Education - All Points Blog

USC and others Share Mapping Data via an API

Adena Schutzberg — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:50:15 -0500

The University of Southern Canlifornia USC Map Data API: The University of Southern California’s Map Data API provides a RESTful interface for retrieving content from the University’s online map. The API supports JSON and JSONP formats. Users can search for locations, building codes and names, and a variety of map metadata. Weather Source Weather Source API: Weather...

GIS/GPS Camp in Colorado and other Education GIS News

Adena Schutzberg — Thu, 16 May 2013 05:23:51 -0500

Colorado State University Extension is offering a four day summer camp called GEAR-Tech-21, which will introduce youth to robotics and GPS/GIS technologies. Youth 10 to 14 years of age may attend the day camps at five sites in northeast Colorado: Sterling, Akron, Brush, Holyoke and Yuma. Over the span of four days, youth will do hands-on learning in two very current and rapidly...

Research: US Minorities Live in Heat, Whites in Cooler Areas

Adena Schutzberg — Thu, 16 May 2013 05:01:02 -0500

UC Berkeley researchers tapped satellite imagery to locate warmer communities. They then used U.S. Census figures to determined who lived in those areas. The conclusion, published this week in the journal, Environmental Health Perspectives: Heat-prone neighborhoods were disproportionately populated by African Americans, Asians and Hispanics. Compared with their white...

American Geographical Society’s Writers Circle Pitches Geographic Education

Adena Schutzberg — Wed, 15 May 2013 03:04:28 -0500

An opinion piece by Jerome E. Dobson, Stephanie L. Kozak and Joseph S. Wood appeared in The Trenton News on May 4. It's based in part of the NSF funding survey the American Geographical Society published earlier this year (APB coverage) that suggests American want more, not less geography education. What will it take to meet such high public expectations? Every elementary and...

Benghazi: Where is it?

Adena Schutzberg — Tue, 14 May 2013 03:52:59 -0500

Of the 41 percent of Republicans who consider Benghazi to be the worst political scandal in American history, 39 percent are unaware that Benghazi is located in Libya. 10 percent said it's in Egypt, 9 percent in Iran, 6 percent in Cuba, 5 percent in Syria, 4 percent in Iraq, and 1 percent each in North Korea and Liberia, with 4 percent unwilling to venture a guess. Best part of...

Rutgers Maps Sandy and other Education GIS News

Adena Schutzberg — Wed, 08 May 2013 03:49:54 -0500

Rutgers students not ony built an app to track Sandy debris in Toms River, New Jersey, they went into the field to use it. It was aimed at determing households eligible for the township's demolition and debris removal program. They created a smart phone app in their Community Mapping class that helps towns classify homes damaged by Sandy. ...The students, led by Rutgers...

Cultural Geographer Wilbur Zelinsky Passes

Adena Schutzberg — Mon, 06 May 2013 10:25:06 -0500

The Penn State Department of Geography shares: Professor Emeritus Wilbur Zelinsky passed peacefully at home on Saturday, May 4, 2013, surrounded by his family after a short illness. Information will be updated at http://www.geog.psu.edu/zelinsky-memorial Zelinsky's writing were among those that pulled me into geography in college. I was fortunate that he was still teaching...

Dawn Wright, Esri Chief Scientist, Will Remain in that Role

Adena Schutzberg — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:19:39 -0500

Wright joined Esri nearly two years ago as Chief Scientist. She took a leave of absense from her position as professor of geography and oceanography at Oregon State for two years (press release). Earlier this week she announced her plan to resign from the University but maintain affiliate role and to stay on at Esri. The post is part of a conversation started by COMPASS (an...

Ten Things Esri is Doing to “Move the Needle” on GIS Education

Adena Schutzberg — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:58:48 -0500

Esri held its Northeast Education GIS Users Group Meeting on May 2 at the Esri Boston office. About 16 representatives from educational institutions attended. They were mostly from area colleges, though I saw at least one group from a high school. Most were educators though I met a few facilities staffers, too. Three Esri staffers hosted, along with Esri’s Director of Education,...

