Latest Contributions by Kylie

ArcGIS StoryMaps are here to stay and continue to be made even better. However, some of their relatives are heading out: StoryMaps.com and Classic Esri Story Maps. StoryMaps.com On June 30, 2025, StoryMaps.com (Esri’s consumer-facing storytelling platform) is retiring, but you can migrate your StoryMaps.com account to ArcGIS Online and receive a complimentary subscription to ArcGIS Online. This retirement means StoryMaps.com will go offline and any StoryMaps.com content not migrated to ArcGIS Online will not be available to edit or view. If you have content you want to migrate, you have until May 31, 2025 to request that Esri migrate your account to ArcGIS Online. Once in ArcGIS Online, you’ll be able to use ArcGIS StoryMaps to manage your past stories and create new ones. Sign in to StoryMaps.com to request migration, or learn more about the retirement. If you use StoryMaps.com, your web experience looks like this: Migration from StoryMaps.com for educators If you are an educator migrating from StoryMaps.com, you need to do the following: (1) migrate to a Creator user type subscription, (2) get an account in an education subscription, and (3) duplicate your stories from your migrated account into the education account. Here are detailed steps for doing so: Sign in to StoryMaps.com and request migration to a Creator user type subscription (for details, see “How do I migrate to ArcGIS online?” in the StoryMaps.com migration blog). Once migrated, you’ll have an ArcGIS Online account. Here, we refer to that account as your “migrated ArcGIS Online account.” Get an account in an education subscription. Here, we refer to this account in an educational license as your “education ArcGIS Online account.” The process to get an account differs for higher education and K-12: K-12: Get an account in an ArcGIS for Schools Bundle. Your district or school might already have access, or you may need to work with your district IT to request a bundle. Higher education: See Does my university have ArcGIS? and work with your institution to get access. Duplicate your stories from your migrated ArcGIS Online account into your education ArcGIS Online account by taking the following steps: Sign in ArcGIS StoryMaps using your migrated ArcGIS Online account. For each story you want to preserve, allow duplication and share the story with your education ArcGIS Online account as follows: Open the story for editing and click Publish. In the Publish options > Share > Advance options, check Allow duplication. In the Publish options > Share dialog, Set sharing level to Everyone (Public). You can always revert this to Private after you duplicate the story. If you aren’t comfortable even temporarily sharing your story publicly, you can use a group to share the story with your education ArcGIS Online account. Sign in to ArcGIS Online using your education ArcGIS Online account. Open each story you want to duplicate, click More actions (the three dots in the upper-right corner) and click Duplicate story to make a copy of it in your education ArcGIS Online account. If you aren’t signed in, Duplicate story will be disabled. Continue forward always using your education ArcGIS Online account and the stories you duplicated into it. Make note of the new URLs (and IDs) of your stories and update your assignment references to your stories to use the new URLs. Your migrated ArcGIS Online account will eventually require you to renew it, and renewals can’t be done with education pricing. Classic Esri Story Maps In Q1 of 2026, Classic Esri Story Maps is retiring (and it already retired with ArcGIS Enterprise 11.0). This means that after that date, the Classic Esri Story Maps templates won’t be available and stories in them won’t be accessible. Transition your content into ArcGIS StoryMaps to retain access to it and have a modern storytelling experience. See Managing the classic Esri Story Maps retirement in your organization for instructions, tools, and recommendations, and also to learn more about the Classic Esri Story Maps Roadmap for Retirement. Classic Story Maps have a variety of web experiences. To tell if your story is in a Classic Story Map template or the modern ArcGIS StoryMaps, look at the URL when you are reading the story. If it starts with https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories, you are using the latest and greatest. If not, it’s time to migrate. ArcGIS StoryMaps are alive and well Again, ArcGIS StoryMaps are not retiring and remain the geospatial storytelling app of choice. Keep creating StoryMaps, but make sure your old content isn’t lost when StoryMaps.com and Esri Story Maps (Classic Story Maps) retire. ... View more

When I show educators how Esri can help bring classroom subjects to life, they are ready to jump in and want to know what lessons we have available for them. And now I can give an easy answer: check out the Classroom activities gallery! This new app contains a curated set of lessons and activities for use in the classroom. They are categorized and searchable, making it easier to take the topic you are teaching and find a mapping activity to complement it. It includes the latest and recommended GeoInquiries (including many using MapMaker), as well as StoryMaps exploring Earth Science, Geography, Human Geography, and more. And we’ll be adding additional lessons once they are reviewed. (Have one you’d like considered? Email us – schools@esri.com.) We are pleased to have new classroom lessons for MapMaker made in collaboration with National Geographic included in the gallery. Explore topics like biomes and temperatures with step-by-step activities, videos, and prepared maps. Each has a teacher guide along with student activities in formats you can easily edit for your classroom. We’d love to hear what you think of these. Check out the “featured” category in the app and let us know how they work in your classroom! Happy mapping! ... View more

