

Trinidad and Tobago Newsday: The case for geography - A response to Michael Clarke's argument that the re-introduction of Geography in the school curriculum could prevent flooding which I noted last week.

Jamaica Gleaner: CMU Supports Use Of Geospatial Technology To Protect Marine Environment -"The Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) is in support of protecting the marine environment through the use of geospatial technology."

Venture Beat: Mapping tech adds truth to election debate - Eric Gundersen founder and CEO of Mapbox is the author of this sponsored article. ("Sponsored posts are content produced by a company that is either paying for the post or has a business relationship with VentureBeat, and they’re always clearly marked. Content produced by our editorial team is never influenced by advertisers or sponsors in any way.") Esri's Ken Field responded on Twitter:
'Mapping tech adds truth to election debate' and 'If the data has integrity, then so will the map.' Untruthful statements in this sponsored pitch on election mapping
For Students

The GeoTech Center:  The 2019 Undergraduate Geospatial Technology Skills Competition. Applications are Due March 8, 2019 at 1 pm eastern. This is a newdeadline; the old one was February 15, 2019.

Geography Matters?

EdSurge: The Beginning of a New Era in the Online Degree Market - "Additionally, in another example of blending of online and in-person education, Coursera has begun a pilot offering its online MOOC courses to students at its campus partners. Just as in retail, financial services, and a host of other domains, the business of online education is converging with the offline variety."

Events and GIS Day

UCL Professor James Cheshire to teach R master class (free, online): The 2018 MUSA Master Class sponsored by Socrata is an opportunity for civic technologists and data scientists the world over to come together and learn from an expert in the field. This year's Master Class will be taught by Dr. James Cheshire from University College London. Dr. Cheshire has published multiple books on the intersection of cartography and the social sciences, and has extensive experience designing maps in R. You can attend live at UPenn or online.

Esri: The Esri UC Call for Presentations deadline is Monday, November 12. The deadline for the Education GIS Summit Call for Presentations is Dec 3.

Esri: GIS Day in the Classroom: An Implementation Guide - I'd look at this well before GIS Day if you plan to do an activity that day. See also: Map of GIS Day events.

Where am I going for GIS Day? I'll be visiting the Penn State GIS Day festivities via a telepresence robot.