What is the Right Question to Further Geography Education?

Sociologist Judith Adler of Memorial University (Newfoundland and Labrador) got famous, or infamous, on January 15. Her discussion of her college students' inability to locate countries on the map in an essay on the CBC.ca website (or perhaps it first appeared in the National Post, I can't tell) prompted the usual response. "We need more geography." "Students need to memorize things."

Then there was a thoughtful essay from Esri's Joseph Kerski arguing that perhaps we are asking the wrong question. His argument, as I understand it, is that we should not be asking students to locate counties as part of teaching and learning geography. Instead, we should be asking them to think about the how and why, and perhaps the "so what" of geography.

The real tragedy is not that students don’t know where the Atlantic Ocean is, but how oceans function, why oceans are important to the health and climate of the planet, how oceans support economies, about coral reefs and other ocean life, about threats to the ocean, and so on. The tragedy is that very little of what I consider to be true geoliteracy is being rigorously taught and engaged with around the world: Core geographic content (such as sustainability, biodiversity, climate, natural hazards, energy, and water), the spatial perspective (such as holistic, critical, and spatial thinking about scale, processes, and relationships) and geographic skills (such as working with imagery, GIS, GPS, databases, and mobile applications). While there are many fine exceptions, we need a much greater global adoption, beginning with valuing geography and geospatial as fundamental to every student’s 21st Century education.

I agree. My editorial in Directions Magazine this week argues that learning "where everything is" should not be the goal of, nor nor  definition of, our discipline.

What should that goal and definition be? I'm still working on that, but I'm sure it revolves around "doing geography" and using its principles to understand the world around us. Let me give you an example from my own life and my own geography.

Over the weekend a friend asked: "Why is the Walgreens going in right across the street from the CVS in Porter Square [Cambridge, MA]? They sell the same things!" I noted that just one "square" away, in Davis Square, Somerville, the CVS went in across the street from the Rite Aid, yet another pharmacy.

I'd noticed the groundbreaking for the new store and pondered the same question. I'm not a business geographer, so I did some research and found two very different explanations.

One, via Lakeview News, is from an article about a Michigan version of the same exact question, just with CVS following Walgreens. It suggests the paired locations are not really about the local geography, but perhaps some distant market area.

“Walgreens has a reputation for spotting the best locations while CVS/pharmacy always follows and copies them,” said Ahmed Maamoun, an assistant professor of Marketing in the Labovitz School of Business & Economics at the University of Minnesota Duluth. 

Maamoun said that the strategy of similar businesses clustering together is a common phenomenon.“The strategy aims at making it more difficult for the competitor to gain market share, revenues, or profits that could be used to undermine the other rival in other markets,” Maamoun said.

It is found not only among drug store chains but also other retail formats such as Wal-Mart and Target, Sam’s Club and Costco, Home Depot and Lowe’s, Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts.

The other argument, and this is the one I remember from geography class, was about a rising tide raising all boats. If someone is looking for a car, they'll travel farther and be more likely to look at/buy a car at the dealer next door, than to travel miles to that other dealer. Hence many cities have a version of the "auto-mile" and the strip of fast food joints. Here's one of the papers that does the math to support that argument.

I think my friend's question is a better one to ask (and explore) to expand geographic thinking than "Where is the Atlantic Ocean?"

NEARC Educators Day 2012: Successes but Challenges Ahead

Tora Johnson, speaking, and Lyn Malone
open the conference.

The fifth annual NEARC GIS Educators Day was held in conjunction with the fifth annual Conference of GIS Educators from Maine on Sunday, November 11. The venue was the Camden Opera House.

I spoke first in an early paper session and addressed the use of authentic learning to better engage students. I introduced four teachable moments (AFL Players Map, Satellite Sentinel/Enough project images from Khartoum bombing in Oct, bad geocoding, Apple’s use of OpenStreetMap) and had the attendees brainstorm about which standards/learning objectives, skills might be taught from this story, situation or event. (Resources mentioned in that talk)

Robb Freeman, Eastern Maine Community College shared his first foray into service learning. His school serves mostly working students and after a first class in GIS prompted interest from a group of excited students, he looked for a second course. As luck would have it, a state grant, The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, (EPSCoR) aimed at service learning related to sustainability fell into his lap. He first looked for a local partner. The three organizations he approached with his student labor all said yes! He decided to work with the Frenchman Bay Partnership and focus on their eel grass loss issue. Eel grass is important ... He started his four students off with six weeks or so of lab work in preparation for their work on data collection and mapping of the current state of eelgrass and the development of a detailed atlas of the Bay.

There were some successes:

• student fun/learning 
• learned of a 66% net loss of eelgrass between 1996-2008
• build a new eelgrass data layer for 2011 
• developed a few atlas maps
• students offered a poster for last years conference (and won the competition!)

The biggest disappointment for Freeman was that the students did make as much progress as he would have hoped. In the end, students from the College of the Atlantic joined the class in their project. Among the things Freeman would change in a future implementation:

• set more realistic expectations
• make clear promises to the client
• use less class time and get students into the field sooner
• give students freedom to learn “how to” - but not too much
• let the client determine the project goals
• lead by example - by illustrating how service learning (doing real work) can be fun and rewarding

Spatial Thinking Panel

A panel on spatial thinking was far reaching and involved as many people from the audience as panelists. While we didn’t define spatial thinking, we did agree that students entering college are not prepared in term of spatial thinking and basic geography (lat/long, etc.) We touched on critical thinking skills, problem definition skills, and the possibility of teaching spatial thinking without GIS. We addressed questions from a faculty member at Fitchburg State (MA) about getting students interested in GIS. We also tried to address the challenge of students who want to learn to push buttons vs. really understand the underlying process/logic.

Matthew Bampton of the University of Southern Maine took a swerving path from FloatingSheep.org maps, to Waldo Tobler, to Wicked Problems (see the definition) to get to his work taking undergraduates into the field to see what they could do. He spoke of two projects, one covering many years to explore the islands off the main coast to better understand the underlying geological processes, and a second looking at the impact of historical climate change in the Shetland Islands. The projects all sounded very involved and included carrying and using a variety of surveying tools including total stations and terrestrial LiDAR. Bamptons response to a question regarding challenges lead him to address “what works.” Among his observations:

• mix of men and women on field teams
• students physically well-trained for the environment are likely to be especially successful in problem solving/creative thinking in the field
• formal old school rules (no drinking, no smoking, no foul language, be polite, etc.)
• selection of students just by grades did not work; better to see a full skill set
• better to build skilled teams
• students from small liberal arts schools tend to fair well in the field

A panel addressed the New Hampshire Esri K-12 site license (I wrote about it in August), which was fully funded and running this fall. The four players behind it were New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, New Hampshire Fish and Game, the University of New Hampshire Dept of Education and the state Geographic Alliance.

