GIS Education Weekly: FOSS4G Teachable Moments

Resources for Teaching and Learning

Fake image of a September 3rd, 2019,
fire in Central Park, New York City

Medium: It’s a faaaake… — Or not? - Pierre Markuse discusses how to identify fake imagery in the media. Via SE Sieber.

Bloomberg: Apple Maps Gives Crimea to Russia, Gets Angry Ukrainian Reaction - "Ukraine’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Vadym Prystaiko accused Apple Inc. of insensitivity for having some versions of its Maps application depict the Crimean peninsula as being part of Russia." Via Dave Murray.

GIS Education Weekly: Learning from the Eclipse

Map My Waahi

Articles

Press release: More Than 4000 Students Participate to Virtual Field Trip - Map My Waahi, viewed by more than 4000 students, was the first of three virtual field trips to be sponsored by the Ministry of Education, led by LINZ in partnership with the Department of Conservation and presented by Core Education.

Press release: MapD to Collaborate with the Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University to Accelerate Research with GPUsMapD Technologies announced a collaboration with the Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University (CGA) to bring the power of GPUs to geospatial analytics.

GIS Education Weekly: FOSS4G, Satellite, and Sense of Distance Resources

Courses Programs and Degrees

Bay College has a new GIS Program.

"Starting Sept. 2, everyone is invited to join the 'geospatial revolution' by taking GIS 201 Introduction to Geographic Information Systems on Friday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon at Bay College West Campus in Iron Mountain. Students will learn about satellites, gps receivers, mapping, geospatial data, and spatial analysis work." That's the news in the local paper. The school teaches GIS using QGIS and ArcGIS.

Last week I noted that Eastern Kentucky University may lose its geography degree. This week I note a new(ish?) geography degree at Rowan University in New Jersey. Other new majors include biomedical studies and community health advocacy. I'm pretty sure these two were not majors when my parents or I graduated from college!

GIS Education Weekly: Open Source GIS Educator Perspectives

From Open Source Educators

Kurt Menke describes his understanding of open source at his Community Health Maps blog. He's the author of two books on QGIS, co-authored the GeoAcademy, and runs a GIS consulting firm, Bird's Eye View. I can share two of my pieces on the topic: Ten Things You Need to Know about Open Source Geospatial Software (Directions Magazine) and Proprietary vs. Open Source Licenses (Penn State OER).

Dr. Suchith Anand described what he learned lecturing students around the world. He's the founder of Geo For All and on the faculty at the University of Nottingham.

One of the important things I learned during my lectures to students in universities worldwide (from USA to India) is that the digital natives are very smart. They have a very global outlook and are keen to contribute to building a better world for everyone. I remember talking to a student and asking her what GIS software she uses and her reply was "We use all different platforms to learn GIS but no one can trick us to pay to buy GIS software when there is [a] lot of free and open software now available." This empowerment of students is exactly what we want. It is now not possible for any proprietary GIS vendor to put "Iron Curtains" on freedom on education tools.

Philip Davis reports the GeoAcademy site just passed 100,000 page views in 24 months.

GIS Education Weekly: Winners of Visualize Your Water Challenge

Winners of Visualize Your Water

USGS announced the winners of the Visualize Your Water High School Citizen Science Challenge last Wednesday, the day before Earth Day. It was also National Environmental Education Week. As the post goes to press, the original press release is no longer on the USGS website due to a technology change; here is the Google cached version. Yesterday, Esri announced the winners.

All of the winning products were story maps, mostly map journals, but I saw one map series. Students could use any software on their projects, despite some initial confusion. Emily Read, at the USGS  Office of Water Information shared further details on the compeititon:

• There were just over 100 submissions
• All of them used Esri technology

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2015: The State of GIS and Geography Education

An 1899 class in mathematical geography at
Hampton University, a historically black institution
Public Domain, via Wikipedia

I've been doing year end recaps of the GIS industry for more than a decade. My interest has focused more on GIS and geography education for the last few years. I started writing about the topic regularly when I was at Directions Magazine and continued via a newsletter which launched in December of last year.

This will be my first recap detailing the state of GIS and geography education.

