Top Geography/GIS Education Trends of 2012

Here in no particular order are my top geography/GIS education trends of 2012 based on what I saw, read and wrote during the year. Suggested additions are most welcome!

1) Esri Goes Open with Its Education Resources

What's the news: Esri made a formal statement about its commitment to open licensing of educational (not training) materials developed by its Ed Team in August. The company is retaining copyright, but offering ways to use and recast the content via a Creative Commons (CC) license.

Why is it important: Educators can now mix and match Esri's content with their own for use in their own classes or programs and share those materials with other educators. This might encourage other educators to offer their content under similar open licenses.

Concerns: Few educators I've met are familiar with the term "open educational resource" (OER), and others are clearly not 100% confident about copyright, CC licensing and fair use.

See also: Does Esri Going OER with its Ed Materials Matter?, Ten Things You Need to Know About Reusing Web Content

2) Everyone Wants Real World Project Experience

What's the news: Formal efforts like the Central Pennsylvania Geospatial Technology Center and EduContribution and informal class-based ones like GPSing the trees in town, are the new black for GIS education. A project no longer means a made up effort with fake data. Educators and students are demanding real world work, with real world challenges, real world deadlines, real world clients and real world assessments.

Why is this important: Such work expands learning beyond the "buttononlogy" of some GIS programs pushing students to understand concepts, develop workflows, work in teams and communicate effectively with a client. This kind of project work is also a shining star on a resume when students seek that first job.

Concerns: Setting up and managing relationships and expectations (for students and clients) is a lot of work for a non-profit organization or an individual instructor. I've seen a number of presentations on GIS service learning projects, but have not yet found a "best practice guide." Neither of the institutional efforts noted above has reported on early outcomes.

See also: Central Pennsylvania Geospatial Technology Center to Support Experiential GIS Learning, EduContribution to Turn Nonprofits’ GIS Needs into University Level Educational Material

3) Promoting Geography

What's the news: I appreciate that Dan Edelson of National Geographic endorsed the activities offered by the Geography Collective lead by Daniel Raven-Ellison, now a National Geographic Emerging Explorer. Edelson did so in ArcNews. Did you see that NCGE gave the AAG an award? Or that the NCGE endorsed yet another geography contest, this one to select a team for the International Geography Olympiad? Or that the AAG now has 21 Fortune 500 companies endorsing its geography education resolution?

Why is this important: Geographers as a community are recognizing important individuals playing a role in geography/GIS education and trying to get the word out about the importance of geography.

Concerns: I wonder if we are talking to ourselves (and giving ourselves awards). How is AAG leveraging the latest endorsement from UPS to bring its cause to a new set of supporters? Will UPS drivers be calling their congresspeople? What is the Geo-Literacy Consortium doing? Do we need a new way to bring geography/GIS to students? To Congress? We seem to be doing what we've always done.  As Dr. Phil might ask: "How's that working so far?"

See also: GIS Day and Geography Awareness Week Observations, Geography and GIS are Everyday Things

4) The Growth of For-Profit Universities offering GIS Certificates/Degrees

What's the news: For-profit universities added to and enhanced advertising of their GIS and related programs in 2012. These schools are beginning to compete with non-profit institutions like community and state colleges and universities, especially in the area of online eduation.

Why is this important: Congress released a report about for-profit colleges highlighting how funds are used and how in some fields promises of employment are overstated. Graduation rates can be very low. Further, students who do finish are often loaded down with debt when expected positions fail to materialize. (Chronicle of Higher Education covearage)

Concerns: Students need to be aware of how for-profits work, their accreditation (or lack thereof), faculty experience, costs and graduation rates.

See also: A Look at Unmanned Vehicle University, Unmanned Vehicle University's New Products: Five Stars, A Look at American Sentinel University's New Geospatial Information Systems Graduate Certificate and Masters Degree

5) GIS/Geography Education Conferences are Boring

What's the news: Sitting in the dark and watching PowerPoint slide after PowerPoint slide is boring. I know; I went to probably a half dozen education conferences this year. Only one had me actively engaged throughout (the pre-BLC EdCamp unconference held here in Boston) and only once did a presenter (me) use technique beside PowerPoint/lecture to convey the key points of the presentation. Sadly, just one activity, the one the evening before the full day of PowerPoint at the Spatial Thinking in the Undergraudate Curriculum event at Bucknell, involved group learning.