The final panel of the day was titled What Do Employers Want? The 21st Century Geospatial Workforce. It featured actual hiring managers from real Maine GIS using companies and organizations.

Judy Colby-George founded Spatial Alternatives, a small consulting company in Yarmouth, with a special interest in participatory GIS. She made these comments about potential hires:

• she’s looking for a person who can ask the right question at the right time
• she worries less about GIS skills, because employees follow the company workflow
• she’s looking for students who understand the principles of GIS and who are willing to do whatever is needed (from sweeping floors to digitizing to analysis)

On the future of hiring she noted that what happens in local town budget impacts how she’ll hire. She fears future budgets may force smaller firms to close.

She shared this advice for students:

• do group projects (that’s what real life is like)
• best class she took had groups do same project using different software and highlight what the package did well/poorly
• get around human resource by tracking down hiring manager

She had this advice for instructors:

Consider having students get their own project data (or give them ugly data), since again, that’s the real world.

Patrick Cunningham, is the CEO of Blue Marble Geographics based in Gardiner, ME. The software development shop has about 25 people and recently acquired World Mapper.

On hiring he noted:

• we want to hire folks from Maine
• people who show a skill for learning
• GIS degree not required
• however, a college degree is
• applicants should have some experience (at least internship or volunteer work)
• software developers need lots of math and heavy programming

In the near term he expects to hire a marketing person (the company has never had one before) and a sales support staffer.

His advice to applicants: Write clearly on resume and cover/intro letter. It matters!

Nate Kane works at the Maine Department of Transportation, the state’s transportation agency.

His agency is looking for:

• people who can innovate, think for themselves
• not necessarily specific software for a specific time but rather those who get the “how”
• someone who can persevere and try something new
• those who work well with others (something you can’t teach)

In the future staffers will be more involved with gaining access to and using contributed (geoaware) data. That means means collaboration and fusing of data. He also sees more roles for staffer to present what has been done or learned to a variety of agency clients.

Kane recalled the most valuable course he took (from Mathew Bampton): urban physical geography. It involved a team project, finding resources and communicating results. He reminded students that state service applications may seems intimidating - but it’s worth filling out all the forms and not leaving anything out.

Stu Rich of PenBay Solutions based in Brunswick described the company as a software development shop focusing on Web based presentation of facilities data. They have two kinds of staffers:

• CAD/GIS analysts - who manage, enhance, correct QA/QC the data people
• software developers - who build the software (human interaction) with stable data 

The former need data experience (data manipulation, QA/QC, etc.), AutoCAD and ArcGIS knowledge, but no need for open source experience. He explained how his clients use proprietary software exclusively: Esri, Autodesk, Oracle, etc.

The latter need not have specific experience with a language or development environment.

Rich described the move from the desktop to the Cloud, but reminds educators and applicants that apps like ArcGIS Online are young. Still, he argues, this is the direction in which the industry is going.

The New Face of GIS Training

The new paradigm of GIS training (and perhaps education, too) is upon us. It's epitomized by shorter, more focused and less expensive classes, if not full courses. These classes are being created and taught not by only by traditional academics (with current or paste employment at a K-12 school, college or university), but by our peers, GIS practitioners.

Last week two such offerings crossed my browser. These individuals are among the pioneers in this sort of training.

Gretchen Peterson is offering a four hour workshop at Colorado State University.

Geospatial Workshop: Introduction to Cartography

Join the Geospatial Centroid on Friday, October 26, 1:00 - 5:00 p.m., for a workshop with renowned cartographer, Gretchen N. Peterson (see: http://www.gretchenpeterson.com/blog). The workshop will introduce you to general concepts of cartography, design principles, and introductory skills for adding clarity to your maps. The cost for the workshop is $60 and is payable either by CSU Account number or by check at the workshop. Please register by October 19! Spaces are limited.

Rolling Hills Consulting is offering a course on LiDAR and ArcGIS.

Course Title: How to download LiDAR files and process them in ArcGIS to make a high resolution bare earth Digital Elevation Model (DEM).
Software Required: ArcGIS 10.0 and 3D Analyst extension
Course Cost: $25.00 (if you are interested please click the PayPal Add to Cart button and send us an e-mail).
Course Description: Iowa has acquired LiDAR data statewide. The Iowa Geological and Water Survey have available to download already processed DEMs from the raw LiDAR data at a 3-Meter resolution. One may want to process their own DEMs at other resolutions to bring out subtle elevation changes. This course shows the student how to download LiDAR files and process them in ArcGIS 3D Analyst to create their own DEMs and also how to view those DEMs as 3-dimensional surfaces in ArcScene.

I'm very excited about the potential of these short term, focussed offerings. After reading these short descriptions, I didn't get all the information I needed about the classes. The good news is that when queried, Chad Goings, President of Rolling Hills Consulting and Gretchen Peterson of Peterson GIS provided the details I requested. Goings agreed that adding the information he provided me would be valuable in his marketing. Peterson put up a blog post addressing my questions.

Here are the things I wanted to know as I ponder whether I'd like to attend a single class (or a whole course) from a person/organization (beyond the title, when, where and how much it costs):

• Who wrote/is giving the class? What kind of GIS and/or teaching experience do they have?
• Is the course face-to-face, online (synchronous or asychronous), a tutorial that I do on my own  or something else? 
• Are there any pre-requisites or knowledge that will make the course more valuable?
• Will the course be all lecture or will there be discussion, projects, etc.?
• What are the learning objectives (at the end of the course, what will I be able to do)?
• What materials do I need for the class (pen and paper, hardware, software, OS requirement, headset mike, etc.)?
• What materials will I receive (PowerPoints, PDFs, access to online content, printed materials, software, DVDs, etc.)?
• Will there be evaluations of what I've learned (exercises, quiz, discussion, formal paper, etc.)?
• Will I receive a credential at the end to confirm I've completed the class (badge, certificate, letter of completion, etc.)?
• Do any bodies recognize the course for points or credit (GISCI GISP point, CEUs, etc.)?

