GIS Edu Weekly: What the Experts say about Moving to Online Teaching

Resources for Teaching and Learning

Maps in this week's news are of three types: coronavirus maps, where to get food during coronavirus outbreak and maps related to the presidential election. There are a lot of data, cartography and other issues to discuss! This map of cases in L.A. is a good starting point. 

The Economist: Foot traffic has fallen sharply in cities with big coronavirus outbreaks - "Data from Google show that the virus has indeed prompted a sharp decline in overall foot traffic. They also suggest that shops and restaurants in places where covid-19 is now taking root should prepare for similar slowdowns." Via RE Seiber.

GIS Education Weekly: Meet Me in St. Louis

Contests

The U.S. Portion of a Top Three GISCI Contest Map

GISCI: The winners of the 2019 map contest are posted. There were eight entrants.

Applied Geography Conference: The conference, October 23 - 25 in Charlotte, North Carolina, has two student competitions: the "regular" AGC 2019 Student Paper & Poster Competitions (submissions due June 14) and a new Esri & AGC Student Competition using story maps (submissions due June 1). 

GIS Education Weekly: Open Data is Winning but not for the Reasons You Think

Resources for Teaching and Learning

Offaly Express: Offaly to feature in events marking the 'Year in Geography' - The Geographical Society of Ireland initiative, The Year of Geography, has begun. Offaly is the first county to be featured. "This initiative also involves geography teachers and other members of the Irish geographical community and aims to better illustrate what modern Geography is all about and to better highlight the work that geographers do." There's more information  on the Society’s webpage. 

Business Insider Australia: 10 'easy' geography questions that middle schoolers can answer, but are hard for adults - "INSIDER has compiled a sample test of 10 questions from topic areas that frequently appear in the Geobee, courtesy of the National Geographic Society’s free quiz – and they’re surprisingly difficult."

GIS Education Weekly: Making MOOCs Massive Again

Resources

Cartogram: Violence Against Women

Geographical: Violence against women - a global perspective - A cartogram shows the worldwide pattern.

Motherboard: Following a Google Map to Nowhere Is Easy. Getting Out Is Hard - A look at navigating by the moving dot rather than a static map.

Outside: Strava Is Killing the Blissful, Beautiful Loneliness of Running - Does measuring sport remove the fun? Or add to it? Via Larry in Muscatine.

GIS Education Weekly: TED Prize, Geographer to be Minister of Science, NEARC Educators Day

Satellite Using Archaeologist Sarah Parcak Wins $1M TED Prize

Sarah Parcak (Image via UAB News)

What'll the University of Alabama at Birmingham associate professor of Anthropology and director of the Laboratory for Global Observation do with it?

Our 2016 TED Prize winner, Sarah Parcak will reveal a big idea to take her work to the next level on February 16, 2016 at the annual TED Conference. In a session that will be broadcast for free to the world, she'll reveal a wish to allow curious minds everywhere to play a part in preserving our global heritage. It's a wish about the wonders of archaeological discovery and our connection to the past.

I note this because it sounds like a crowdsourcing opportunity that might be interesting for students of all ages. You might have heard of Parcak before because she was a National Geographic Explorer.

Matt Rosenburg Retires from About.com Geography Site; MapLab Team Leaves Wired

Matt T. Rosenberg ‏(@mrgeog) is no longer operating the geography site at About.com. He'd been there for 18 years. Per a Facebook post, he plans to pursue other interests. I'm not clear who will take over the position but can confirm he did a great job and will be missed.

In other leaving news, the MapLab team from Wired is moving on per a tweet. Via: Anthony Robinson (@A_C_Robinson)

A Geography Resource from Cheapo Air?

The link from Cheapo Air was shared by the Girl Scouts (@girlscouts). Then it was retweeted by CanGeo Education (@CanGeoEdu) and AAG GeoMentors (@aaggeomentors).

The resources seem ok, and the links I tried are all live. I wonder who put the list together? I wonder why the list is on a cheap travel site? I wonder when it was published? Is this authoritative content? Would you retweet it?

NGA Provides GEOINT Edu Grant to Historically Black College

Early in August Fayetteville State University (FSU) received a five-year $443,000 research grant from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to develop a Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) certificate to be offered to students pursuing undergraduate degrees in geography, computer science, and intelligence studies (press release). The four recipients of the grant are part of the university's Center for Defense and Homeland Security (CDHS).

I didn't realize FSU was a historically black college or university (HBCU) until another educator pointed it out. The certificate will be the first of its kind at an HBCU and FSU intends for its work to become a template for other schools interested in pursuing such offerings (press release).

The two year grant with three one year add-ons has several goals:

• develop courses for the GEOINT certificate 
• establish a geospatial teaching laboratory 
• obtain certificate accredited from the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) 
• develop an online component for the program 
• expand the certificate to include allied programs such as Political Science

Currently, the university offers a B.A. and a minor in Geography and has three faculty members in the department. That said, the list of geography courses (which fall under History and Government) is quite long. I count four that deal with computer cartography and GIS. There's one remote sensing, course, too.

FSU, I have learned, is the second-oldest public institution in North Carolina., part of the University of North Carolina System. It serves about 6,000 students and offers 60 undergraduate and graduate degrees. Trajectory Magazine (from the USGIF) reports that the GEOINT program lead, Dr. Rakesh Malhotra, is a member of the USGIF Academic Advisory Board. Several other members of that board are involved in GEOINT programs at other universities.

The NGA includes HBCU grants among its academic research program, but does not cite this grant anywhere on its website, at least not yet.

Jeremy Crampton, at his Open Geography blog asks a number of questions about grants in general in the context of this announcement:

Would you take $443,000 from the government to build a Certificate Program? What about from a government intelligence agency?

This grant and the program it creates support a number of firsts for HBCUs, geospatial, NGA, USGIF, GEOINT and geo education. Many eyes will be watching its progress.