You’ve made it to the end of the school year. Great work is done, students are graduating, and teachers are ready for a break. Just like you prepare your classroom for the year ahead, do the same with your ArcGIS organization. Here are 3 tips for preparing your ArcGIS organization for the school year to come: Clean up the accounts Clean up the content Review your ArcGIS organization administrators Let’s see how. 1. Clean up the accounts With students graduating (and moving) and staff changes taking place, the users in your ArcGIS organization will be different next year from this last year. Manage the accounts of departing users to keep your organization secure. See Disable, review, delete: A best practice for managing the accounts of departing users. 2. Clean up the content You don’t need to keep every assignment or draft of a project. They have served their purpose and are no longer useful. Instead, identify the ones you want to preserve and let go of the others. See A tidy ArcGIS Online organization for the holidays: Identifying and deleting unnecessary items. Bonus: Keep an eye out for exemplary student work that you’d like to share with a wider audience. Take advantage of a showcase account to preserve and share that amazing work. 3. Review your ArcGIS organization administrators Make sure the people who’ll oversee your ArcGIS organization have the access they’ll need. And make sure past admins who no longer need that access no longer have it.  See Know who holds the keys: Review your organization administrators. Map on! Having followed these three tips, your ArcGIS organization will be ready for another year of student mapping and spatial projects.   ... View more

I'm excited to share a new activity for students - Experience GIS for Urban Planning. This activity has students read about a real-life GIS use case in urban planning, answer some questions about what they've read, then use GIS to solve the same problem. No accounts? No problem - They aren't needed Students can get hands-on using GIS for urban planning without having an account. The first part of the activity can be completed without one. If the students have accounts, there is more in the activity that they than can continue to do. Where does the activity fit in the classroom? Consider incorporating this activity into architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) or Supply Chain and Transportation career clusters and pathways in CTE programs. Done with the AP Human Geography exam? Challenge your students with this activity. Teaching a higher ed unit on urban or human geography? Your students will also benefit. None of those apply to you? You can still use the activity - we are happy to see more students exposed to GIS. Leave us a comment about how the activity worked for your students. ... View more

Just as you don’t offer your car keys to just anyone, you shouldn’t let just anyone have an administrator role (or administrative privileges) in your ArcGIS Online organization. And you should regularly review who has that access. In this blog we’ll look at: Who should have an administrator role A recommendation: review your administrators regularly How to review and update your ArcGIS Online administrators A note about custom roles with administrative privileges Who should have an administrator role Who are the right people to control your ArcGIS Online organization? Ultimately it is up to you and your district who gets a copy of the keys. They should all have: Experience with managing software and accounts Ideally experience with ArcGIS Online And you should always have at least 2 ArcGIS Online administrators. But the specific people with administrative roles might vary over time as makes sense with their roles in your school or district. Recommendation: Review your administrators regularly It is recommended that you review your ArcGIS Online organization administrators at the start and end of each school year or when an admin’s role in your school changes. People leave your school, and new people join your district. And even people who stay year over year might have changing responsibilities that change their relationship to your ArcGIS Online organization. How to review and update your ArcGIS Online administrators Take the following steps to review and update the current administrators in your ArcGIS Online organization: While logged in to ArcGIS Online, click Organization in the navigation at the top of your ArcGIS Online organization. In the blue tabs, click Members. In the Filters to the left of the table, expand Role and select Administrator. The members shown in the table are those that currently have an Administrator role in your organization. Review the list of administrators. Is there anyone you should remove? Is there anyone missing? If there is someone you should remove, you can change their role, disable their access, or completely remove their account. To change their role, click the Role dropdown to the right of their name and select a new role for them. To disable their access, click the three dots to the right of their name and choose Disable member account. To completely remove their account, click the three dots to the right of their name and choose Delete member. If there is someone missing, add them as an administrator as follows: Clear the Role: Administrator filter by clicking the X by that filter above the table.   The full members list displays in the table. Find their account in the members list, click the Role drop-down to the right of their name and select the Administrator role (or a custom administrator role if your organization uses one). If the person doesn’t yet have an account, create one for them. While creating it, you can’t assign an administrator role, so use a different role. After the account is created, change their role to administrator. See details in “Set up another administrator for your subscription” in the ArcGIS for Schools Bundle Administration Guides > Guide A – Quick Start > Task 5. Review and update your administrative contacts as follows: Administrative contacts are ArcGIS Online administrators who are used as the points of contact if a user needs a password reset or other administrative assistance, and are the people who get communications from Esri Customer Service. Learn more about administrative contacts. Still in the Organization section of your ArcGIS Online organization, click Settings in the blue tabs. In the General tab, scroll down to the Administrative contacts section. Review the listed administrators who are administrative contacts. This list can be a subset of your administrators, or it can be all of them. If any are missing that should be included, click Manage administrative contacts and check the box to the right of the missing administrator. If any should be removed, click the X to the right of their name. At least one administrative contact is required. You won't be able to delete the contact if only one is listed, so you'll need to add someone new and then delete in that case.  A note about custom roles with administrative privileges If your organization uses custom roles, consider if any of the custom roles you have defined include administrative privileges. If so, review the people with that role the same as you reviewed those assigned an administrator role. Breathe easier Knowing your ArcGIS Online organization is in good hands, you can now rest easy. Or perhaps you are now ready to tackle managing the accounts of other users. See other ArcGIS Online organization management blogs including: Disable, Review, Delete: A best practice for managing the accounts of departing users Showcase accounts: A best practice for sharing student work A tidy ArcGIS Online organization for the holidays – Identifying and deleting unnecessary items   ... View more