This is same information a school faculty member or corporate trainer would share about an upcoming course. These short form courses are aiming to do the same kinds of training, just at a different scale.

The State of Educational Geography Apps and Games

I was pointed by USA Today to a website  called Common Sense Media. It indexes and reviews educational materials for a variety of platforms including apps, games, books, TV shows and more. I keyed in a search for geography and up came six pages of results, some 100 products. I especially enjoyed the summaries from reviewers:

• "Great educational content; slightly dry gameplay."
• "Find-the-country geography app with detailed statistics."
• "Stunning interactive geography and animal science game."
• "Great way to learn states and capitals by region."
• "Advanced quiz questions target true geography buffs."

These comments suggest to me just what I feared: most of the digital offerings are of the "learn the locations of counties and the capitols of states" variety. Why are these types of resources? They are what developers think parents and educators want. And, they may well be correct on that.

The website gives each product a suggested age target (best for age 10, for example), a star rating (how good, aka fun/engaging is it) and an intriguing measure of "learning potential of a title in terms of whether it's BEST, GOOD, or FAIR for learning -- or not for learning." The criteria for that score:

Dimension	Sample Criteria
Engagement	Is it engaging, fun, absorbing?
Learning approach	Is the learning central and not secondary to the experience? Is it relevant and transferable to real life? Does it build concepts and deep understanding? Do kids get exposure to a diversity of people and situations?
Feedback	Do kids get feedback about their performance? Does their experience (e.g., game play) adjust based on what and how they do?
Support and extensions	Are there opportunities and resources to support, strengthen, and extend learning? Is the title accessible to a variety of audiences?

I think that's a pretty good list for evaluating potential for learning. Sadly, few offerings get the top rating, Best for Learning, symbolized by three books. The grading system is in beta (it launched in April, press release), so only a small fraction of the content is rated. Which of my results rate Best for Learning?

• HowStuffWorks for iPad rates three books, but it's certainly not geography specific or even geography focused.
• National Geographic Challenge has the highest rating in potential for learning among the real geography offerings, but gets just two books, not three. The review may indicate why: "Game show/board game is a blast -- but questions are tough!" Digging deeper you find: "Learning social studies facts is wild fun with this competitive game show." Oh boy, another game to learn facts! Hooray!

This is just one website, one with a limited number of learning products, but I fear it reflects the state of geography apps in 2012. Most seem to attack the need to learn the facts about and locations of the countries and cities of the world. I continue to look forward to the next generation of geography games that teach the underlying principles and skills of geography. I point those interested in this opportunity the shiny new volume of national geography standards, the second edition of Geography for Life.

Kingston University Closes First Bachelors GIS Program

Kenneth Field (@kennethfield) writes on Twitter:

News reaches me that Kingston University London have closed the world's first Bachelors GIS course after 23 yrs. Words fail me.

He was there until joining Esri not long ago. He follows up:

@andnewmanGEO @jeremy_morley @osbornec someday I may post a long essay I wrote on what went on & what went wrong at KU...still too soon tho

I have no particular insight into this program or university, but I have been doing some work detailing new GIS degree and certificate programs in the United States. One conclusion I drew from my limited data was that there are new two year GIS certificate and associates degrees and masters degrees but no new four year bachelors degrees. There are few GIS bachelors degrees in the U.S.; off the top of my head I can think of just the one at American Sentinel, a for profit school, but I'm pretty sure there are few others. Somehow that degree package has not been popular here. Why not?

I think some geography programs were not comfortable with GIS leading geography. So degrees are conferred in geography but with a specialization in GIS. That's how my alma mater Penn State does it.

The current economic downturn and the push for more career focused learning has but students in the drivers' seat. They are demanding shorter programs that can get them into real jobs faster. Hence a two year certificate or two year associates degree can be a shortcut to a good paying job. The new masters programs I see are not academic masters, but rather professional masters aimed at adding skills to those of a currently working professional. Again, the goal is workforce enhancement.

Mr. Field suggests other factors may be at play at Kingston, but at some level its following the pattern I'm seeing here in the U.S.

Geography Matters at the University of Phoenix

Like many, I'm not sure what to make of the University of Phoenix. Thankfully, American Public Media is doing a full hour documentary on it and provided a preview in its weekly education podcast. (I highly recommend these weekly podcasts on education; they are just great.) Several things surprised me but I want to comment on the geographical aspect of Phoenix's campuses. Apparently, Phoenix was the first, back in the 1970's to start locating its campuses just off major highways. It provides huge parking lots for an "easy in, easy out" experience for busy students. Students seem to love it, especially compared the usual parking crunch at lovely quadrangle filled schools.

And, Phoenix markets it accessibility. The webpage with a nationwide map of campuses states:

If you prefer face to face interaction, there’s a good chance we have a campus location near you. In fact, we have locations within 10 miles of 87 million Americans.

I checked the locations in Massachusetts. One is indeed within 10 miles of me (crow flies) just south of Boston.

To better serve you, we’ve moved into a new location within a three-minute drive of South Shore Plaza. We’re conveniently located off of Interstate 93 North and South, Route 3, Route 1 and Route 28 North and South.

The Central Massachusetts Learning Center in Westborough is where business and MBA students go. It's right off Routes 495 and 9.

At one time it made sense to put the main campus of a state school in the center of the state; that's why Penn State is where it is. Today, however, what Phoenix is doing geographically is clearly working.

DiBiase Speaks Truth to Power on GIS and Education

Do you want some straight talk on GIS in education? How about these quotes from Matt Artz's interview with Esri's Director of Education, David DiBiase? (Disclosure: I worked for Matt at Esri and David at Penn State.)

What is the mission of Esri’s Education Team?
David: The overarching objective of Esri’s Education Team is to cultivate the next generation of ArcGIS users and Esri customers. ...By his [Jack Dangermond's] reckoning, the education market accounts for 40% of Esri users.

As the Education Team begins its third decade of operation, how are changes in geospatial technology changing the way GIS will be taught?
All of this progress and diversity, which a recent public media project dubbed “the geospatial revolution,” has made it both easier and harder to teach with and about GIS.  Easier because the tools are better and more accessible; harder because the diversity and rapid evolution of the tools makes it harder for educators to keep up.

