GIS Ed Weekly: Godiva settling geographical court case for $20M

On and off campus

TAMU: A new way to map with conservation data - "The Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute, a unit of Texas A&M AgriLife, is seeking to engage land managers, citizens and policymakers in visualizing natural resource conflicts and solutions through a new mapping application called TxMAP."

The GW Hatchet: Geography department unable to access data as officials upgrade file system - "Researchers in the geography department said they’ve been unable to access their research data for more than a month as officials have been working to transition the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences’ online file storage system to an updated platform."

Events and opportunities

Columbia: Launch of Mapping Historical New York: A Digital Atlas. Wednesday, October 27 - The event will be via Zoom (registration) and introduces "the interactive map visualizes Manhattan’s and Brooklyn’s transformations during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Drawing on 1850, 1880, and 1910 census data, it shows how migration, residential, and occupational patterns shaped the city." Via @HarvardCGA.

Blue Marble: US$500 scholarship and a Global Mapper Pro license - Students can win by submitting the results of a research project involving the use of Global Mapper. Open to any undergraduate or graduate student; this annual program encourages students to explore the full depth of functionality available in the software while expanding their core competency in the field of GIS. Participants may submit a written thesis, a project report, or a poster on any topic or theme. Global Mapper must be employed for data creation or collection, analysis or processing, and/or final presentation to be considered for the scholarship award. All submissions must be written in English.

Programs and courses

The Salamanca Press: Salamanca school district awarded grant for commercial inspections drone - "The Salamanca City Central School District was recently awarded funding to purchase a specialized inspection drone for its agricultural landscaping program. The grant was presented as part of Cornell University's Agriculture Education and Outreach initiative, which provides teachers and school districts funding to implement innovative agriculture science projects that will deeply engage students, according to information released by the organization."

St. Louis Public Radio: T-Rex’s GeoSeed Grant Program awards $20,000 to 5 geospatial intelligence initiatives - GeoZoo, one of the recipients "would incorporate virtual reality into teaching materials used in K-12 classrooms, or summer camps at the zoo. Instead of looking at a map or flat image on a computer screen, ... [Lindenwood University geography instructor Tara Vansell] explained that users could 'teleport' virtually to the zoo, or an ecosystem around the world."

Resources for teaching and learning

The National Law Review: Godiva to Settle Geographical Claim Dispute - "Plaintiffs Steve Hesse and Adam Buxbaum are seeking preliminary approval for the settlement of a class action lawsuit filed in US District Court for the Southern District of New York in March of 2019 against Godiva Chocolatier, Inc. (“Godiva”).  The plaintiffs alleged that the company falsely represented that its chocolate products were made in Belgium and imported into the United States. The proposed settlement includes a $20M payout to an estimated 18 million class members who purchased the Godiva chocolate products."  Class action lawsuits focused on food products with specific geographic origin claims have been on the rise. 

Reddit: GIS on Netflix: The Billion Dollar Code - "Netflix has a new show out on the start of Google Earth. It covers the battle between Google and a start-up over the intellectual copyright. Not sure how accurate it is, but it appears to be based on a real story." The post includes this link to a "critique" of the show.

Meanwhile in education

The Conversation: Future of college will involve fewer professors - Says the author, who studies culture and instructional design at UMBC, the future is "will involve a drastically reduced role for full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty who teach face to face." Via Dawn Wright.

Esri

 

The Global Pet Survey - The Esri K12 Project Based Learning Team offers a story that includes a survey where students can share data about what pets they have. 

Esri Community: Top GIS Tool for School? - My colleague Charlie Fitzpatrick wrote this earlier this year. The top tool on his list is not a tool - it's a suggestion to get experience using maps and apps (I use the term "interactives") others have built in teaching and learning. "First, get good at USING maps and apps that others have created. The more time -- and times -- you explore and practice reading and interacting with content others have already made, and the more questions you can ask and answer using those resources, the better you will see what's needed, and what's possible." After that you can start thinking about what software you might use to build your own maps and apps and if you want your students to use them, too.