Latest Contributions by JosephKerski

I have had the honor of working with many amazing people over the years.  When I consider the trailblazers who have made a positive impact on spatial thinking through GIS technologies in education, one person who I think of is my colleague, Charlie Fitzpatrick.   As Charlie departs Esri after 32 years of service in July 2024 for his own trails, I wish to acknowledge his legacy and salute you, the community whom he has influenced, for the enduring work that you all are doing. Here I am at a geography education conference with Kylie Donia (center), and Charlie Fitzpatrick (right).  I traveled with Charlie to probably more than 100 events over the years, beginning with a 1994 Colorado Geographic Alliance institute and a 1998 intensive two-week professional development GIS institute for educators at Texas State University. I met Charlie soon after he became Manager of the Esri schools program.  As one of two founding members of the Esri education team in 1992, Charlie became one of the most knowledgeable and respected people in the world in the integration of geographic technologies and spatial thinking in geography teaching and learning.  Charlie holds a master's degree in geography from the University of Minnesota, was a practicing full time geography teacher in middle and high school for over 15 years before joining Esri, and served in leadership roles in the National Council for Geographic Education.  Charlie really understands education—the challenges, the struggles, the rewards. He has always been ready to help, listen, and share.  One of my best memories of working with Charlie was when he invited me to work for a week with him and three students at a high school in San Bernardino, preparing them to present their work to thousands of people at the Esri User Conference.  Charlie didn’t just help them with their GIS projects; he got to know them and gave them confidence so that they believed in themselves.  Charlie has done this thousands of times; and in so doing, inspired thousands of educators, hundreds of projects, and tens of thousands of students. Charlie was instrumental in the committee to create the revision for the Geography for Life standards effort, and led the effort to bring geospatial technologies to the White House STEM ConnectEd initiative in 2014, which made ArcGIS tools freely available to all K-12 public, private, and home schools in the USA.  He was a champion of many immersive professional development institutes for educators, from Texas State University in the 1990s to the T3G institutes from 2009-2019.  Chances are, many of you reading this have attended one of Charlie’s presentations.  Charlie embodies the lifelong learner, seeking new ways of teaching and learning and always being curious.  Countless students have gone into meaningful careers because of his inspiration and countless educators have had their energies and hopes renewed because of him.  Charlie made learning relevant, fun, and also gave all of us permission to be a little geeky.  He has been an advocate of hands-on learning experiences with animated, challenging, respectful instruction.  Charlie was immersed in STEM education long before the term “STEM” even existed.  He brought geo-related content knowledge, perspectives, and skills to other disciplines, and to educational policymakers.  Even more importantly, Charlie is sincere, honest, and has integrity.  Charlie truly cares about the planet, and about people.  Charlie’s typical statement was “it was a team effort”, but all teams need a leader, and I am thankful that I have been able to work with one of those leaders.  There are not many people as well respected, and well loved, as Charlie Fitzpatrick.   My sincere and heartfelt best wishes to you, Charlie, and wish you happy new trails.  To the community that Charlie has influenced, my teammates are here to support you, and we salute the innovative and impactful work that you are doing and will continue doing in the future.   ... View more

Having just returned from the 2024 Esri Education Summit and User Conference, I wish to highlight 10 takeaway lessons and impressions with the community (and in video format here). 1.  Now more than ever, GIS work is tied to the higher, more noble goals of sustainability, resilience, equity, and others, detailed in plans for building national spatial data infrastructures, university goals of learning, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and more.  GIS tools, workflows, and maps are important, but throughout the conference I noticed a focus on "the bigger picture" that we are all a part of.  And for good reason--it is a technology that can positively impact people, communities, and the planet.  For more on this theme, visit the GIS For Good site:  https://www.esri.com/en-us/gis-for-good  2.  Uniting The World was the theme of this year's conference:  Consider all of the facets of that phrase--GIS is used across scales (local to global), organizations (nonprofits, government agencies, academia, and nonprofit organizations), countries (over 120 countries were represented at this year's UC), and disciplines (literally from A to Z - architecture, anthropology, archaeology, and astronomy--to zoology, and everything in between--planning, health, business, sociology, biology, and many many more).  3.  The notion that GIS has become a platform has really taken hold--a platform that people can depend on and build solutions upon. 4.   The action component of GIS work has never been stronger:  People are actively building and doing in the world of GIS--building data portals, applications, maps, and taking action to improve their communities with the insights that GIS brings. 5.  The energy, dedication, and work of the education community from primary-secondary to university level, after-school programs, and beyond, continues to expand and make a difference:  We had 850 educators at the Education Summit, for example, sharing their work, participating and conducting workshops, networking, and much more. 6.  The students at the Education Summit and the User Conference hailed from different levels of education (secondary, university, lifelong learners), and different places around the world, but included 4H, student assistants, young scholar award winners, the Esri YPN Young Professionals Network, and the 3 amazing and eloquent high school students on the plenary stage with their inspiring teacher, explaining not only their GIS project but the struggles and challenges and growth that they experienced along their journey. 7.  Maps are still the focus of the event:  Thousands of digital and print maps were on display for 4 days in the Map Gallery, and Jack Dangermond and others showed hundreds more during the plenary on Monday.  Why?  Because maps help communicate issues and solutions, they serve as a gathering point for people to make decisions.  They bring together people who may have different opinions at a place where discussion can begin and solutions offered. 8.  Artificial Intelligence (AI) in GIS, or GeoAI, continues to expand, at a careful and thoughtful pace.  Feature extraction and field survey generative AI workflows were just two GeoAI capabilities that attracted much interest at the event. 9.  Editing in ArcGIS Online was one of the many new tools and capabilities shown at the plenary and in technical workshops.  GIS continues to expand in depth but also is opening up new doors to others outside the GIS community who are attracted to it in part because it is easier to use than ever before, and they can use pieces of it that are appropriate to their own work and not have to "learn the whole platform." 10.  GIS is here to stay.  Despite its integration into mainstream IT flows and architecture, and despite the expanding reach of GIS into hundreds of disciplines, it is still 'special and spatial' - it has its own research base, it provides an engaging, holistic, and insightful way of looking at the whole world and everything in it--which is increasingly important to solve our world's challenges.   I have been attending the Esri UC since 1998 and the Education Summit since its inception in 2000, and they both continue to inspire and encourage me.  If you were able to attend, I hope that you have the same impression.  If you were not able to attend, I encourage you to watch the plenary recording (here: https://mediaspace.esri.com/channel/2024%2BEsri%2BUser%2BConference%2B%257C%2BPlenary/346994422) and connect with the authors of the sessions you missed.  Wish to share this with others in a different format?  https://youtu.be/IZWZagui45c?si=P-fhEX6cGDvuO32Z is a video with some fun pictures and these messages.  I look forward to hearing about your time at the Esri Education Summit and the Esri User Conference !       ... View more

