Resources for Teaching and Learning
YouTube:
Magical Van Gogh Exhibit
- "Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings come to life at this magical exhibit
located at Atelier des Lumières, Paris, France. Song 'Vincent' covered
by Jim van der Zee." Via Ilkka Suvanto.
GIS Lounge:
Survey of GIS Professionals
- Of the 1129 respondents, 469 responded that they use ArcGIS and QGIS.
I suspect other respondents selected two or more of the choices as well, though that's not reported. It's
more important than ever to be comfortable with more than one GIS
package. Does your teaching prepare students for this situation? I feel strongly that students should "learn how to learn" new software and programming languages rather than try to master whatever is "hot" at the moment. Data point: I'm currently learning a "new to me" content management system (CMS) as part of my job. It's the third different one I've used in my career.
Fantasy Mapping: Drawing Worlds - This is a new book by Wesley Jones, one of Esri's top cartographers. There's a
companion site, too!
The Corvallis Advocate:
“Justice by Geography:” The Importance of Location for Young Offenders - "Sypher
and Wallace explained that depending on where a young person lives, the
way they are punished for their crime can vary greatly. Even if the
crime is lesser, like assault or gun possession, a young person can be
subjected to multiple forms of discipline, from rehabilitation programs
and group homes to 'prisons for kids.'"
People
GISCI:
GISCI Announces New Executive Director - The Board of Directors of GISCI selected Dr. Candice Luebbering as its new Executive Director, effective October 1, 2020. She most recently served as Director of Outreach and Membership Services at the American Association of Geographers and holds a PhD in geography from Virginia Tech.
GoGeomatics:
David MacLean – COGS GIS Instructor: Recipient GANS 2020 Award of Distinction - The Geomatics Association of Nova Scotia (GANS) presents its 2020 Award of Distinction to a true champion and pioneer of Geographic Information, David MacLean of Bridgetown, Nova Scotia. Congratulations David!
Meanwhile in EducationClass Central:
Eight Countries Offer Online Degrees - "Our goal was to identify countries which offer fully online degrees provided by accredited higher education institutions. For the purpose of this project, we excluded universities specially established to offer distance education i.e Open Universities across the world." And, there's a map!
Fresh Air (NPR):
COVID On College Campuses - Theis insightful interview with Scott Carlson of
The Chronicle of Higher Education explores how colleges were faring before and adapting during the pandemic. There's quite a lot of discussion related to the geography of higher education.
Meanwhile in our Industry
Autodesk:
Autodesk Joins Open Design Alliance to Fast Track Improvements to Interoperability - While many read this as Autodesk working with ODA to provide support of DWG, that's not what's happening. Here's Randall Newton, one of a number of CAD watchers I've been reading for the last 20 years, on LinkedIn: "In a surprising move, Autodesk becomes a partial member of the Open Design Alliance. Carl Bass once called ODA 'the arms merchant to my enemies.' Now they are linked by their common interest in BIM and IFC -- but not DWG." Read Randall's take
here. (Disclosure: Esri is a member of ODA.)
Programs and CoursesVirginia Space Grant Consortium: New Award Supports Partnerships to Develop the Workforce in Virginia - "Faculty and students at community colleges across the Commonwealth will continue to learn how to operate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and collect and analyze geospatial data. The Virginia Space Grant Consortium (VSGC) is leading a statewide partnership to develop the geospatial technology and UAS workforce in Virginia. The new award of $561,977 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program is the fifth award to VSGC and partners targeting the technician workforce in these emerging technologies."
Penn State Geodesign: The program is now part of the Penn State
Open Education Initiative. The first course to be available is "Geodesign: History, Theory, Principals."
Via @Geodesign_PSU.
Weber State: CARES Funding Supports Students in Geospatial Programs - "Twenty Utah residents aiming to expand their employment opportunities amid the COVID-19 pandemic will gain a new skill set in geospatial technology at Weber State University this year – free of charge. ...With the support of $139,000 in federal CARES Act funding, Weber State’s Northern Utah Geospatial Technology Education Program (NUGeoTec) awarded each of the students a scholarship of about $6,200, which will cover their tuition, fees and supplies for the year. "
COVID-19 Mapping
Mayo Clinic: Mayo creates new online map to track COVID-19 across the U.S. - "Mayo Clinic has created a new online tracking tool for the latest
coronavirus date for every county in every state in the U.S. and
Washington, DC." The maps are of raw counts.
University of Georgia: Smartphone GPS accuracy may affect contact-tracing apps - Krista Merry, a research professional at the UGA Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources published a paper before the pandemic that indicated phone GPS locations are more error prone near buildings.
“In the end, we found on average it was 7 to 13 meters off—not very
big. But in terms of COVID-19 and contact tracing, if you’re using an
app that uses GPS to notify people that you’ve come in contact with,
there’s error that’s being introduced there.”
TechCrunch: Google Maps gets a COVID-19 layer - The layer offers rates (rather than raw counts) and trends and is coming to iOS and Android platforms. Data comes from Johns Hopkins, The New York Times and Wikipedia.
Events
GeoTech Center:
Virtual GIS Day - The National Geospatial Technology Center of Excellence presents
Virtual
GIS Day 2020 on November 18, 2020. There are live activities, a contest
and resources. For the contest: "Static maps entries may be produced
using ESRI [sic], QGIS or another third-party GIS software platform." "Digital
map entries may include those created with ESRI ArcGIS Online, Mapbox,
or using a coding language (such as Java) to develop their digital map.
Story maps are also accepted for this category." I wonder if these requirements could
be opened up and simplified to encourage use of all sorts of tools. I'd love to see this: "Entries may be developed with any software tool or combination
of tools. Static maps must be delivered in PDF and interactive maps via a
URL."
Esri
Class Central: Esri has not one, but two MOOCs in this year's list of the top
200 MOOCs of all time.
One was on a list in the past, Cartography. This week its sibling, Esri's third MOOC which debuted in 2016, Do-It-Yourself Geo Apps made the cut. I'm no
longer associated with the MOOC program, but I want to give a big shout
out to my colleagues Brendan O'Neill who put together the original
course, and John Shramek, who updated and hosted it more recently.
For Students
Redo, since the link was wrong last week. Thanks to loyal reader Beth for letting me know!
Penn State:
The Founders’ Scholarship Fund in the John A. Dutton e-Education Institute provides scholarships for
undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in or planning to enroll at
least part-time in an online academic program offered by the College of
Earth and Mineral Sciences through Penn State World Campus. First
preference is given to individuals within this pool who are employees of
Esri. Applications are due by Oct 15, 2020. Recipients will be
announced by November 1, 2020. (Disclosure: I am currently an advisor to, and taught in, the Penn State online program and I work at Esri.)
