SpatiaLABS 2013: Across the University

Just about a year ago, in advance of last year's Association of American Geographers meeting, Esri announced SpatiaLABS, a set of lessons aimed at universities. The product, which aligns well with a university site license is sold as a separate service, with its own annual fee. I wrote about SpatiaLABS last year and was disappointed that learning objectives were not included. I also wondered if the small fee was worth the trouble for Esri to administer.

Last month, Esri released an update (press release). The positioning is a bit different this year:

Designed for disciplines across the entire university, SpatiaLABS 2013 Edition complements and enhances an instructor's course with geospatial investigations. The computer-based lab sessions, published by Esri Press, build students' spatial reasoning and analysis skills.

This time the focus is less on GIS (and perhaps GIS and geography departments or departments managing a site license) and rather on getting GIS used across campus and across the curriculum. That ties in well with the vision Esri Education Director David DiBiase offered in this presentation, one that injects spatial thinking and GIS into more traditional college courses.

The updated collection include 64 lessons including some "sexy" topics such as Sea Level Rise and Storms on Manhattan, Customer Profiling: Demographic and Lifestyle Segmentation. The topics cluster just as the previous version did: 29 independent topics, 19 for business, and 16 for forestry. The lab datasets are mostly U.S. based.

The press release does not indicate that learning objectives were added, nor does it detail who wrote these lessons. I did find the list of authors - on the SpatiaLABS "topics" page. The authors are 12 university faculty members. The license fee is not noted in the release, but is based on the nature of your organization. It seems the fee is the same as last year ($500/year/enterprise license); a tweet from @barbareeduke noted that GIS Etc. offers a 10% discount: $450. 

Esri hosted a webinar last April which details the history of the package and answers attendee questions. And, SpatiaLABS is on twitter, @spatialabs.

My Take

I appreciate the effort that went into developing and adding to these labs. I wonder how widely they are being used. My guess (and fear) is they are being used in GIS courses for the most part and not yet creeping out to other academic programs. 

That is Esri's (and every geospatial educators') challenge: to push spatial thinking out of geography and GIS courses out into the curriculum. This set of resources is a great start. The next step? We need to turn to successful user institutions to tease out best practices that other institutions can repeat. Perhaps those will appear alongside version 3 of SpatiaLABS?

Size Matters in Spatial and Critical Thinking

There's a new geography education app out for iOS, writes Kelly Johnston from the University of Virginia Scholars Lab:

I recently joined with map-minded folks to build GeoTron 5000 to put the power of comparative geography and spatial literacy in hand. Choose two places and the GeoTron 5000 robot spins up two maps to show exactly how those places compare.

It's free (with more data available via in-app purchase) and the public domain data (Natural Earth) was crunched with open source software (QGIS). It sounds interesting, but more interesting are the key spatial ideas the app (and other programs like it) teach:

Travel is one of the best tests of our spatial literacy. When away from familiar territory we can use the size of places we know well to better understand places we’ve never visited. Travel guide books assume a high degree of spatial literacy when offering comparisons like “Germany is about half the size of Texas”. But spatial thinking is best served when we choose familiar frames of reference.

I fully agree. Johnston goes on:

Scaled maps for geographic comparison using How Big Really or GeoTron 5000 inform spatial reasoning by answering the key question: compared to what? 

Size matters.

These tools do indeed answer the "compared to what" question. That's a really important question in critical thinking. I recently read that "more than 96,000" students took the AP Human Geography exam in 2012. That's a big number - but how may took it the year before? And how many students took the AP American History exam? That context is incredibly valuable for understanding the data and the underlying argument (if there is one).

Johnston's last comment is a key stepping stone for further spatial thinking. Size most certainly matters when comparing size. But, does it matter when comparing other things about countries? Population size? Population health? GDP? Influence? Does size have a positive or negative correlation with these and other factors? Or to quote one of my favorite geography professors, the late Paul Simkins, "Germany is half the size of Texas. So what?"

- Scholars Lab via @dianamaps

Spatial Temporal Math - Is it Spatial?

Students in Costa Mesa, California, via funding from Hyundai, are testing out a new math teaching environment in a new laboratory. The teaching program is called ST Math. The ST refer to "spatial" and "temporal," respectively. Curious? So was I!

