Category Archives: GIS

DePauw virtually reconstructs its former campus with geospatial tools

Posted on April 24, 2013 | Leave a comment

A team at DePauw University used SketchUp to recreate what they believe their campus to have looked like historically, building-wise.  Apparently a challenge because whole buildings have come and gone with little archival imagery captured?  Seems like a good way to involve staff and students in a project that can engage alumni and highlight the fun of flying (Google Earth-wise) around.  Mental images of Harry Potter on his broomstick whizzing past Hogwarts’ buildings.

Nice work, Beth!

H/t to All Points Blog.

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Posted in GIS, higher education

GIS and University Administrators

Posted on April 23, 2013 | 2 Comments

From our new website, TeachGIS.org, we published a White Paper today that focuses on how to talk to university administrators about GIS.   First, make sure they know what GIS is, and what it’s not (i.e., GPS).  After that, it all depends on your intentions.  Different messages for different expectations.  Build some connections, share some stories, offer some statistics, anticipate and mitigate the tensions.  Figure out what your favorite GIS video, book, or website is, and send it to your Provost or Dean, just to say hi.

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Posted in geography, GIS, higher education

Atlas of Urban Expansion, documenting growth for 120 cities around the world

Posted on December 6, 2012 | Leave a comment

New to me, a global Atlas of Urban Expansion, from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.  Global coverage from 120 cities, looking at land use / land cover changes over the period of 1990-2000, plus 30 cities with more detailed data from the 1800s!

It’s not just my natural tendency to grasp at any (seemingly authentic, authoritative, research-based, value-added, FREE, downloadable) GIS data that I appreciate from this site.  I also like their documentation of their attributes of urban expansion and description of their metrics, so we can see how these data were derived.

Thank you, LILP, for making your work available to us!

 

 

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Posted in GIS, imagery

geographer earns Smithsonian’s Ingenuity Award

Posted on December 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

I learned this week that Anne Kelly Knowles has won one of the Smithsonian’s American Ingenuity Awards, for her work on Visualizing Gettysburg.  Fantastic, Anne!  I love the artsy interview with her too.  It is curious that it was the Gettysburg work being heralded now, since the Smithsonian looks for work that’s taken place in the last year and this is some of Anne’s older work. She’s moved far beyond this now, to the Holocaust and to her iron work.  Stay tuned for great publications from those endeavors too.

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Posted in GIS, humanities

more examples of linking geography and history via maps, some digital

Posted on September 28, 2012 | Leave a comment

My friends at the UVa Scholar’s Lab shared with me their new Neatline project earlier this week. I don’t know much about Omeka, but I always trust these guys to do good work with a wide range of OS tools. I do like the interface, the rapid loading of georeferenced maps, and the additional interactive functionality on the main screen. If I can figure out more about this, I have a stack of projects ready to try!

In Time & Place is oriented to secondary school learning. This will be a good resource for my Spatial Literacy students, and I’ll see about modifying things for my higher ed students too.  Not sure how I wandered across this site this week. I need to click on fewer windows to make h/t’ipping easier.

Conflict History is a Google Maps mashup. I like the timeline and the thorough “info” available.  This interface and collection really highlights the disparity between how few military conflicts we’ve had on US soil versus the rest of the world, and how relatively high Europe and Asia are. Not news, but interesting to see it in this way.  H/t to Google Maps Mania.

 

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Posted in data & visualization, education, GIS, humanities, maps, web mapping

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Mapping People Symposium: October 31 at Univ of Redlands

Posted on August 13, 2012 | Leave a comment

We’re gearing up for our first (annual?) Symposium on Mapping People.  Join us for this one-day event on October 31. We’ll explore the joys and challenges of mapping social and cultural data, learning about innovative approaches and projects.  Ian Gregory will be our keynote speaker. We’re seeking submissions of abstracts for lightning talks and posters.  Awards will be given for the top grad student and undergrad student presentations!

The event is free, sponsored through our grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation.  But space is limited so register soon!

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Posted in conferences, GIS, higher education, humanities, maps

ideas at EdUC: spatial thinking, open educational resources, ArcGIS Online

Posted on July 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

Day 1 of the 2012 Esri GIS Educational Conference begins shortly. Yours truly will have the honor of speaking on the stage with my colleague, Joseph Kerski. Since I was privy to the other plenaries at our rehearsal yesterday, I know you’ll hear the phrase “spatial thinking” in almost everyone’s presentation, and ArcGIS Online will figure prominently this year as well.

JJK and I will be talking about “open educational resources.”  Open is a word that can be construed in many ways, and that’s okay. Such definitions are not always mutually exclusive. I’ll be using “open” as both an adjective and a verb, like my friend Jeremy Crampton does too. I look forward to the lively discussion.

 

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Posted in conferences, GIS

Considering Spatial Citizenship

Posted on July 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

I’ve just completed Day 1 of a SPACIT meeting, the semi-annual gathering of partners working on this Comenius funded project. Very interesting ideas coupled with very ambitious plans! Combining GIS&T, geography, philosophy, politics, the act of “participating” – or engagement, pedagogy and teacher professional development, communication, and other technology, especially via geomedia. Here’s a recent paper, GI and Spatial Citizenship (pdf) authored by 3 of the lead partners, Inga Gryl, Thomas Jekel, and Karl Donert.

I’m contributing on behalf of NCGE, and I have much to learn from these discussions. And did I mention we’ve gathered in Salzburg, Austria, at the university where the GI Forum and AGIT is about to happen?  Geo everywhere.

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Posted in education, geography, GIS, politics, spatial thinking, technology, VGI

Save the Date – GIS & Spatial Thinking in College conference at Bucknell in November

Posted on June 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

Bucknell University will be hosting a weekend conference on GIS / Spatial Thinking in mid-November.  A call for participation was announced today. Too bad we’ll have to make choices about session attendance, as I’d like to learn from all of them!

My keynote is likely to focus on the issues of GIS as perceived from the administration and highers-up, and managing GIS and its opportunities (and strengths, weaknesses, and threats!).

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Posted in conferences, GIS, higher education

data for mapping farmers’ markets

Posted on May 11, 2012 | Leave a comment

During a workshop today, I came across this USDA collection of data for farmers’ markets.  Easy to download, easy to map.  Don’t know how currently or accurately it’s maintained, but it’s enough to start with!   Somewhere this mashup image was already part of it too.

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Posted in data & visualization, GIS