The Best Associates Degree in GIS Certificate Programs…Explored

Adena Schutzberg — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 03:49:34 -0500

Last week Phil Davis from the GeoTech center blogged about and posted on LinkedIn about a website called PHD'S.ORG. It offers job opprotunities and rates academic programs. He pointed eduators and students to the page on GIS associates degrees. The page notes 584 institutions in the U.S. that offer those degrees. I looked down the list (which includes just 578 schools) and found a...

Recapping GIS Education Week

Adena Schutzberg — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 03:23:12 -0500

Last week Directions Magazine and All Points Blog focused their attention on the state of GIS education. Below are the articles specifically written for this project: Ten Things You Need to Know about UNIGIS Building the World’s First Geo-MOOC, Part 2 Professional Development MOOC on STEMx and Geospatial Coming This Summer Pace University Faculty Member Prepares...

UNA Geography Majors up 65% and other Education GIS News

Adena Schutzberg — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 05:07:35 -0500

According to UNA’s [University of North Alabama] 2012 Marketing Research Report, the number of social science graduates has surpassed that of business majors over the course of the past six years. The report, which shows data as far back as 2006, shows that business majors at UNA have decreased a total of 25 percent while social science majors have increased 30 percent, according...

Getting Ready for Esri EdUC 2013

Adena Schutzberg — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:47:43 -0500

Esri is gearing up for this year’s Education GIS Conference scheduled for July 6-9 in San Diego. Here's a roundup of what educators and students need to know. 1) This week the team posted two short introductory videos. 2) The agenda is online. Those who were invited to speak have been notified. I’m happy to be presenting a lightning talk. I queried some topics about...

Educators Innovate in the Classroom with ArcGIS Online

Adena Schutzberg — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:44:19 -0500

Back in February 2012 Esri announced the five recipients of the ArcGIS Online Grant Program for Educators (press release). The results are starting to become public; two were featured in today's issue of twice a year Esri New for Education newsletter. The articles are "Online Exclusives" from ArcNews, meaning they do not appear in the print version. These two articles are worth a...

Professional Development MOOC on STEMx and Geospatial Coming This Summer

Adena Schutzberg — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 03:25:07 -0500

The HP Catalyst Initiative, started in 2010, is funding a number of organizations to put together professional development "mini-courses" to teach a variety of educators (and students) in the STEMx (science, technology, engineering and math and other) disciplines. Among them is Del Mar College, which is building a course on GIS. Dr. Philip Davis, well-known from his work at the...

Women Storm CalGIS

Adena Schutzberg — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 05:39:13 -0500

I learned from a tweet from @URISA last week (April 16) that all three keynotes at CalGIS, last week’s URISA California GIS Conference, were by women. @URISA Women in #GIS rule at the #CalGIS Conference... three keynotes, three amazing women GIS professionals. They included: Opening Keynote Address - Estella “Este” M. Geraghty, MD, MS, MPH, FACP, GISP, Assistant...

Leap Motion Gains Google Earth Support

Adena Schutzberg — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 08:32:15 -0500

Leap Motion’s gesture-based controller launch is less than a month away, but so far we’ve heard relatively little about app support, besides the fact that the company is working hard on filling out its Airspace app store. Now, Leap Motion and Google are announcing support for Google Earth for Leap Motion tech, which will be built-in to the desktop Google Earth app for Windows,...

GIS Education Week at Directions Magazine

Adena Schutzberg — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 04:40:36 -0500

Spring break is over for students and its back to school work. GIS students are as returning to physical classrooms, continuing oniine courses, and pondering new delivery offerings coming later this year. K-16 educators are looking for new techniques to enhance teaching and learning and ways to expand their knowledge base. That's why Directions Magazine presents GIS Education...

Drug Free Zone Research and other Education GIS News

Adena Schutzberg — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 04:35:59 -0500

Emory Law professor Kay Levine is one of four researchers recently awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to study whether drug-free zone laws are enforced more aggressively in inner cities, and whether that enforcement results in disproportionately harsher sentencing of minority-population males. ... GIS and mapping software will be used to determine if inner-city...

Apply to Be an Esri Education Ambassador

Adena Schutzberg — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 06:24:26 -0500

Many schools and universities in developing nations lack qualified GIS teachers and are in need of a kick start, which often comes in the form of a brief educational visit from an experienced GIS instructor. Esri often receives requests to help support underprivileged schools, so the company recently set aside a modest budget to help fund such education ambassador visits....