Goodbye is never easy. You’ve had a great time mapping together, but now a user is moving on. A graduating student, a retiring teacher, or the departure of any user from your school or district requires you to remove their ArcGIS Online access to keep your ArcGIS organization secure. You know that you need to review their items and delete their account, but you don’t have the time or the right people to review it now. That doesn’t mean you can’t protect your organization! Disable their account now and continue with reviewing and deleting it once your time allows. Admins often overlook disabling an account, which removes the user’s access and gives the admin time to do a review of the items and groups owned by the account. What you’ll do: Disable their account Review their items and groups Delete their account How you’ll do it: 1. Disable the account Once a user has left your school or district, disable their account to remove their access to it. You can disable a single account or multiple accounts.   In ArcGIS Online, click Organization in the top bar. Click Members in the blue bar. Select the account or accounts to disable (up to 100). Click More above the table. Click Disable member accounts. Limitations of disabled accounts A disabled account still exists in ArcGIS Online, and its items are unaffected. Shared items are still available to others. However, the user can no longer use the disabled account to sign in, work with their content, administer the site, or otherwise consume organizational resources. Note: The content in a disabled account still consumes credits. The account is still a member and counts toward the number of users in your organization. 2. Review their items and groups Disabling their account gives you time to review their items and groups, preserving those that need to live on, and deleting ones that are no longer needed. Some tips for your review: Best practice: Before they leave, ask users to clean up their own items and groups. Not all will, but the ones that know what needs to be preserved, saving you review time. Use a showcase account to preserve items that are still needed How the item is shared is a clue – if only available to the owner, no one else is relying on it. Key words in titles like “test” “draft” “OLD” and “delete” help you identify items that can be cleaned up. View counts and other metadata can help give an idea of the content in question. Groups that the user owned might be unnecessary and ready for deletion, or they might need to be assigned new owners. Reviewing the member list and content helps you determine if a group should be kept. Read A tidy ArcGIS Online organization for the holidays – identifying and deleting unnecessary items for additional tips on using the organization status and reports during your review. Remember, it’s up to you: You can be aggressive and delete items you think unnecessary, then restore them for. (Before deleting, make sure you have your ArcGIS organization recycle bin enabled if you’ll want to restore!) You can only delete items you are sure can go and store the others for the time being. The preserved items will use credits but that might be acceptable in your organization. 3. Delete the account Now that you have cleaned up the groups and items, you can delete the account. In ArcGIS Online, select the account or accounts to delete (up to 100), click More, and click Delete members. Summary By disabling accounts as people leave your school or district, you can keep your organization secure and also take your time to review their items and groups. Disable, review, then delete to keep your organization members current.   Looking for more best practices for organization management? See the ArcGIS for Schools Bundle Administration Guides. ... View more