Why it's important: How are educators going to learn, use and practice new-to-them engagement techniques if they are not used in their own professional development?

Concerns: If educators bring their PowerPoint to conferences, is that also what they bring to their students? I fear it is. Good news: Esri is promising a single day of "unconference" at its Ed UC this year. I intend to participate and look forward to a PowerPoint free day!

See also: Why are our Conferences Structured just like the Educational System We Want to Change?, Unengaged at NEURISA Day 2012, Takeaways: Conference on GIS & Spatial Thinking in the Undergraduate Curriculum, NEARC Educators Day 2012: Successes but Challenges Ahead, My First Edu UnConference

6) Innovation in Geography/GIS Education

What's the story: Besides the push toward authentic/project-based/service learning in GIS noted above, I've seen a few ideas/innovations appearing for the first time or maturing this year.

These research efforts and innovations are worth watching:

• American Sentinel's planned Geospatial Learning Lab - with competency based learning and badges (first I've seen of that in an online GIS program, though it may exist elsewhere)
• Robert Roth's work on determining the "optimal" Web mapping tool to teach - he and his team offer a workflow to find it, not just the answer for his university (Wisconsin)
• Spatial training can raise spatial capabilities - a meta analysis confirms that training can enhance spatial ability and maybe transfer to other skill in engineering and GIS.
• Digital humanities - injecting GIS into the study of history and the humanities is taking off especially in those small liberal arts schools, though UVa Libraries is leading a charge.
• Balloons and drones - data capture via balloons, kites  (PLOTS) and small, low flying aircraft is part of many courses and activities (K-12 and beyond).

Why it's important: These innovations can help educators (1) engage students, (2) identify new skills students may need and (3) tap education research to advantage.

Concerns: I'm not sure how many educators have the time, energy or resources to track down and learn about such efforts. I was surprised at one presentation how many geospatial educators had not heard of PLOTS, for example.

See also: links above

7) Innovations in Education

What's the story: In the world of education the big buzz words of 2012 are (these are Audrey Watters top edtech trends of the year): flipped classroom, MOOC, learning to program, Maker movement, business of EdTech, open textbooks, etc. Did any of those come up in any GIS/geography discussions, conferences, articles I read this year? Not really.

Why it's important: We are part of the education community, but if we are not addressing the same issues, perhaps we are shutting ourselves out of the conversation and thereby shutting our discipline and technology out of the conversation. For example, if coding is a key skill, should we consider how GIS might be used to teach it or use it?

Concerns: By talking too much to ourselves we may be doing a disservice to geography and GIS.

See also: Top Ed-Tech Trends of 2012

What Interests Geography/GIS Educators?

I'm not sure, but I suspect this is one of just a few blogs that focuses on geography and GIS education in general and education technology and engagement in particular. So, what are readers of this blog interested in? Based on page views for 2012 so far, here are the top 10 posts:

A Geographer Looks at EdTech - Part 1 - the iPad
Esri Announces Significant Upgrade to Educational Site License
Going One Better on Google's University Mapping Contest
A Look at Esri's SpatiaLABS GIS Lab Projects
A Phd Candidate Argues Against ArcGIS
Help! How do I use iPads to Teach AP Human Geography
Flipping Bloom's Taxonomy in Geography/GIS
Central Pennsylvania Geospatial Technology Center to Support Experiential GIS Learning
Integrating Top Tech Skills for Students in GIS/Geography Coursework
NEARC Educators Day 2012: Successes but Challenges Ahead

Some observations/hypotheses:

• The widespread use of Esri technology likely skews the results.
• While Esri provides lots of details about licenses and new education products, readers come here for that information and/or opinion on them.
• Educators are interested in iPads. The sad truth about the plea for help? I saw no responses to this fellow's query here or on any blog!
• Few education journalists or journalists in general followed up on the Central PA Center. To date I believe I was the only one.
• Other conference coverage on the blog, besides the coverage of NEARC Educators Day, also received significant page views. I think GIS/geography educators are anxious to learn from one another, but few if any of those educators blog about or otherwise summarize what they learn at GIS/geography or education events. So, for example, I saw no coverage at all of the huge NCGE, save press releases and photos.

Esri Ed UC: PowerPoint Rules!

I saw a lot PowerPoint at the Esri Education User Conference (Ed UC) held this past week in San Diego. It was at the heart of nearly every session, save perhaps the one-on-one interviews in the two plenaries on Saturday and Sunday. And, to be fair, presenters were pretty much required to use PowerPoint (or at least were asked to submit one).

