Why "Where" Matters to Students, Faculty, and Society
My pathway. What will your pathway be?
Joseph Kerski PhD GISP | Geographer | Education Manager | Esri
One of my books - Interpreting Our World.
What do you care about? What do you want to see in society?
At no time in history have we been so empowered, and yet so challenged.
Geotechnologies includes GIS, remote sensing, web mapping, GPS/GNSS.
GIS helps people understand: Patterns, relationships, and geographic context, making connections clear >> and new solutions possible. Geotechnologies: Tools, data, methods that help us enable a more resilient, equitable, sustainable world.
A geographic information system (GIS): A system for creating, managing, analyzing and displaying data in mappable form. GIS integrates location data with many types of descriptive information.
GIS and spatial thinking is fundamental to all science, and decision-making. Why?
All 21st Century issues are spatial issues.
GIS for Science
Esri's Chief Scientist: Dr Dawn Wright.
Meet Dawn
Not just what was here yesterday or today: But designing for a better tomorrow
Visualizing new development scenarios:
Scene Viewer
and in Sweden.
Sammanfattning av planförslaget
5 reasons why GIS skills are critical to education.
5 reasons why GIS in education is relevant and important.
6 Doable geotech-based investigations
1. Examine oceans via the Ecological Marine Units
EMU - Explorer
2. Investigate change over space and time with the Wayback Imagery Comparisons
Esri Wayback imagery.
3. Investigate water issues via the Drought Aware app
Esri Drought Aware app.
4. Examine climate via the Esri GIS Climate Hub
GIS for Climate
5. Explore land cover change via the Sentinel-2 web mapping application
Esri | Sentinel-2 Land Cover Explorer
6. Map and analyze your own data collected in the field!
Map Viewer
5 forces that bring us to a pivotal moment in geotechnologies in education and society.
5 forces that bring us to a key moment in GIS in education and in society.
We live in the measured world.
With real time data feeds related to weather here and more weather here and here, wildfires.
GIS is no longer a niche technology and set of methods.
GIS helps us see things in new ways.
Analyzing traffic accidents in space and time.
Haven't all the maps been made? NO, because of these reasons (discussion).
5 Trends in GIS.
5 Trends in GIS.
Explore Story Maps. This presentation you are viewing is a story map as well!
Story Map: Climate Change Indicators
3 guidelines for all learners
1) Don't stop at the map.
2) Don't get too attached to the tools!
Don't get too attached to your tools.
3) All 3 legs of geoliteracy matter.
3 legged geoliteracy stool (Kerski).
Why and how should students learn geotechnologies in the 2020s?
Problem Solving | Learning How to Learn
The GTCM.
10 Pieces of Career Advice:
2 Examples of Student Work with GIS
High School: Student capstone project: Using UAVs and GIS for creating a campus map:
Drones and GIS
Middle School: Why are Right Whales dying in the Gulf of St Lawrence?
Why are Right Whales Dying in the Gulf of St. Lawrence?
What is the tiny little secret? Just like GIS is too valuable for 1-2 departments in a city, GIS is too valuable for just 1 or 2 departments or programs on a school, college, or university campus!
In primary and secondary schools:
Slow steady progress in the use of GIS. Mostly as instructional tool in geography, math, history, science, and for content (teaching WITH GIS). Some use in primary-secondary is teaching ABOUT GIS.
K12 schools in the USA using ArcGIS.
3 Tips for faculty
1) Teach with real-world examples and hands-on activities. Goal: Creating students who can think spatially and critically, who can apply theory to practice across disciplines and problems.
2) Don't overstress about using the latest-and-greatest version of X software, but by the same token, don't teach like it is 1999.
3) Let the students fly!
What are the 6 Most Important Skills for students?
1. Be curious. Leads to >>> Tenacity. Asking Good questions is part of the Inquiry Process.
Geographic Inquiry model.
2. Be able to work with data and be critical of it!
Geospatial data book and blog: https://spatialreserves.wordpress.com
Spatial Reserves
Understand the ethical implications of what you are doing!
Be critical of data that even YOU generate!
For more, see my recent presentation on data quality.
Maps are easy to create, maps tend to be believed, maps are often used to generate views on web pages, maps are often attached to fun posts, maps are representations of reality.
3. Know Geographic and Geotechnical Foundations: Skills (spatial stats, coding, web, projections, analysis, classification, etc.), but content knowledge as well and the geographic perspective (scale, systems thinking).
Where are your gaps? Use the GTCM: Identify gaps and make plans to fill your gaps!
4. Be adaptable and flexible. Be willing to go international; or at the very least, outside of your "disciplinary comfort zone"!
Seek the Center, Luke.
5. READ.
My favorite books that I read in 2022.
6. Cultivate your communications skills. Do you have an elevator speech?
Elevator speech on why GIS matters to society
5 Recommendations for moving forward!
1) Be inspired by these geo-inspirations!
Geoinspirations : People making a difference.
2) Listen to the Thinking Spatially podcast:
3) View some Our Earth videos! Space, place, Earth, education, STEM, geography, geotechnologies.
Our Earth: https://esriurl.com/ourearth = > 6,000 geo-videos.
Understanding data by creating graduated symbol, predominance, and pie chart maps in ArcGIS Online
4) Get an ArcGIS Online free subscription for your school. Explore, investigate, make maps and apps! Or - Get your own free ArcGIS Online free subscription!
5) Go through some lessons from Esri on:
Esri Climate Learning Hub
Learn
Geoinquiries: Short engaging lessons tied to interactive web maps.
This decade will be exciting for geotechnologies, and you have a key role in achieving the goal.
The goal: That wise decisions will be made with the spatial perspective and the use of geotechnologies for a healthier, happier, and more sustainable future.
Guess where? Place matters.