Would you say that GIS has been an easy tool for educators to adopt?
David: No. ...Expanding access to real GIS software is one obstacle we can do something about.

How much of this is about GIS or other geospatial technologies, vs. the more basic goal of teaching spatial thinking skills?
David: As the National Research Council report Learning to Think Spatially points out, our professional-grade tools are not particularly well suited to teaching and learning with, as opposed to about, GIS.

You'll want to read the complete responses for full context. It's gratifying to see the leading GIS software vendor, with some 40% of its users in the education market, clearly stating its vested interest in creating new customers, the challenges in gaining adoption and the technology's limited role (to date) in teaching spatial thinking. While Esri has "won" the war by getting its software into many schools, the smaller and perhaps more difficult battles are still to come. Esri, with all those schools using its software should be among those tackling the next big challenges and questions including:

• How can GIS use in schools help in student's knowledge of geography and its principles? Did you see the mixed results on the last Assessment of Academic Progress in Geography (All Points Blog)?
• Can GIS help keep students, especially secondary students, in school? There are recent stirrings from the president suggesting all states up the age until which students must attend school to 18 (NY Times).
• Can GIS use in secondary schools help students get jobs? That's clearly a focus in junior and community colleges.
• Can GIS help students develop critical thinking skills required for higher learning?
• Can GIS help get federal funding for geography education in the United States either via a STEM focus or some other way? Geography education enhancement is still unfunded. (Speak Up for Geography)

I'm looking forward in the coming months and years to hearing more about GIS' impact on education in these less sexy and sometimes harder to measure areas.

A Geographer Looks at EdTech - Part 10 - Biz of Ed Tech

--- This post is the tenth, and last, in a ten part series examining top 2011 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

The tenth theme Audrey Watters identified in her top ten list of ed tech for 2011 is the educational technology business itself. There are myriad of startups tackling all sorts of old and new problems in education. And, of course, many mainstream companies have education "arms" - including Esri and Google.

EdTech in GIS has clustered around the biggest player, Esri, though a few other packages with associated materials are available. I'm thinking of My World GIS, for example. But, with the platforms such as the Web and mobile phones for teaching and increased interest in teaching (and use) of open source software, the GIS Ed Tech market is poised for growth.

2011 saw the launch of a non-profit that's not exactly "Ed Tech" but is tapping into the updated "service focused" education model. Have a look at a piece I did on GeoContribution. I'll be keeping an eye on the newest GIS/geography Ed Tech for 2012.

A Geographer Looks at EdTech - Part 9 - Open

--- This post is the ninth in a ten part series examining top 2011 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

The ninth theme Audrey Watters identified in her top ten list of ed tech for 2011 is "openness." She acknowledges progress in many things "open" including openly-licensed content, open educational resources (OER), open source, and open access. She offers a great list of "open" successes, many of which are new to me, as I write in early 2012. But Watters concludes that there are still many issues with open, including its use as a primarily "marketing-y" term. "I think we’re in store for lots of conflict over what constitutes “open” — how it’s funded, how it’s labeled and licensed, who mandates “what counts.””

I agree. The term "open" has raised, and continues to raise, quite a bit of confusion in geospatial circles. I regularly run into students, faculty and well-read industry people who use the term "open source" without understanding its meaning. (Yes, there's an article in the works for Directions Magazine on just that issue!) Others tout open APIs and open standards support as if the are the same thing; they are not.

The teaching of open source software in GIS courses is still a rather new idea. The GeoTech Center went to great pains to note a session on one such course at FOSS4G. I hear very little about OER in geospatial education circles (though I confess to being rather new to them). The only institution I know of that uses the OER licensing is my previous employer/alma mater, Penn State. I'm also not aware of how/if open access (to academic content, research) impacts GIS and geography teaching. My sense is that many of the resources for undergraduate GIS courses would appear in "industry," aka public, free publications (like Directions Magazine) rather than strictly academic ones. I know that was the case for my own course readings.

The lack of action around "open" in education in GIS can be sourced to some extent to Esri. So much of the GIS industry and thus its educational component operates in a solar system surroundnig Esri that open options may not fully register with faculty.... yet. But, ss students see more demand for open source expertise and as faculty begin to see the cost and restrictions related to vendor developed curricula (see for example, Esri's plan to stop certifying trainers), I expect the demand for "open" in GIS and geographic education to increase.

A Geographer Looks at EdTech - Part 8 - Questioning College

--- This post is the eighth in a ten part series examining top 2011 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

The eighth theme Audrey Watters identified in her top ten list of ed tech for 2011 is what I like to call "Questioning College." It's the very valuable query from students and parents asking about the value of a college education and if it's right for any particular student. Watters points out how many have done fine without a degree (Mr. Gates, Mr. Zuckerberg to name two) and that only 29% of Americans hold four year degrees (the numbers are lower for minorities). So, this is a good a time as any to question the "traditional" college track, even if we know those with degrees make more over a lifetime than those who do not. She also points out all of the great resources for those who chose an alternative path - from Khan Academy to free learning from MIT and Stanford, among others.

I'm quick to assert college is not for everyone. My best friend, a brilliant writer and thinker, opted for a vocational path (two degrees in culinary) before returning to finish a bachelors degree, years later. After many years in culinary, she shifted gears to development (raising money), and perhaps ironically now works in that arena at Boston College. I'm a big fan of vocational programs in high schools, community colleges and in the workplace. The biggest challenge for someone at 18, 28, 48 or 58 is choosing which of these paths is right for them.

Now, what about four year college geography degrees? Many of the skills needed in today's "job market" can be acquired in other ways. The challenge can be that having those skills alone, may not be enough to get the expected job. Many of the companion skills, some of which are absolutely key to short and long term career success, have little to do with software or data skills. They are the softer skills, some of which I think, are difficult, but not impossible, to pick up outside of a formal educational program. What skills do I mean? I outlined five in a podcast/article we did at Directions: self-teaching, working in a team, self-direction, finding a mentor and communications.

And, frankly, it's that first one, self-teaching, that enables all the rest of the soft and even the hard skills, like GIS. The most valuable thing anyone can get out of any aspect of education is the ability to learn how to learn. I selected my college (Chicago) in part because at 18, I had no idea how to guide myself. By 22, I was more confident, and after grad school (where I did some rather non-conformist research on the Penn State Marching Band for my thesis) I was ready to face the world and the workplace.