A plethora of StoryMaps exist on a variety of map-based topics, including topics you cover in your classroom. StoryMaps are an engaging way to explore maps and their story, so here's a StoryMap about how to get the most out of using these resources: Tips for using a StoryMap in the Classroom. This story includes 3 tips I often  give to help educators get comfortable using a StoryMap and also get the most out of it. You'd be surprised how often the 2nd tip is overlooked! While this StoryMap is focused on tips for using StoryMaps, we also have tips for authoring them! If you are ready to create your own StoryMap, check out the ArcGIS StoryMaps Resources page.       ... View more

Your students have done amazing work in ArcGIS Online that you’d like to share with the community or preserve even after the student has graduated. But they are minors, so their privacy needs to be protected and they shouldn’t be allowed to share publicly in your ArcGIS Organization. And when they graduate, you want to remove their ArcGIS Online account but not lose their work. So how can you share the work, while at the same time protecting their privacy and managing your organization accounts? A showcase account! What is a showcase account? It is an account you make in your organization just like you do accounts for your teachers and students, but you use it solely to share items. Once a piece of content is complete and deemed worthy of sharing to a public audience, it is moved into the showcase account and shared from there. What you’ll do: Make a special account Move stellar completed student work to that account Share the work publicly And now for the details to each step:   1. Make a special account Create an account directly in ArcGIS Online by adding a member without sending an invitation.  Recommendations: First name Showcase Last name Last name District or school name or abbreviation Ex: Orange Tree Unified School District would use OTUSD Email address The email address used by your ArcGIS organization admins Username Use the format “showcase.shortname” where shortname is the short name for your ArcGIS organization Ex: Orange Tree Unified School District (https://otusd.maps.arcgis.com) would use showcase.otusd User type Creator If it is not available, Professional Plus Role Publisher Temporary password Provide a password that meets requirements; it will be changed the first time the account is logged in to   Note: Make sure to fill out the profile. Since you use the account to share publicly, it displays when readers want to learn more about who created the content. 2. Move stellar, completed student work to that account In ArcGIS Online, change the work to be owned by the showcase account.  Keep in mind that a piece of work might reference other items, and all will need to be moved and shared publicly. For example, a StoryMap might reference a layer, a map, and a dashboard. You’d need to move and share all 4 items. Note: Moving the content to this org also removes student access to edit or delete it, avoiding changes to publicly shared work. Once the student who created it graduates, their account can be deleted and items in the showcase account won’t be affected. 3. Share the work publicly An adult shares the content publicly. This ensures that it is appropriate for sharing publicly and doesn't expose private student data. There are a couple of ways they can do the sharing: Log in as the showcase account and share the items that are now in that account publicly (with everyone)  Log in with their own account (if it has permission to "share member content with public"), browse to the items in the showcase account, and publicly share them (see detailed steps here). Make sure to share all the items that make up the piece of work, just like in the previous step you needed to move all of them. Wrap-up Think of your ArcGIS organization as a bakery. Cooks (students) are working on treats (assignments). There are some creations that just shine, and that we can’t wait to serve. These are the dishes we’ll showcase. We sell them under our bakery name, credit is not given to each individual baker for their particular creations. Similarly in our showcase account, we present all the content under a unified name. When it comes to students, this is key in protecting their privacy. In the kitchen, other treats burned, some flopped, and some components from the star dishes are left over. While lessons were learned through them, we won’t serve them. Likewise in your ArcGIS showcase, curate what should be shared and have a quality standard that must be met. Now you have a showcase full of polished, amazing, drool-inducing delicacies. Or, to put it back into ArcGIS organization terms, you have a collection of amazing maps, StoryMaps, layers and other items, all ready for others to consume. ... View more

In the February 2026 release of ArcGIS Online, the Status tab was separated into the Dashboard and Reports tabs. The steps here have been updated, but the images show old tab names. The ArcGIS for Schools Bundles Administration Guides is kept updated with steps and images for this workflow. As the year comes to a close and semesters are wrapping up, it's a good time to look at the content in your org and clean up the leftovers nobody needs. Your first sweep through should focus on large items (which use up credits), old items, and unused items. Here are tips for using the Status tab and reports to identify such items in your organization. Note: To follow these steps, you need to be an administrator in your ArcGIS organization.  Find large and old items in the ArcGIS Online Status tab The Dashboard and Reports tabs help you find large and old items to review. Here's how to work with these tabs: In the navigation at the top of your ArcGIS Online organization, click Organization. In the blue tabs, choose Dashboard. Scroll down to the Usage Aggregation by Type chart. Click Storage (in the ring or legend). Click Feature Storage (in the ring or legend). In the table below the chart, click the line for Standard Feature Data Store. Click the blue View item details button below the table. While the table is sorted by size by default, you can click a header (such as Size, Created, or Modified) to sort the table on that property. Click on an item in the Database Storage Details to see its item page. You can read more about it and manage the item, including moving or deleting it.    Find large, old, and unused items in a report An item report spreadsheet includes the size, view count, date last viewed, date created, and date modified of the items in your ArcGIS organization. You can download and sort the spreadsheet to find items to review. Here's how to create and use a report: In the navigation at the top of your ArcGIS Online organization, click Organization. In the blue tabs, choose Reports. Click Create report. Choose Single report. Chose a report type of Item. Click Create report. Once the report is created, download and open the spreadsheet. With the spreadsheet open, you can sort it by the columns for date created, date modified, view counts, file storage size, feature storage size, and date last viewed to find the items you need to review. To review an item, copy its Item ID from the spreadsheet and paste it into the search in ArcGIS Online. On the search result, click More options (the three dots). Click View details to see its item page. You can read more about it and manage the item, including moving or deleting it.   Get cleaning Large items in particular use up credits for storage, and unused items cause clutter that can make it harder to find items of interest. Don't wait for the dust to settle - make a plan to get your organization cleaned up now.  ... View more