Google Event for Educators: Geo for Higher Ed Summit 2013

Adena Schutzberg — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 02:57:43 -0500

What: Geo for Higher Ed Summit 2013 When: July 22-24, 2013 Where: Google Headquarters, Mountain View, California Google will be hosting a special three-day hands-on technical workshop at the Googleplex in Mountain View. This Summit will bring together instructors and researchers in GIS and remote sensing technologies from higher education institutions. You will connect with...

New GIS Certificate at Norwood and other Education GIS News

Adena Schutzberg — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 04:12:47 -0500

Northwood University will launch its new Certificate of Completion in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) on May 20. The Certificate, which consists of four online classes, trains professionals to develop innovative solutions for real-world problems through a combination of map and geospatial technologies and business skill sets. What makes the program unique? CEUs are...

GIS and Geospatial Stories I’m Reading - 4/15/13

Adena Schutzberg — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 03:43:15 -0500

Foursquare Gets $41m Investment Despite User Apathy [Chinese] University uses location-based solutions to catch curfew breakers Centennial geography teacher heads to the Arctic; class follows online How to survive a zombie apocalypse? Learn geography K-12 Kickstarter project now in use. (I am a funder.) NGA, geospatial community plan cloud for major...

Criminal Justice Students Experience House Arrest and other Education GIS News

Adena Schutzberg — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 03:08:17 -0500

Eureka College [IL] professor William Lally is offering willing students the chance to wear GPS ankle bracelets for a weekend during which they are not allowed to stray more than 100 feet from their homes. The optional assignment covers 60 hours (Fri to Mon AM) during which the students can't drink alchohol and must submit to visits by the professor or police with a...

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum to Launch Navigation Exhibit Friday

Adena Schutzberg — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 05:10:04 -0500

On Friday, the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum is opening its first major exhibit focused on navigation. It includes instruments that aviator Charles Lindbergh used to learn celestial navigation and the clock he used during his milestone trans-Atlantic flight -- along with much luck -- to help make his way from New York to Paris in 1927. The new permanent exhibit...

OGC and Google Launch Student Map App Challenge

Adena Schutzberg — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:09:38 -0500

Students, app challenges and Google are hip. OGC, well, it's striving toward hip via what I believe is its first app chalenge to engage students and introduce open standards. The OGC has launched the Student Map App Challenge to make entrepreneurial students aware of the enormous social and commercial potential of these open standards. Students are to build apps with just...

Sea Floor Mapping Winners and other Education GIS News

Adena Schutzberg — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 03:51:25 -0500

Charleston, SC April 9, 2013 – Recently, four College of Charleston undergraduate and graduate geology students, who use cutting-edge ocean floor mapping technology, swept the research competition at the U.S. Hydro Conference, winning the top three awards. The students presented professional-quality seafloor research during the U.S. Hydrographic Society’s annual meeting with...

Greenpeace offers Map of the Arctic

Adena Schutzberg — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 03:20:28 -0500

Greenpeace's Into the Arctic is a digital, interactive map centered around the North Pole. The map illustrates, per Greenpace, the "beauty of the Arctic, the threats it faces and our struggle to protect it." It's also a story tracked four young people travelling in the area to declare the land protected for all the earth. The layers "logbook" (travelogue of participants)...

Digital Humanities Type Course Coming to Bowdoin and other Education GIS News

Adena Schutzberg — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 06:50:49 -0500

Digital and Computational Studies, a new course, will debut at Bowdoin (Maine) this all. Eric Chown, who currently serves as the chair of the Department of Computer Science, and Associate Professor of Art History Pamela Fletcher will teach the course, which will be called Gateway to Digital Studies. Though the class will contain some introductory material, it will largely be...

GIS and Geospatial Stories I’m Reading - 4/8/13

Adena Schutzberg — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 03:44:46 -0500

California Court Rules It Illegal To Check Maps On Your Phone While Driving LA Times takes on the state of geography (for travelers) Facebook Home Will Not Actively Track Users' Location A geocaching treasure hunt helped my students learn about the landscape Under the US$322 million deal, Thailand will use the Chinese satellite navigation network in the public...