Geography/GIS degrees can be a credential for a job. But how do hiring managers look upon a specific academic degrees, and/or GISP or Esri certification? Are these (or other credentials) the first pass filter for a group of job seekers? I used to believe they should be, but having been the real world, I'm less and less convinced of that all the time.

I learned the most about the value (or lack of value) of a credential from Barbara, the 50+ lady we hired in the organics lab at my consulting firm to wash our glassware. She had only a high school diploma. Managers far wiser than I knew she had the "right stuff," which included getting on with a bunch of cocky college grads ranging from 22 to 35. I know there are plenty of people like Barbara, with one or no credentials that would make great additions to the geospatial workforce.

A Geographer Looks at EdTech - Part 7 - STEM

--- This post is the seventh in a ten part series examining top 2011 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

The seventh theme Audrey Watters identified in her top ten list of ed tech for 2011 is the newfound focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). She details how president Obama linked Sputnik to education reform in his 2011 State of the Union address. He also proposed ARPA-ED, a new agency funded in 2012, to explore ways to educate students. She argues we need to seed interest in STEM far before college and the way to do that is via hands on learning - coding, building, making - not via standardized testing.

GIS and geography have a good history of hands on projects dating back to the early 1990s. Middle schoolers from New Hampshire taught themselves PC Arc/Info (the HORROR!) and mapped their school. They were the first group, I think, to present their work on the big stage at the Esri international User Conference in 1992 or 1993. Now GIS is in science fairs and 4-H among other places, with much of the credit for these programs going to Esri.

The problem I see with GIS and geography and the current interest in and focus on STEM education is that GIS and geography sit on the edge of social and physical sciences. So, when those who advocate for GIS (a technology) or geography (typically considered a social science) speak up, they can seem a bit wishy washy about where it sits. I raised this issue this fall when Speak Up for Geography ran a campaign to get those who believe in geography education to contact their Congresspeople and ask them to support The Geography is Fundamental Act (TGIF).

I think for right now we need to push the human side of geography/GIS to the background and run a full force offensive highlighting its importance as a STEM discipline. Frankly, geography needs to fish where the fish are.

A Geographer Looks at EdTech - Part 6 - Khan Academy

--- This post is the sixth in a ten part series examining top 2011 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

The sixth theme Audrey Watters identified in her top ten list of ed tech for 2011 is the rise and popularity of Khan Academy. She details the non-profit's beginnings and details its free repository of math and science videos. She goes on to note its growth to include exercises, rock star tech and education hires, more funding and all the buzz its had in the media.

Part of the buzz around Khan Academy is about how videos might be used as homework. The vision of the "flipped classroom"(IE post) involves students watching videos (or being introduced to new material in other ways) at home and then doing what used to called "homework" at school with peer and teacher support. Khan didn't invent that vision, but helped market it.

I love the ideas behind Khan Academy but am not so naive to think they will solve all our education challenges in math or other areas. I like these aspects of the Khan vision:

• Bite-sized, homey videos that can be watched again and again
• Open model means videos are under a Creative Commons license and Khan-used tools are open source
• Real educators are building out an arts and history curricula
• The flipped classroom means student have help at hand in "the doing" part of learning, not he passive part (aka the lecture)
• Non-profit status can help limit too rapid growth and hopefully mis-use of government funding

So how do the ideas of Khan Academy relate to geography and GIS education? That was a jumping off point of my keynote at the NEARC Edu event (IE post) this year. I imagined a flipped GIS course that had no lectures. Instead, students watch videos, read tutorials, etc. at "home" and do "labs" during class. Those labs, I'd imagine would be noisy raucous places where students work together and interact, unlike the deathly quiet ones I've seen. Is the geography community ready to build its library of videos for such a vision? Do they already exist?

A Geographer Looks at EdTech - Part 5 - Libraries

--- This post is the fifth in a ten part series examining top 2011 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

The fifth theme Audrey Watters identified in her top ten list of ed tech for 2011 is the non-uptake of e-textbooks and the rebirth of libraries. She details how libraries are making more content available online, are become newfangled learning labs and in some geographies, Maker Labs. While she acknowledges the ongoing challenges of libraries sharing e-books, she is confident the "library as more than book repository" is long term win.

I'm with her on that vision. My mother was a librarian and she was one of the smartest people I even met. She taught me to love libraries and how to use them. I keep a close watch on my public library. We in Somerville, MA love it so much that we convinced the city to find money to keep it open for just four hours on Sundays during the winter. If you visit during that window, you'll find it packed. It's also packed after school, mostly with students banging away on the computers. Some are doing schoolwork and others are on Facebook.  The non-students are typically working on their resumes. I love the energy there and how all of the city uses it. What do I do there? Catch up on old issues of Runner's World, check out vegetarian cookbooks and find DVDs of all those HBO shows I've not yet seen.

I had a chance to help out in a local private school library this fall. The one room library was being updated with computers and a smart board. The librarian, who already teaches classes, was excited to have even more use of the space before, during and after school. If you love school libraries, I highly recommend this podcast from American Public Media.

So, where does GIS fit into libraries? Everywhere! Libraries must have altases, globes, GIS and educators to enable their use. Esri had it 100% right when it started ite Schools and Libraries group. I'm imagining K-12 students visiting their school or public library weekly to learn about all sorts of information resources and issues. GIS should be just one of them. Oh, and I want to see a parallel track of courses available weekly, open to all, at the public library.

A Geographer Looks at EdTech - Part 4 - Learning Analytics

--- This post is the second in a ten part series examining top 2011 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

The fourth theme Audrey Watters identified in her top ten list of ed tech for 2011 is learning analytics, that is the data about learning. She explains that in many situations learning analytics boils down to standardized tests as a measure of our failing schools. But it can also be a tool to evaluate teachers, guide student learning and sadly, a pressure to encourage cheating. Still, with the promise of these data, and the ease of capture when students use electronic devices and software, they can't be ignored.

Data capture is easier than ever. Even as I write this [in December] the American Geographic Society is running a survey of adult opinions on geography. It's built on a data platform (copyright 2006) even more ugly than the widely used Survey Monkey. The questions disappointed me so much that I chose not to share the request for others to complete the survey.