From career days to special projects, parents and community members are often eager to help out in the classroom. If you have a helper with GIS experience, there are a number of ways to get them involved. This handy guide helps a middle school teacher and a GIS professional make a plan and make the most of their time in the classroom: Teacher for a day - Middle School See the steps they can take for a successful visit, and identify how you can help them have a great day in your class: Meet with the teacher Plan their visit, and get suggested resources and activities Review the plan with the teacher Practice Go to school One of the key things provided is the suggested resources and activities the GIS Professional can use to best interact with your class. The suggested resources are categorized based on the type of visit your classroom needs, from career days and map skills, to bringing a map into a classroom topic, doing a project, or just having fun with maps.   Have other ideas for their visit? We'd love your feedback.   ... View more

The November 2024 update to MapMaker is focused on workflows around information in the map. You can add pop-ups to sketches, create sketches from search results, see data in 3D without shadows by default, used an improved Map layers panel, and even close Map layers and keep working with an open table. And yes, of course we’ve added some new maps and layers that are ready for your classroom. Sketch enhancements This release brings a couple of big additions to sketch. Now your sketches can have a pop-up with a title, description, and even an image. And you can add a sketch right from a search result, making it easier to see your search result as you work with the map. And combine the two: by default, sketches created from search results use the search as the title, but you can customize its pop-up. Create a sketch from a search result Configure a pop-up for a sketch Map layers panel improvements Map layers sees some improvements in this release. Tools that don't work with a particular layer are hidden (not disabled) so you can focus on what you can do. A checkbox replaces the eye icon for visibility. More layer types are included, providing access to the standard tools on those layers as well. Close Map layers to see more map when using a table Now you can keep using a table when the Map layers panel is closed. This gives you more space for the map. More map space when Map layers is closed 3D data more visible by default By default, the shadow of the sun is now off. You can still turn it on, but this makes it easier to see the data on the globe when you aren't focused on shadows. Globe comes out of the shadows Copy and send the URL right to the map When you copy the URL in your browser, it now includes what map you have open. When you share the URL with a student or colleague, they'll be taken right to the map you had open. New and updated maps and layers New maps include  Seafloor Crustal Age ,  Watersheds ,  Internet Connectivity in the United States ,  Ocean Currents in Motion , and  El Niño Southern Oscillation . The following layers have been updated:  Sea Surface Temperature  and  Water Risk Index . New maps   See What's new and known issues in MapMaker. ... View more

We are excited to announce that we're exhibiting at the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) Annual Conference in San Antonio, Texas, from December 4-7, 2024. The ACTE conference is the premier event for career and technical educators, administrators, counselors, and industry partners, featuring hundreds of sessions on the latest trends, best practices, and research in CTE. At our booth, you will have the opportunity to see a live demo of ArcGIS, which empowers educators to create engaging, personalized, and interactive spatial learning experiences for your students. You will also be able to chat with our team of experts, who can answer your questions and show you how ArcGIS can help you achieve your goals and challenges in CTE. We'll also be supporting Dr. Barbour and his presentation on How to Implement and Deploy a High School Drone Program (Thursday, Dec 5 @ 3-3:45p). Come learn about the North Carolina drone technology courses, which provide students with basic background information needed in the drone field while also preparing them for FAA Part 107 Certification and teaching them to fly.  Don't miss this chance to discover how ArcGIS can revolutionize your CTE curriculum and instruction. See you soon in San Antonio! ... View more