GIS Education Weekly: High Schoolers and Interns Solve Challenges, MOOCs, Essential Body of Knowledge

Bronx High School of Science Students find Use Cases for DigitalGlobe Imagery

Image by Ryan Jay Crisostomo CC BY-SA 3.0

This year at State of the Map [the OpenStreetMap US event], developers and users gathered at the United Nations in New York City to exchange information on the latest geospatial applications. Among the participants were 15 entrepreneurial-minded students from the Bronx High School of Science. The students were on hand to discuss their use cases detailing the application of satellite imagery, big data, and maps to solve problems challenging the commercial sector, particularly, real estate investment, infrastructure, and security.

Ninety students at the school were part of DigitalGlobe's Bright Ideas competition held at the top notch school. (I was in an NSF high school program one summer and the Bronx High School of Science students kicked my butt.) The good news:

The original ideas within these use cases are the intellectual property of these superb intellectual athletes, and their next step is to apply to for grants through the DigitalGlobe Foundation to further their ideas towards commercialization.

If the ideas come to fruition, DigitalGlobe will sell imagery. Is it possible this detailed imagery is still a solution in search of a problem?

USGIF Publishes GEOINT Essential Body of Knowledge

USGIF produced the GEOINT Essential Body of Knowledge (EBK, PDF). It conducting a cross-industry job analysis to identify the knowledge, skills, and abilities critical to the GEOINT positions. The document was developed in support of the upcoming Universal GEOINT Certification I discussed last week.

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GIS Education Weekly: GeoMakers, Open Source Educator Awards, GISP Process Changes

Authentic Learning Leads to Running and Crime Map 

A bit of the University of Maryland crime/running map.
Red means 2-3 crimes in a six month period using a
buffer around that segment.

I would not expect a kinesiology grad project to include the creation of a trail map as a final project, but that's what happened at the University of Maryland.

Brainstorming for the project began when [kinesiology professor Espen] Spangenburg instructed students enrolled in the kinesiology honors program to complete an honors assignment for his KNES455: Scientific Bases of Athletic Conditioning class. Duvall said that instead of writing a paper or giving a lecture, he wanted to work on a project that could have value to members of the community.

Best quote:

[Senior Greg] Duvall took the data the team collected and integrated it into a functional online map that he taught himself how to use.

Access is via KMZ and pdf. More details on the map's development and data are in a departmental article.  Among the data sources cited on the PDF: "the GIS User Community," along with HERE, Esri and OpenStreetMap.

GeoMakers to Debut at GEOINT

Jared Novick, founder and CEO of GeoMakers, is building a nonprofit educational community for dreamers, tinkerers, and geospatial enthusiasts. He believes the general public is increasingly taking up DIY projects and delivering powerful capabilities for pennies on the dollar. 

“GeoMakers will dream, build, and implement open-source 'makers' projects that involve mapping, remote sensing, navigating, and understanding our world geographically,” Novick said. “We’re seeking to change how people see and interact with our world by using inexpensive DIY techniques.”

Trajectory Magazine notes the beta website will be launched at the 2015 GEOINT event in June.

Who's Teaching Skills for the Digital Earth (Elmhurst College GIS MOOC)?

I've been wondering since the author and original instructor, Rich Schultz, left Elmhurst for Southern New Hampshire University. Now I know:

The lead instructor is Judith Bock, director of the geographic information systems (GIS) and applied geospatial sciences (AGS) programs and a lecturer in the Department of Geography & Geosciences at Elmhurst College.

The course (registration) starts March 1 and runs for four weeks.

GIS Education Weekly: Forensics Lab, Retraining as a Surveyor, Understanding Cities

Image by jon creel under CC-BY

Forensics Means GIS

Simon Fraser University in Surrey BC, Canada offers Crim 449, a course in forensic analysis. The school's virtual forensic analysis lab "includes industry standard software and tools previously reserved for law enforcement and intelligence agency personnel only" including GIS.

SFU is the first university in North America to build and offer such a lab, which includes software such as the Esri with ArcGIS Spatial Statistics Tool.

Currently, students have to be in the lab to use the software, so the plan is to push it into the cloud to extend access.

Canadian Geo Students: Retrain to work in Surveying

GoGeomatics Canada is spear-heading a brand new Training Program that will provide opportunities for both geomatics graduates and the survey industry in Canada. The Survey Training Program is designed to train qualified candidates to work in the highly lucrative and rewarding field of surveying. This program is free for participants, and will guarantee students a job upon successful completion.