Last year at a geo edu event I got the "pitch" from a Pearson rep on its new geography text book/online package. He explained it would tell me, the instructor, how well my students did on the quizzes related to each chapter in vivid charts. I could see which multiple choice question the most students got wrong and the like. I could see which students did the assignments and which did not. The offering did not appeal to me at all.

Why? My classes (both in residence at local colleges and community college and online in a graduate program) are about geography/geographic thinking/geotechnology) AND communication. While these tools deliver rote learning evaluations, they don't help me see how the students think or express themselves. In a sense, my issue is, "I don't get to see their work!"

That said, I am most excited about using such data to find out what "works." That is, teaching one class a topic using one method and a second via another and seeing which mastered the material better. I believe using these data to hone in on techniques that work is their greatest promise. Want an example? Check out Emily Hanford's latest piece (NPR) on new methods in physics education. If you like it, I highly recommend listening to every podcast from American RadioWorks.

A Geographer Looks at EdTech - Part 3 - Text Messaging

The third theme Audrey Watters identified in her top ten list of ed tech for 2011 is text messaging. She explains that since not all students will have smartphones, at least right now, text messaging is the universal mobile phone communication platform. She highlights a number of startups aiming SMS products at the education market. All of them seem to focus simply on managing communications between students, teachers and sometimes, parents.

The apps sound like a great first step in exploring the use of SMS for education. My question is what happens next, that is, how do educators best use SMS tech for actual teaching and learning? Is it in class? During school hours? Outside school hours? Is it reminders? Extra questions/challenges for homework? Extra hints for the tough problems?

How can educators embrace the very nature of the platform? I have one idea that stems from a limitation in a technology I used in my teaching. The Jing Project allows anyone to create screen capture movies with narration and share them via the cloud. It's free - with a five minute time limit per video. I adjusted my assignments to be complex, but still required students to respond within the five minute video. It was TOUGH. But, to their credit, students stripped away the irrelevant material and created tight, focused responses. SMS assignments might focus on students developing a 160 character answer to a specific question or challenge. Here's a geographic one that would be interesting: "State within an SMS if you feel the redistricting in your state has been fair or not and why."

A Geographer Looks at EdTech - Part 2 - Social Media

--- This post is the second in a ten part series examining top 2011 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

The second theme Audrey Watters identified in her top ten list of ed tech for 2011 is social media. She discusses the rise of Edmodo, a growing education-only social media tool and the legal challenges teachers and students face when using worldwide social networks such as Facebook.

While there are still legal issues to be ironed out with "non ed-specific" social media, my gut feeling is that whenever possible, students should use "the real thing." That is, they should use Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, etc. - the same tools they'll use in the real world. I know that can require more energy for IT departments, legal departments and instructors, but I think its worth it in the long term.

It's worth noting that a new geospatially focused social network is launching in January. It's called GISnation and will have all sorts of membership types including one for students. I confess to having mixed feelings about this venture. While it'd be lovely to have a discipline-specific social network, many attempts at something along these lines have failed in recent years. A whole raft of sites with forums and blog consolidation have failed (see for example The GIS Forum, which shut down about Feb 2011 and has since lost its domain registration). A geospatial Reddit is still alive but pretty quiet. GIS-StackExchange is doing better but seems to have a programmer focus, rather than a more general scope. I expect the most valuable social networks for students and users of GIS will be self-forming on platforms like Twitter and Google+, which it's rumored, may have a dedicated K-12 segment in time.

On the other hand, I do expect more and more cloud based mapping sites such as ArcGIS Online and to have their own in-built social tools. Those could be most valuable for students, as long as they are guided in responsible use by educators.

A Geographer Looks at EdTech - Part 1 - the iPad

--- This post is the first in a ten part series examining top 2011 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

I've only been writing about GIS/geography education for a few months now, so I'm not ready to identify a top ten of any kind for the year. Thankfully, I found Audrey Watters blog Hack Education (and podcast). She's been counting down the top ed tech themes of the year. I want to visit each one for two reasons: (1) to be sure those who are "heads down" in teaching GIS/geography are aware of these themes and (2) to add in my thoughts on how GIS/geography educators might take advantage of them.

10) The Year of the iPad

Audrey Watters identified the iPad in her top ten list of ed tech for 2011. Even those on the fringes of education probably heard about how schools were buying iPads for students. More importantly, there's been significant coverage of how students of all kinds (very young, K-12, college, with disabilities, etc.) can't keep their hand off the devices! Hardware to me is simply something on which to run software, so I'm far more interested in what learners do on the iPads, than that they love them.

One of the top learning apps for iOS devices, per many observers, is called Motion Math, from a company of roughly the same name, Motion Math Games. It teaches key ideas about number lines and fractions. To learn about fractions, students move/tilt the device to "bounce" the fraction to the right location (3/5 the way, 1/2 the way, etc.) along a bar. A score of 100% moves a student to the next level. The short video below explains it far better than I can.



Now, I've never played or studied with Motion Math, but I want to! Why?

• It's active.
• It's focused on a very specific sets of skills related to fractions.
• There are hints to help you learn, not just get the right answer.
• It's not scary.

Could you teach calculus this way? Probably not. How about geography facts? How could you use the interface of the iPad to create a compelling "game" beyond the old "What country is this?" and "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?" ones from the previous generation of educational computer and video games? Most of the educational geography apps/games for mobile devices including the iPad  are simple rehashes of these older ideas. I'm looking forward to the "Motion Math of geography facts" as a first big step into iPad learning tools for geography.

But lets jump to another type of geographic learning that's possible on the iPad: geographic problem solving. Let's face it, that's what we hope geography and geographic technology learners will take away from their studies. Could the iPad teach that? Could it allow such analysis in the field, say on a street corner? Could software walk students through the steps: identify the problem, gather data, analyze data, suggest a possible answer (that's my version of the steps in geographic problem solving; here are Esri's). I can imagine some great, very free form activities that teach and allow students to practice these steps, using tools and data from, say, ArcGIS Online. Once a project is complete, the output and discussion could be shared with other students via blog, social media, etc.

I am very excited about what's possible. Are you building or have seen anything like the apps I've envisioned?

Geocube: A Best Website for Teaching and Learning?