The program is from MIND Research Institute:

The MIND Research Institute enables elementary and secondary students to reach their full academic and career potential through developing and deploying math instructional software and systems. A non-profit organization, MIND also conducts basic neuroscientific, mathematics, and education research to improve math education and advance scientific understanding.

The ST Math program introduces concepts without language or symbols. Only after the visualization is mastered are the symbols introduced. The interactive environment for each topic involves a penguin traveling along the road. Jiji runs into all sorts of missing bridges (obstacles). I guess his city has limited funds for infrastructure... Anyway, students interact with floating blocks to fill the holes to allow Jiji to continue on. It makes more sense once you watch the video, try actual exercises and enjoy the "games" (choose the "games" link under programs in the menu).

I could not find any particular discussion of the spatial aspect of the materials or what spatial thinking skills, if any, are addressed. I did, however, identify the "Upright Jiji" game, where the player rotates Jiji to standing, as very spatial. It's fun, too!

Working the exercises and games reminded me of three things. First, it reminded me of the colored wooden "sticks" we used to learn addition in grade school circa 1972. I recall enjoying playing with them, but can't say how, or if, they helped me learn.

Second, ST Math reminded me of Motion Math (which I wrote about early in 2012). While Jiji doesn't involve physically moving my laptop, I do see touch versions are available and expect motion will be integrated in the future. The key similarity is the intense and simple graphic representations of the challenges and the clear, rock solid progression from basic to more complex problems.

Finally, ST Math reminded me of an early online teaching tool, PLATO (Wikipedia), that I used in college to learn physics. It was not as flashy as ST Math, but included some of the same visual elements and the progression of lessons from easier to more challenging. I loved PLATO and probably spent more time on it (we had two terminals in Eckhart Hall) than anyone else in 130s physics in 1983. I got an A in physics; I credit PLATO and a great professor, Isaac Abella.

The single thing that ties ST Math, Motion Math and even PLATO together, for me, is that all of these implementations made me 100% confident I could learn the topic at hand. It might take me a few times through each exercise, but I could figure it out. Having a computer program, or an instructor, that can instill that confidence in a student is pretty special. When I think back on my favorite instructors from grade 1 to graduate school, they all gave me that confidence. I'm intrigued that a computer program can do the same thing.

- Math Lab opening press release via THE Journal via SmartBrief on EdTech

Valuable Resources from Sinton and Boyes

Last week an event titled Spatial Thinking across the College Curriculum was held in Santa Barbara. I didn't attend. In fact, I didn't even know about it, until I saw on Twitter that Esri's David DiBiase spoke (and posted his slides, err presi). Then, after watching the latest Penn State Geography Dept Coffee Hour (description, video), I learned my advisor, Roger Downs, gave the keynote. I want to point readers to this short write-up of the event from Diana Sinton. I have three point to make about this event/recap/topic:

1. Read the recap. It's worth your time, especially if you are planning to attend or organize a gathering on this topic.
2. I have observed how few of the geography/GIS education events get any write up at all. I see tweets (mostly of who is on stage next or that someone will be speaking at 10 am) and agendas, but little in the way of "this is what happened/was of interest/sparked discussion." I am hopeful organizers (even those with limited funds) can find someone (blogger, student, vendor, etc.) to document what happens.
3. Perhaps it's time to take just a single issue or question on this topic and tackle it in a single day un-conference. I'm thinking of a variant of a code sprint. It sounds to me like the Santa Barbara meeting had many of the challenges we faced at Bucknell: too broad a topic to get much done.

Also worthy of note this week was the University of Toronto's Don Boyes' announcement via a blog post that he was sharing his online course course content for his introductory GIS courses including his lectures, videos and resource listings. Several people have already remarked on their quality via Twitter.

I watched the intro video and some of the technical lectures (How to do a query). The bite sized lectures, presented via Adobe Presenter, are essentially Boyes speaking to PowerPoint slides. The videos are demos of how, for example, to do a query in ArcGIS. The videos seem to be provided as a complement the PowerPoint "chalk talk" on the same subject. Boyes noted how much effort was required to create these lectures and videos.  I can only imagine!

As I watched I was reminded of something I heard on the Hack Education podcast this week. It was about if teachers should use "generic" (Khan Academy or other educators') videos in the flipped classroom, or make their own. The anecdotal response highlighted the value of teachers making their own videos. A high school student noted that she got math for the first time using videos her teacher makes, while another class, an economics one that used other people's videos, was considered one of the worst on campus, and students were switching out.

