GIS Education Weekly: Teaching and Learning Resources from Canada and New Zealand

Resources for Teaching and Learning

From: Indigenous Place Names in Canada

Canada: Stories from the Land: Indigenous Place Names in Canada - A story map. There's a bay with a name that means "lots of swans, all the time." How can that not make you smile?

Sun Sentinel: He thought he snagged a villa for $9,100. He got a foot-wide strip of land - "Holness said that property appraiser pictures linked to the auction site showed the villa as being the parcel he was bidding on." Via Brent Jones. A story that suggests that the buyer beware when it comes to buying property based on photos rather than detailed survey data.


LINZ:  Virtual Experiences - Field Trips for Aotearoa's Schools - Virtual Field trips. Interested parties worldwide should consider the site as a model; the content is specifically for teachers registered with the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand - Matatū Aotearoa teaching at state, integrated and registered private schools or home schoolers.

Inside Higher Ed: GPS to Track Student Attendance - A physics professor at Cal Poly San Louis Obispo asks his student to use a phone app with geofencing to check themselves into class. Is this a valid and ethical use of geotechnology? Should college professors require attendance and use it as part of grading?

AAG: Aspiring Academics: a resource book for graduate students and early career faculty - Now available as a free PDF. Via @theAAG. The book was published by Pearson in 2009.

IEEE Spectrum: The Self-Driving Car Is a Surveillance Tool - "In the coming age of autonomous vehicles, users may have to pay extra to keep their whereabouts private." A Dartmouth geography professor suggests moving GPS from a standalone device to an embedded one my have unintended and unexpected impacts.

Programs and Courses

University of Montana: UM Geography Department Joins College of Forestry and Conservation - "The Department of Geography will transition from the College of Humanities and Sciences to the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation at the University of Montana on July 1." All tenured faculty will make the move.

Delmar College: Self-paced Online Prep Course for FAA Part 107 Exam to Become Certified Drone Pilot Begins June 24 - "Beginning June 24, Del Mar College (DMC) will offer Fundamentals of UAS (GUAS 2071), an eight-week self-paced online course designed to prepare individuals to take the Federal Aviation Administration’s Part 107 Exam to become a FAA-certified drone pilot. ...The course runs though Aug. 12 and costs $99." Via Philip Davis. Potential students should read the course information with care: Two modules are opened each of the first four weeks. Students have eight weeks to complete them. The FAA test is $150 above the cost of the course.

Opportunities and Events

AGS: EthicalGEO - The new initiative will fund seven Fellows to explore ethics related to geospatial data use. This is a topic worthy of study.

CU Boulder Today: Earth Lab’s Data Analytics Graduate Certificate Kicks Off Second Year - "The Earth Data Analytics - Foundations professional graduate certificate, offered by Earth Lab at CIRES, is one of just a few programs in the nation to focus specifically on applying data science techniques to the Earth and environmental sciences. The ten-month, three-course certificate integrates Earth science, data analytics, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Students can complete the program fully online or in person." It's a three course certificate program.

RiverBender.com: SIUE Co-Sponsors St. Louis Women in Geospatial Technology Summit - "The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville College of Arts and Sciences is co-sponsoring the St. Louis Regional Women in Geospatial Technology Summit from 12:30-6 p.m., Thursday, June 27 at the T-REX Innovation Conference Center on Washington Ave. in St. Louis." Other sponsors include the Society of Woman Geographers, Washington University in St. Louis Libraries and Missouri American Water.

Esri (GeoNet): 2019 Education Summit: Certification & Education - Join a session discussing how the University of Richmond teaches GIS via a program that aligning the academic certificate with Esri’s ArcGIS Desktop Entry technical certification. My colleague Jessica Rosales will host the session on July 7.

NWITimes: Griffith hopes to enlist engineering students to map sidewalk work - The town in Indiana hopes to hire engineering students "familiar with survey equipment and GIS software," to evaluate the 105 miles of sidewalk to determine which need to be repaired. I'd think GIS students could do the work, too!

Esri: User Conference Plenary LiveStream - Sign up for an e-mail reminder for the July 8 sessions.  I learned about this from a promoted post on Facebook. Related: Esri: User Conference Q & A - It's shorter than usual this year.

On and Off Campus

NewsTimes: Forest Grove students are mapping their world - "For five years, Forest Grove High School and Pacific University teamed up in the classroom to do just that with 'Mapping My World,' a course dedicated to introducing high school students to geospatial technology. FGHS social studies teacher Scott McCahon — who has led the project since its inception — is retiring, but the class isn't going anywhere and will soon have new leadership under FGHS science teacher Briana Van Roekel." This is a "Geospatial Semester" type program in Oregon. Several students are bringing maps the Esri Map Gallery.

Louisiana Tech: GIS students to attend URISA GIS-Pro 2019 - "Several junior and senior students of the forestry department set out to find an event to attend which would help them explore more career opportunities and meet prospective employers." About a dozen students are involved with papers or lightning talks. This is first time Tech students will attend. 

People

MLive: Davison [MI] native awarded $10,000 employee scholarship from Taco Bell - "Taco Bell employee Briana Talask has received a $10,000 scholarship from the Taco Bell Foundation ... Talaska, 21, has been working at Taco Bell since she was 16 years old. She is one of 54 employees to win $10,000 scholarship through the foundation’s Live Más Scholarship. Talaska is a senior at Grand Valley State University pursuing a bachelor’s degree in geography with an emphasis in environmental and global development. She is also pursuing a geographical information systems certificate and is minoring in adventure tourism and hospitality and tourism management." She'll be studying in The Netherlands this summer. Disclosure: I'm a Taco Bell fan.