GIS Education Weekly: New Year, New Names

Where in the World?

Cast photo, season four via Wikipedia

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of its first airing People Magazine shares 10 Reasons Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Was the Best Educational TV Show Ever. Yes, I was a fan and became a bigger fan of Rockapella as the years passed.

Names Change

This discussion of seven public places in American that were renamed to be more "hospitable" in 2015 is an interesting topic for students.

More Names Change: AAG = 

The AAG ‏(@theAAG) tweeted:

Happy New Year! AAG has a new DBA (doing business as): American Association of Geographers. We'll be updating the name in coming weeks.

Geo folks should be sure to tell their copyeditors about the change!

The State of the U.S. Cartography Business

Map of large underwater features. (1995, NOAA)

When I read the title The next hot job: cartographer and saw a picture of three people from CartoDB, I expected to read an article about the company. Why? Because the article appeared in Crain's New York Business! It's one of two articles about the growth (re-growth?) of geography and cartography as disciplines and  businesses in 2015.

Hot Jobs

The "hot job" article suggests that as the number of geography departments declined and the number of undergraduate geography graduates declined during the 1970s and 1980s, cartographers had to come from other disciplines. Alyssa Wright, now at Mapzen, but well known for her work at Boundless, studied a host of things are not cartography. In the last twenty years 15 colleges have added geography departments. The article notes the demise of geography at Harvard, and its re-birth.

The Vegetables of Recent Geospatial News and Opinion

Moms tell kids they must eat their vegetables before they have dessert. Music teachers tell students they must learn their scales before they play Mozart. Coaches tell would-be marathoners to run slowly before they run faster. Editors at the New York Times (I suspect) tell newbie reporters the paper must  cover the important but less exciting news alongside the flashy.

You probably heard about of the "dessert-y" geospatial news of the past few days: Pac-Man in Google Maps, the sad news that GPS may have lead to a death, Esri partnering with Intergraph (GIS Cafe has an interview). I want to be sure you also eat your vegetables. Or, at least know the vegetables are out there!

Discussion of Today's Cartography

CityLab from the Atlantic reviewed a study from several geographer at the University of Kentucky that explained Why Most Twitter Maps Can't Be Trusted. The next day Andrew Hill, Chief Scientist at CartoDB (I consult to that company) responded saying among other things, ""the Twitter maps are spot-on and achieve their objective better than you can imagine." The piece was titled In Defense of Burger Cartography. That prompted a response from Esri's Kenneth Field, titled Needless Lines in the Sand. And, there's a follow up from Claus Rinner. These are important and interesting discussions, worthy of your consideration. And, if you want to chat about the topic, join #geowebchat tomorrow (Tuesday April 7, 12 PM PDT).

Supreme Court Rules GPS Tracking is Search

This ruling clarifies that GPS tracking is considered a search and is thus protected under the fourth amendment of the U.S. Constitution that prohibits unreasonable search and seizure. The case in question was raised based on post-conviction GPS tracking. Engadget and The Atlantic have detailed coverage.

Exercise: CityMaps "Novel" Map Symbology

The screen shot below is from a website/app called CityMaps. This is part of New York City.

There is more to the website/app than the map - it also collects and shares social media (tweets, etc.) and deals associated with the businesses. Have a look at the CityMaps website, or just this bit above and ponder:

1. Is this map compelling? Why?
2. When would you use this type of map vs. say Google Maps?
3. What do you think the goal of this type of mapping is?
4. What might you change (in the types of data, symbology, etc.) to meet that goal better?
5. Is this map fair to "mom and pop" businesses?
6. What data layer(s) are "left out" of the map to make the map more effective?

I found this article in Co.DESIGN helpful in thinking about this map. For now the website and app are live for NYC, San Francisco and Austin. 

The Bad Map as Teachable Moment

This week I found a map that's perfect for exploring cartography challenges in online maps. And, it's even an education related map! This map appeared in an article in Wales Online; it highlights a new system for grading secondary schools in Wales. The scheme is referred to as banding.

Band One schools are considered best-performing, with good progress made across all measures.
At the opposite end of the scale, Band Five schools are considered “weak relative to others” and in need of more support.

The map uses different colored symbols for each band. In the article, below the map, is the legend. (It's not a simple thing to put a legend in a map built with Google Fusion Tables, it seems.) The legend reads:

Click points for more info. Key: Band 1 = pink, Band 2 = blue, Band 3 = green, band 4 = yellow, band 5 = red

This legend turns me into a human lookup table! I first look at the map to find a school of interest, then find its symbol color, say blue. Then, I refer to the legend and learn that's band 2. Then I refer to the text I quoted above to learn that band 2 mean "one notch down from the top performing schools." That's great news for the school, but far too much work for me as the map reader!

This map and article are jumping off points for all kinds of great questions for students:

• Is the map useful? How? 
• How would you make the symbols/legend more helpful or effective?
• Would a different type of map or different symbology have been helpful?
• Are there any spatial patterns in the bands? Can you describe them? Explain them?

After this discussion I'd have students download the data and use different Web tools (not Google Maps/Fusion Tables) to make their own maps with a focus on an effective legend.

A bad map is a great starting point for a hands-on learning experience!