Geocube was cited as a Best Website for Teaching and Learning site by the American Association of School Librarians. It was in the Curriculum Sharing category. I'd not heard of it before, so I checked it out. Here's the About information from the site:

Geocube…… re-inventing the way to explore Geography
The world of Geography at your fingertips and just a mouse click away!
Geocube is an attractive online resource about Geography. Geocube is based on the principle of the Rubik Cube with six faces and 54 topics. It is a virtual and easily accessible website which is available online for free. Move the Geocube around with your mouse and explore the faces and topics.Geocube provides an accessible way to read, see and watch what Geography is and geographers do. This is a European initiative developed by HERODOT, the European Network for Geography in Higher Education and is available to anyone who is interested in Geography.

While visually interesting and fun to play with, the site is more flash than substance. A virtual Rubik Cube floats in the center of the site and visitors navigate to different topics by spinning it. Each face has a theme (section in Geocube lingo): Earth from All Angles, Useful Geographies, The Fascinating Earth, Living Together, etc. Each face expands to a nine segment tic-tac-toe board of nine topics (subsection in Geocube lingo).

Living Together, for example, includes subsections on economic development, pollution, language, mobility, health, migration, ethnicity and religion, literacy and poverty. The health section includes a short, dull essay on health and epidemiology. There are also some images in a gallery (insect, ambulance, a picture of the sun viewed through open hands) with no captions or details. I have no idea why they are here, nor do I find suggestions on how instructors or students might use them. There are videos, too. None that I saw had any sound, nor captions or titles. Curious.

The "How to Use" video explains how to navigate the cube, but does not suggest a meaningful path through the content for students or guidance for instructors.

The explanation for this is not on the site, but can be found in a slide deck from 2009 explaining the goal of this project as a tool to promote geography, not share curricula or educate. I think the site does promote geography well, but I'm not sure how an educator would use it in course/curricula development.

Teaching Yourself GIS vs. Being "Led"

I learned about a URISA-hosted seminar titled "Maps in the Cloud" held last week (Nov 17). The details on the $20 session are:

Bring your WI-FI enabled laptop to participate in a hands on workshop showing you how to create intelligent web maps without having any GIS software installed on your computer. Esri technical staff will lead participants through a series of exercises that utilize the latest capabilities of ArcGIS.Com.

I found a very experienced GIS person who attended. He posted the map he made on his blog.

@Geotrek's Picture from Event

I don't have any issue with the fee. What I wonder is how many GIS professionals would prefer to be "led" through this new technology versus those who'd prefer to "teach themselves." I had a sneaking suspicion this workshop would be well-attended and a tweet from @Geotrek confirmed it was.

I was confident in that hunch in part based on a totally unscientific poll I took at NEURISA in October. I suggested that Google Fusion Tables are a key technology GIS professionals will need to know going into 2012. When I asked how many of the 100 people in the room had "played with" this free technology about seven people raised their hands. Perhaps if I asked about ArcGIS.com I'd have gotten a slightly more hands, but I didn't ask.

I suggested in a Directions Media podcast that "teaching yourself" is an important skill for a successful GIS career. I was thinking specifically of being able to master new technologies or ideas without a long, expensive course or any course at all. I suspect that even novice GIS users could teach themselves the basics of ArcGIS.com. Esri has worked hard to make the interface simple and there's a big push for ArcGIS.com use in the classroom. Further, a custom-skinned version is the heart of the U.S. government's new geoplatform.gov. Why then would GIS professionals need to have their "hands held" through a workshop?

Over the weekend of NEARC, when I posed this question, a GIS professional explained that perhaps users of "real GIS" aka desktop GIS, think ArcGIS.com is just "a toy." (I've heard the same said about Google Fusion Tables...) The respondent went on to suggest current Esri users do not think ArcGIS.com is applicable to their "work."

When I pondered why professionals will in fact attend this event, I decided they don't need the hand holding, but they prefer the handholding. That raises the question of "Why?" I can think of two main reasons. First off, working GIS professionals may not not have the luxury of paid time to explore such things. Times are tight and they have to spend 100% (or more) of their time doing their current jobs. Setting aside a dedicated morning to focus on a topic, off-site, may be the best way to tackle professional development. Second, working professionals may not have the interest in, nor the experience to, teach themselves. It may not be "interesting enough" to do on their own time, nor easy enough to find the many resources online to teach them the same content as is covered in the session cited above. I'm confident content of various kinds (video, blogs, etc.) exist to do just that.

In short, I fear we have a situation where many professionals expect a formal course for new technologies and products in their field. Why? Because that's how they've learned such things in the past! There's always been a "class" - either at school, or online, from an educator or from a vendor. That doesn't sound right in the 2010s.

I don't want to put down formal education (it's served me well both as a students and as an instructor) nor Esri's commitment to edumarketing (which is key to its past, current and future success) but I do want to advocate for more exploration of self-teaching. It offers much more than a new skill; it builds confidence and as I suggested in the podcast, it also builds the type of employee an employer wants to hire.

NEARC Educators Day 2011: A Day of Questions

This year marked the fourth GIS Educators Day in the northeast. As usual, it was held the Sunday before the New England Arc Users (NEARC) Group Conference. This year we met at the Saratoga Springs, NY Hilton.

Kicking Off

I heard we had 55 educators registered, with a nice mix of K-12, community college and university representatives. I even saw a 4-H student and a 4-H leader in their now well-known blue polo shirts. I had the privilege of giving the opening remarks where I basically pondered a series of questions but provided no answers (pdf of my presentation slides)! I asked:

• How might the flipped classroom be applied to geography/GIS eduction?
• How can we teach geographic intuition so GPS-following 17-year olds don't crash their cars into trees?
• What are the options for students not spending money on geography/GIS textbooks?
• How should organizations like the federal government, National Geographic and Oracle best spend their dollars on geography/GIS education?
• How might we apply gamification to geography/GIS education?

I had a great time and was pleased with the energy in the room. I was also pleased to note that about half of the attendees confirmed they had "Spoken Up for Geography." I was very disappointed that only about five knew of Mission Explore, perhaps the best Geography Awareness Week activity set ever produced (Kudos to the folks behind it: The Workshop from the UK).