One comment struck me as I sat through yet another valuable but rather un-engaging session on Tuesday. The presenter shared that he was using the same slides he used in class.

That got me thinking. Do these educators teach the same way in school that they present at Ed UC? I can’t believe that’s the case for educators who spoke about inquiry, problem or project based learning. But I fear some use the same “sage on the stage” PowerPoint lecture format I spent ten or 15 hours watching this past week with their students.

That leads me to envision the conference I wish I could attend. I want to see presenters (specifically those who don’t use PowerPoint) teach. I don’t want them to tell me about how they teach, I want them to teach me and other attendees the same way they do in the classroom or online or informally.

Off the top of my head I thought of three sessions where active learning might have been especially effective.

• I wonder if Megan Patent-Nygren could have squeezed even a mini-version of her inquiry-based learning (one of the most memorable presentations I saw) into an actual activity we the attendees could do. She told us about it, but I wanted to “do it.” 
• I wonder if Eileen Johnson, who spoke about using model builder in her project based learning courses, could have had us try just a bit of what her students do. Maybe she could have asked small groups to develop a way to explain the complex models to non-GIS stakeholders. 
• I wonder if Tom Baker, could have use a different tactic than a big group discussion about possible ways Esri could help those involved in geographic education research at the research SIG meeting. Perhaps small groups could have developed and vetted ideas, sharing just their favorite with the whole group.

Why are we not modeling the move to active, participatory, group, problem, project and inquiry based learning going on in classrooms across the world at our conference?

I did try to execute this once at NEARC Educator’s Day. It didn’t work out very well in part because 20 minutes is not enough time to do even part of lesson. I want to suggest one way we might attempt this sort of session at EdUC or other events like the NEARC Ed Day. Organizers could set aside a few of the 75 minutes sessions and invite master teachers to teach their favorite or their most innovative GIS or geography lessons. Some might need a computer lab, but others might not. Would you want to attend those sessions? I would!

Every educator with whom I’ve shared this idea responded, “I’d attend!” Why? I can answer for myself only. The last time I saw another instructor teach (outside of a conference GIS lab session or a formal training class) was in 1988, the year I completed my Masters at Penn State. I’ll be honest, I need some new material! To be clear, I don’t need new things to teach, I need to steal new techniques, approaches, etc. And, I want to steal them from the best educators in the geography/GIS space.

Getting Women to Speak at Geo Conferences

The topic of the small number of women presenters at geo conferences popped up on Twitter last  week in the context of the Location Intelligence Conference (put on by the company for which I work, Directions Media). I found just a few women speaking at the event. My guess is the proportion is not all that different from any other geo conferences, save perhaps, those focused on education. And, I'll go further and suggest that the percentage of women speaking at geo events has not changed much in my 20 years in the field.

Instead of asking why, I want to focus on how to encourage women to share their knowledge at conferences. Here are some ideas I've come up, with along with some I've heard from others in the industry.

Invite Women to Speak

There is no better feeling than having an event organizer make you feel special by inviting you personally to participate. The invitation may involve financial aid or other incentive to attend, but that's not required.

Encourage Women to Speak within Your Organization

Do you have a "brown bag" lunch where staffers share their work or what they learned at a conference? Are women represented? If not, again, invite their participation. Such a presentation might even be part of and individuals professional development plan.

Support Educational Opportunities that Require Communication

I know communication is a key focus in the Penn State GIS Certificate and MGIS programs. As a member of the advisory board, I agreed that students should not only write in the program,  but create videos, and speak formally and informally to one another. The MGIS capstone project requires a presentation in person, at a conference.

Look for Great Women Speakers

When organizers put together conferences, perhaps they probably don't think much about the balance of speakers. Why? Finding good speakers is NOT easy. Finding good women speakers is even harder simply because this field is male dominated. That means all of us need to keep our eyes open for great speakers of both genders. Please help me with that; I get e-mails all the time asking me to suggest great geo speakers. None, to date, have asked specifically for women, I must add. It would be an interesting challenge for a conference agenda group to make it a goal to have at least one women as a keynote speaker. How about it? (I point this to my own colleagues, as well!)

I'd love to hear any other ideas to get women out on the conference circuit! The benefits to one's career and one's organization are significant.