Fun with GIS 347: Learning without a login, better than ever

[CharlieFitzpatrick]

Want to teach with GIS hassle free? Want ease of use, powerful learning, ramping up capacity, for free? You and students can do a ton of work, without needing a login.

I. INTRO using National Geographic MapMaker: Build essential skills and grasp of critical concepts

1. Pan, zoom, "Home," search for places or addresses
2. Basemaps, symbols, meaning, cartographic standards, maps as models ("simplifications")
3. Smaller scale (zoomed out) vs larger scale (zoomed in), and scale-sensitive data
4. Rotate the map; "north" is not "up"; lock in on N/S/E/W vs up/down/left/right
5. Compare sizes (Greenland vs Africa) in 2D, then in 3D; look at map "purposes" and "distortion"
6. In 3D, explore tilt (see Nepal, Hawaii, San Francisco, home)
7. Measure distances, in both 2D and 3D (Los Angeles to London; northernmost Alaska to southernmost Africa, and home to school)
8. Measure elevation, in both 2D and 3D (Hawaii to the western tip of Great Lakes)
9. Explore the daylight tool in 3D
10. Use sketch to add a marker
11. Create and export a screenshot, then drop that export into a document
12. "How much" information does a single map contain before you touch it? How much when you can interact with it?

II. INTRO PLUS using MapMaker: Build understanding of content and GIS

1. Open a map (try "Biomes") to see pre-constructed explorations of specific content in the physical world and the human experience
2. See "metadata" about the map by clicking the "circled i" in the title bar
3. See a legend to interpret symbols of a map layer.
4. On the map, click different areas with matching symbols in the legend. Examine features, popups, layers, legend, and "selection."
5. Click "Add layer" and choose "Latitude & Longitude," noting first its metadata. Addition of this single simple layer helps to emphasize patterns and relationships, in both 2D and 3D.
6. Address latitude & longitude concepts (absolute and relative location, range N-S vs E-W, precision, etc) using 2D and 3D, at global to local scale.
7. In 2D, click "Map layers" button, and explore layers' on/off ("visibility"), transparency, swipe.
8. Open a new map and use Search to find "Ethnicity in the United States." Click "Bookmarks," choose Alaska, and click a feature, then scroll through the popup, noting how the same data can be represented in different ways, each with advantages and disadvantages. Zoom in closer and closer to the city of Anchorage (Alaska), then compare with Puerto Rico.

III. INVESTIGATE CORE CONTENT with GeoInquiries: Enrich grasp of key items in standard subjects

1. Pick one of the ten subjects and choose a "Level One" activity (requires no login). Each is a stand-alone item, and does not depend on other lessons, but each benefits from experience that users build with previous GeoInquiries and by work in MapMaker (above). All activities are available using MapViewer. Some activities (currently Earth Science, Human Geography, and World Geography) offer the lesson in both MapViewer and MapMaker versions.
2. Regardless of subject, specific activity, or version, each teacher plan follows an "inquiry" arc. Read the short pdf designed for teachers and explore the map. Consider whether to follow the plan as presented, use only parts, or present the content in a different sequence, perhaps with additional elements.
3. Consider using a teacher-driven, teacher-centered model versus students going through the work entirely on their own, or working in groups, or mixing and shifting, perhaps with all doing a part together, then breaking up to pursue solo or group investigation. Time available, class background, instructional goals, and technology access (bandwidth and devices) will influence this. There is no best way for everyone. Consider how best to assess student gains from the activity; dropping screenshots into a document and posting for a teacher is a common approach but by no means the only one.

IV. PUSH INTO PROJECTS with public apps:

1. Give students experience engaging with online apps under a project mindset by working with GeoProjects. Even the "simplest question" -- what's your favorite color? -- can lead to all manner of analyses when combined with location. When students enter their own data, they can see different mechanisms for data entry. Strategies that "work great here but less great there" help students ponder their own projects, designs, and purposes. Students can also see and even do all manner of analyses, with maps and charts and tables and dashboards all appropriate under different circumstances. This leads quickly down the rabbit hole into personal adventures possible with maps and apps.
2. Here is a small collection of current public apps in which students and educators can dive into apps ripe with maps and data, discover patterns, find relationships, gather information, see stories, save screenshots, and contemplate the future, all without a login required.
   1. Link: USA Wildfire Activity App
   2. Link: USGS Global Recent Earthquakes
   3. Link: Living Atlas Live Feeds (layers)
   4. Link: Living Atlas Policy Maps (collection; see also this blog)
   5. Link: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI)
   6. Link: Climate Mapping for Resilience & Adaptation (CMRA; see also this blog)
   7. Link: ZIP Code Lookup: US demographics at ZIP Code level (works best in Chrome)
   8. LINK: StoryMaps for Schools (single stories and collections)
   9. Link: ArcGIS StoryMaps Gallery (single stories and collections)
   10. Link: ArcGIS Online Competition for US High School & Middle School Students

Eventually, when educators and students need to create, save, and share, a login is essential. But it is most definitely not the case that a login is required for learning.