The program aims to support 20 student trainees for the 4-6 week on campus training. Afterward, candidates commit to a year of work for the sponsoring organization.

National Geographic High School Video Contest 

The Your World in Focus Contest invites high schoolers to submit videos about how they are changing the world.  The 90 second videos could win the creator a service trip and $500 to support their effort. Videos are due January 16, 2015.

GIS Education Weekly: GITA Diversity, Open Source Survey Results, Prairie Chicken

A Lesser Prairie Chicken (male) in New Mexico
Image by Steven Walling licensed under CC BY 2.0

Note from Adena

I'm publishing the usual Thursday weekly recap a day early due to the Christmas holiday tomorrow. Enjoy the season!

GITA Adopts Policy on Diversity and Inclusion

The Geospatial Information and Technology Association (GITA) supports and encourages the equitable opportunity for participation of all persons in the Geospatial field, including engineers, planners, surveyors, technologists, software developers, educators, operations and maintenance specialists and all others interested in geospatial technology without regard to race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, age, gender identification, accessibility, educational or financial differences. GITA will promote and implement programs designed to enhance opportunities to participate in the development of geospatial technologies worldwide for everyone.

The press release appeared last week.

Lesser Prairie Chicken GIS

The Kansas Biological Survey, a University of Kansas research unit, will provide the central GIS and database support for the effort, tracking locations and costs of projects affecting habitat as well as conservation projects [related to the lesser prairie chicken]. The work will be done through a five-year, $2.1 million contract with WAFWA [Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies] to serve as the GIS center for the plan.

University GIS Lab Does Work for Hire

The Laboratory for Applied Spatial Analysis at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville did it's first project, mapping the school, in 1996. Now it does all sorts of work, per Lab director Randy Pearson:

There are literally hundreds of projects that we have been involved in from generating a GIS (Geographic Information System) database for the state library system to looking at things such as voting precincts in East St. Louis.. So we are involved in a vast array of things that are all geography related.

2014: The Year in GIS Education

Here's a roundup of the key GIS education news from 2014. While I'm skeptical of the impact of badges and Esri's ConnectED efforts, I think the grass roots growth of open source GIS in education has legs. I think there is promise in geo-related educational technology, but this year's efforts are but toes in the water.

UAS Education Front

I've been following Unmanned Vehicle University over the past few years (2012, 2013). The organization was surprisingly quiet this year and I found out why: the founder and Executive Director, Dr. Jerome LeMieux, Jr. passed away July 4.

U.S. educational organizations pursued federal funding opportunities related to UAS teaching and research (pdf on UAS Centers of Excellence) even as others banded together to express frustration about limitations in UAS use in research and teaching. U.S. educators (and most other users) must be patient as the Federal Aviation Administration finalizes its rules. The current word from the Government Accountability Office suggests that will not happen until 2017.

What is new this year in UAS education?

• Ohio students are working with simulations of drones. Students in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program at Greenon High School are are in what's called a first of its kind program in the region. 
• In Australia, Unmanned Experts is moving from instructor-led and classroom-based instruction on UAVs to online training. 
• Nicholls State  University (Louisiana) geomatics students received a donation from Lafayette-based Navigation Electronics Inc. (NEI), a GPS and GIS equipment provider: a Trimble UX5 unmanned aerial vehicle, optical sensors, image processing software and training worth $70K. Why? The Harold C. “Charlie” Poche Jr. Laser Scanning Laboratory at Nicholls is named for the former NEI owner and president, who died in 2000.
• Penn State and the University of Denver launched online UAS courses as part of their GIS programs.

GIS Education Learning Communities

I was not really familiar with the idea of "Learning Communities" the related "Communities of Practice" until I took a MOOC that introduced the idea. Our assignment involved observing and documenting such a community in action. I explored a community I was already in that I'd never though of as a learning community: my running club. That project prompted me to consider such communities in GIS/geography education.

I consider TeachGIS (now dormant), the GeoTech Center and Esri's Learn ArcGIS and Esri's Education Community (via its Facebook, GeoNet, listserve and other presences) infrastructures aimed at creating learning communities. My sense is that not one of them has reached critical mass ...yet. What education focused learning communities do I frequent? I regular visit communities that are not really focused on GIS education, but GIS in general: Reddit/GIS and GIS Stackexchange.