I for one am still pondering how best to use "home made" video in online teaching and in flipped face to face classrooms. In very process focused subjects like math, I can see how having the instructor use a consistent vocabulary and create videos that match the current state of the class as a huge plus. Is that also true in a "learning about a technology" and "learning software" type environment, too? Or does something more generic, like Esri's virtual campus courses combined with educator-created lectures work as well?

I hope Boyes and other geography/GIS educators will share their results as they try different combinations in the coming months and years.

Takeaways: Conference on GIS & Spatial Thinking in the Undergraduate Curriculum

Bucknell University, in Lewisburg, PA hosted a two day conference on GIS & Spatial Thinking in the Undergraduate Curriculum this past weekend. Here’s the full schedule.

Below are my takeaways:

Make it a point to talk to your aunt at Thanksgiving. One graduating senior at Bucknell had a conversation with his aunt at a family gathering. When she learned he was studying GIS, she noted that her company, Lockheed Martin, did that. She helped him get an internship and he has a job lined up for when he graduates this spring. (I think he’s pretty sharp, too.)

I was surprised so few of the educators were aware of PLOTS and other DIY remote sensing efforts. I’m learning that like GIS professionals, GIS and geography educators are very “heads down.” Jeremy Crampton of the University of Kentucky gave the evening keynote and highlighted the U.S. government’s geospatial intelligence efforts, use of public information to gather information about spatial patterns (Twitter), and DIY data capture via balloons and drones.

There was a recurring theme regarding how early to engage undergraduate students in GIS. Several educators noted that in the past seniors literally learned it as they were heading out the door, leaving limited resources on campus. There are efforts at some schools to leave up to half the seats in some intro GIS courses for freshman and sophomores.

Diana Sinton, University of Redlands, gives one of three keynotes.

A comment about faculty and staff “checking your ego” came up in at least two presentations. Anne Kelly Knowles of Middlebury College recapped her research on the history of iron in the U.S. and her work with a multidisciplinary team studying the geography of the Holocaust. Regarding the latter she noted that once the team got over trying to impress one another and just listened to one another, far more interesting ideas appeared. She didn’t explicitly note it, but I suspect checking one's ego when working with undergraduates in research, which she does, helps put them at ease and be more creative, too. Diana Sinton of the University of Redlands noted "checking the ego" was valuable when faculty/staff and students learn together. Redlands Ithaca College faculty are allowed to take once class per semester and having them do alongside undergraduate GIS students requires checking the ego.

There are a variety of grants from federal sources, foundations, and even the schools themselves to support GIS education explorations. Among those mentioned were funds available for study of the digital humanities, hybrid learning and local natural areas. Few presenters cited “huge” grants, but many seemed very satisfied with just a few thousand dollars. It’s worth keeping an eye out for a variety of sources. Moreover, as one presenter noted, just having another organization acknowledge the value of the work can help reinforce the value of GIS, or an educational technique, on campus.

Jeremy Donald, Trinity University and Mike Winiski, Furman University used Kolb’s concept of the the Learning Cycle (new to me) to help determine which parts of a GIS course should be done in class and which as homework. 

• concrete experience (or “DO”)

• reflective observation (or “OBSERVE”)

• abstract conceptualization (or “THINK”)

• active experimentation (or “PLAN”)

They choose to assign the first two for “homework” and the second two as in-class activities. There was some discussion in presentations and during the networking time about how to draw these lines and how to motivate students who may blow off “homework.” Robert Beutner of Hobart and William Smith Colleges shared that his GIS class was completely flipped: concepts and readings were explored for homework and class time is 100% hands on. That's something I've wanted to try for quite some time.

Service learning, despite its extra challenges for faculty (finding clients, managing expectations of both student and client, keeping students on task and moving toward the deliverable) and students (frustration, team management, limited class time) yields huge rewards. Both groups see the value, but not necessarily while they are sweating out the details.

More and more schools, especially small liberal arts schools, seem to be getting the message that GIS must be in their students’ toolboxes. Institutions are hiring staff to infuse GIS across the curriculum. Some schools, like Bucknell, seem to created enough interest and demand with one or more GIS courses, before hiring such a professional. That, however is but one model of how to grow GIS and spatial thinking across a campus. I suspect in a few years there will be a best practices document detailing all of the options and how to pick the best one for different kinds of schools. I met several educators who'd like to read it now.