2015: Where is GIS Education in the Top EdTech Trends?

Every year Audrey Watters ends the year with a set of posts covering the last 12 months' edtech trends. I read the ones posted up until Dec 18 and here ponder where GIS education fits. 

The Politics of Education Technology

Common Core, the election, Arne Duncan stepping down, paying for college .... most of these are of little concern to GIS educators.

The federal government's interest in geography and edtech (where GIS falls) are of concern. Geography graduated up in the latest education bill (Every Student Succeeds Act) in that it's now considered part of a well balanced breakfast, I mean education. That to me says there's still quite a lot of advocacy and grant writing at the state level needed for any measurable changes in the coming years.

GIS Education Weekly: ESSA, New Esri and Open Source Training Programs, Tableau Maps

Every Student Succeeds Act Passes but Money is Not Raining Down for Geography

The update to No Child Left Behind, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act – the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, large pdf), received the president's signature last week. Geography got some love, but is lumped in with a number of disciplines now considered part of a “well-rounded education.” That means it will compete with them for grant funds. Here's the part of the bill (page 807) that defines a "well-rounded education":

‘‘(52) WELL-ROUNDED EDUCATION.—The term
6 ‘well-rounded education’ means courses, activities,
7 and programming in subjects such as English, read-
8 ing or language arts, writing, science, technology,
9 engineering, mathematics, foreign languages, civics
10 and government, economics, arts, history, geography,
11 computer science, music, career and technical edu-
12 cation, health, physical education, and any other
13 subject, as determined by the State or local edu-
14 cational agency, with the purpose of providing all
15 students access to an enriched curriculum and edu-
16 cational experience.’’.

The National Association for Music Education (NAME) is happy to have music on the list. NAME notes that the funds are not just being given away; educators will need to go out and get them. NAME already has a toolkit (pdf) to help members do that.

The AAG offers a summary of the places geography, as a part of a well-rounded education, appears in the bill. And, perhaps it too will offer such a guide.

There's definitely confusion on geography funding in ESSA. "Funding of geography education" was ranked number two in a Twitter-voted list of top geo stories of the year. I'm afraid that simple statement is a bit misleading.

I encourage K-12 geography educator and administrators to get excited about the bill's passage, but also suggest they warm up their fingers to type out some grant proposals to get hold of some of the funds!