GIS Education Weekly: GIS for Peace, Global Mapper for Free, New Home for Yik Yak Programmers

Articles and Resources:

R Tutorial

Consumer Data Research Centre: An Introduction to Spatial Data Analysis and Visualisation in R (2016) - The tweet said "just published," but the tutorial is dated 2016. It's from Guy Lansley and James Cheshire and requires free registration for access. Licensing is not obvious.

Inside HigherEd: Up in the Air - The education publication looks at drone regulations.

GIS Education Weekly: Top Geography and GIS Education Trends of 2016

In this post I want to revisit the top news stories, events and themes in geography and GIS Education in 2016. They are in no particular order. I last compiled such a list in 2012. Happy Holidays!

Esri Forges Ahead 

What do I mean by forging ahead?

• The ConnectEd initiative in the U.S. was renewed for another three years.
• Similar efforts are starting in other geographies.
• There are now dozens of GeoInquiries that act as "starter kits" for educators and mentors new to GIS or new to teaching GIS.
• The MOOC program now includes four courses and a new title expected in 2017.
• Higher education licensing is being updated and simplified.
• And, on a personal note, as a recent addition to the Esri Education Team, I get to work with some incredibly dedicated colleagues to bring GIS education to as many people as possible.

CARTO, Mapbox and Boundless Education Efforts

CARTO offers some use cases and has special pricing for education and research. Boundless, just this month updated its education offering. The company (sometimes confused with an education company Boundless, that offers online textbooks) also sponsored 50 AP Human Geography teachers to attend the Geography 2050 event. Mapbox has accounts for students and other resources. That's awesome; I feel strongly that students should touch as many different software packages as possible during their formal and informal studies.

A Geographer Looks at EdTech in 2013 - Part 8 - The Battle for Open

--- This post is the eighth in a ten part series examining top 2013 trends in education technology in the context of GIS and geography education. ---

Watters notes that "open" continues to be a trending and yet confused term within education technology. While lots of announcements included references to projects, code, courses or data described as "open," many were not open in any meaningful way. Others were merely "open washed."

In geography and GIS education I think we did a bit better in using "open" to reflect at least one of its true meanings in recent years.

In 2012 Esri announced its ArcLessons would be released under a Creative Commons License.

In 2013 Esri decided to remove the fee on its SpatiaLabs lessons and made it available with an Esri educational site license. (Not open, exactly, but with no fee.)

Back in September 2011, the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) and the International Cartographic Association (ICA) joined forces to "establish Open Source Geospatial Laboratories and Research Centres across the world for supporting development of open-source geospatial software technologies, training and expertise." To date there are 63 set with a goal of 100 research labs worldwide by Sep 2014. (See Geo for All)

In 2013, there were four "open to all" massive open online courses on GIS topics. Two focused on Esri technology, one on free technology and one on Google technology. (I recapped MOOC ideas and these courses in this video. References are on All Points Blog.)

In 2013 TeachGIS.org launched to try to get educators to share ideas. Sadly, it began to lie fallow as its creator took a new job.

All of these are great, forward-thinking efforts. I'm hopeful those involved will document and share the impact these have on geography and GIS education. But, I have a sneaking suspicion that I've raised in the past: "open" sounds good and providers and educators may both "vote" yes on it, but that does not mean it will be used. That lack of use by the target audience may lead unexpected consequences.

Consider all the discussion of how MOOCs will democratize education for all. In reality, some 80% of those taking the courses already have bachelor's degrees. As idealistic and important and morally correct as open is, it's but one tool in our educational arsenal.

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.