Morning Sessions

Panel on "Indispensable Geospatial Professionals"

The opening panel I attended had a great title: "Educating Indispensable Geospatial Professionals for the 21st Century." The three person panel focused on different methods to create those professionals. Lara Bryant, Keene State College, described her course which serves both GIS majors and education majors. Eaach student's final project is a GIS lesson for a real client (a teacher/school). 

Tora Johnson, University of Maine at Machias explained how the number of traditional geography/GIS/cartography majors is way down at her school, but participation in the school's certificate and associate programs is way up. The certificate/associate programs are serving "incumbent" populations, people who already have jobs (typically older people). The most important asset her students take into the GIS working world is problem solving. She actually teaches it in her class (and did a paper on it at the AAG). When her students find themselves in a typical Maine GIS job, that is, as the only tech person in a rural setting, they are tapped to, and apparently can, solve all kinds of problems. 

Tao Tang, Buffalo State College summarized some of his students final projects which typically relate to their current employment and are essentially service learning. 

The list of things that can make a student "indispensable" in the workforce that I jotted down during the discussion include:

• problem solving skills
• service learning/internships
• a portfolio (for example a GIS lesson produced as a pre-service teacher)
• networking 
• basic GIS skills
• ability to teach oneself

I felt that these ideas matched up well to those I identified on a recent article/podcast on the topic. The one skill that employers in Maine need that is not yet met by GIS students, per Tora Johnson: data management, data processing and data stewardship. I suspect the demand for such skills reaches far beyond Maine.

John Van Hoesen, Green Mountain College

I moderated a session that began with many questions from John Van Hoesen, Green Mountain College. He asked, "Does FOSS GIS Offer More Opportunities for Developing Strong Foundational GIS Skills?" He also pondered if the goals of a course or the acquisition of specific skills was driving the teaching and learning of GIS. He was quick to point out that there was no need to toss out ArcInfo, but wanted to explore how teaching was different with FOSS. He based his exploration on The GIS 20: Essential Skills book and highlighted the differences in practicing those skills in ArcGIS and open source packages.

I'd summarize his findings as indicating the skills were "easier" and "quicker" to learn and do in ArcGIS. In one case, creating a general reference map, it took him four times as long to make it in QGIS (with which he is very familiar) than in ArcInfo. In part, I'd suggest, based on his discussion, that's because ArcInfo "does more" for you. For example, it assumes the next dataset you add is in the same projection as the last one. QGIS does not. Which leads to the question: Does convenience imply higher quality maps? Higher quality learning? Like me, he didn't have specific answers, but I think these are important questions. (If you missed Kurt Menke's article in Directions Magazine on teaching with open source, it also sheds light on teaching with open source GIS.)

In the same session, Wendy Stout, NASA Virginia Space Grant told the success story of teaching teachers about GIS via hands-on workshops. Educator awareness about GIS was definitely raised and several new courses and programs are launching across the state. The real question (and it's too soon to know the answer) is how these efforts will fare in five or ten years.

In the final session before lunch, Sharron Macklin, Williams College argued that introducing "spatial literacy" in a gentle fashion to her liberal arts college faculty is far more likely to succeed that trying to teach scary "GIS." She's developed a matrix of short to longer lesson visions for bringing that spatial literacy to the different disciplines. The sessions range from five minutes (locate areas of interest on a Web map) to hours (more in depth work with desktop GIS doing analysis).  

Afternoon Sessions

Glenn Hazelton, Northeastern University, offered a panel titled "Teaching GIS: It's More than Buttonology." The panelists (Jeffrey Dunn, U Conn Northeastern University, me, Keith Ratner, Salem State) struggled to find a path that acknowledged that some "recipe following" was required in the early GIS courses, while independent thinking and problem solving was also required. We came to no conclusion, but there was a strong sentiment that educators want students leaving GIS classes or graduating with GIS degrees, to know more than how to push buttons.

I organized a panel that aimed to show how three educators teach. Instead of talking about how we teach, the vision was to actually do a mini-lesson for the attendees. I kicked off with one of my favorite lessons on user interface design. After a very quick rundown of the principles, the attendees helped critique three different Web maps in the context of those principles. I was very pleased how well they did with only a three-minute introduction! (pdf of my slides) Alex Chaucer, Skidmore College, focused on broad ideas of finding ways to teach. Among his suggestions: taking students outside, using virtual tours or photographs to explore the landscape while indoors, and changing the mode (group work, lecture, hands-on, etc.) Jon Caris, Smith College walked the attendees through what could be a very stressful, but rewarding lesson. First groups use pen, paper, maps, acetates and a list of requirements to determine where to look for ancient artifacts. Then after some sweating and pain, they work through the analysis using mostly pre-built models in ArcGIS. Smith does not have "GIS courses" but instead tries to inject GIS into its existing courses. Caris might visit a class for a two hours and this is the type of activity he might do. I found it very appealing because it used different modes (groups, hands on, computer), was very interactive, was very focused on the problem solving process, and was less focused on pushing buttons. 

The last session of the day for me included discussion of the Cooperative Extension program and how educators in Connecticut are using Web Maps for student engagement. The name Shane Brandt, NH Extension, is a well-known in New England and I was pleased to hear from him about his mandate to serve the people of the state with geotechnology. Who takes advantage of that offer? Policemen, teachers, farmers, businessmen... To serve them (and sometimes to serve those from other states, like Massachusetts) he (NH page) and his colleagues in Rhode Island and Connecticut (national page) teach courses and share all kinds of materials. The Connecticut team addressed Google Earth, Fusion Tables and ArcGIS Online along with more focused apps (such as Historypin) that help engage students.  

Other Sessions

There were a whole set of sessions I could not attend since three full tracks were running simultaneously. A room was set aside for hands-on workshops throughout the day. Esri's Charlie Fitzpatrick was busy in there introducing educational opportunities with browser-based solutions like ArcGIS Online and presentation tools like ArcGIS Explorer. There were also workshops on ArcGIS Desktop and LiDAR aimed at educators. There was a well-plugged presentation on Aligning Your Geospatial Curriculum with the GTCM presented by the GeoTech Center.

Conclusion

I certainly left the event with more questions than answers, but I think that reflects the state of GIS and geography education. All of the educators in attendance, and their administrators back home, need to ponder how to best serve their students, their local community and their local businesses/employers. It's a good time to ask a lot of questions.

Special thanks to Lyn Malone, World View and Alex Chaucer, Skidmore College for making this outstanding event come together.