How can we more fully and deeply understand our planet, augment our ability to improve its resiliency and sustainability, and, while doing so, gain key skills in demand in the workforce?  A new Digital Earth set of online courses has been developed and placed online by my colleagues at the University of Denver and I.  We invite you to join in on this exciting opportunity to deepen your investigation of Earth processes, patterns, and trends through geotechnologies.  In addition, given the approachable and engaging way these courses are structured, they are ideal for sharing with others in your circle of influence who might think of geotechnologies as "just maps" or somehow have an outdated or incomplete notion of why GIS matters.  To find these courses:  1.  Go to https://www.edx.org/ and search for GIS > Expand the results and select Digital Earth, or:  2.  Go directly to: DUX: MicroMaster's Geographic Information Systems [edx.org]  To learn more about the University of Denver's GIS master's program, see:  https://universitycollege.du.edu/gis/geographic-information-science-masters-concentration/  Two courses are already available, as follows: Digital Earth:  This course aims to establish a solid foundation in utilizing mapping tools by teaching the creation, symbolization, and application of GIS-based digital maps for problem-solving and communication on pivotal 21st-century issues. Participants will develop essential skills in spatial analysis through practical exercises, and more critically, gain insights into the technological and societal impacts of these tools. This understanding will enable learners to navigate and contribute to 21st-century society effectively using these tools and perspectives. Digital Earth, Deeper Dive:  This course follows the Digital Earth course and provides a deeper dive into the theoretical foundations and practical applications for social and ecological problem-solving through the application of geotechnologies. Geotechnologies include Geographic Information Systems (GIS), examining the world through imagery collected by drones, aircraft, and satellites (remote sensing), and positioning from GPS or Global Navigation Satellite Systems. A selection of images and activities from the Digital Earth courses, or see them here.  What makes these online geotechnology courses different?  These courses approach GIS in an applied, action-oriented way:  Right away, you begin investigating diverse phenomena and issues such as the HDI Human Development Index by country, historical tornado pattern in the USA, take a field survey and see the results instantly on a map and dashboard, and explore issues of energy, water, population change, human health, natural hazards, and others using web GIS maps and apps.  Along the way, you will learn some underlying fundamentals such as how to map a table, how to create predominance, relationship, and pie chart maps, how to consider map projections, but the focus is on rolling up your sleeves to map and investigate, right from the start.  You will use ArcGIS Online, including the Map Viewer, instant apps, ArcGIS Survey123, story maps, Color Brewer, cartograms, and other tools, all using a standard web browser without having to sign in or make an account anywhere but in the course EdX platform itself.  In short, these courses embrace the "modern GIS" approach that my colleagues and I have been encouraging, focusing on web GIS tools, data as services, creating web maps and apps, as detailed here. This program delves into the theory and art of map making, a practice that has evolved over thousands of years and has been revolutionized by modern computer technology. It is designed to immerse students in the use of advanced computer techniques to address technical design issues, enabling them to create accurate and meaningful automated geographic mapping products. Through a series of comprehensive hands-on exercises, students will utilize Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software to produce typical GIS mapping products, thereby gaining valuable practical experience in the application of geotechnologies. The courses within this program provide a robust combination of theoretical foundations and practical applications aimed at solving complex social and ecological problems through the use of geotechnologies. These geotechnologies encompass GIS, remote sensing (which involves examining the world through imagery collected by drones, aircraft, and satellites), and positioning systems such as GPS and Global Navigation Satellite Systems. Students will engage with a broad range of social and environmental themes through an array of readings, videos, and interactive exercises. This multifaceted approach ensures that students learn the critical fundamentals of mapping tools, including projections, symbology, classification, and analysis. Throughout the program, students will not only build web mapping applications, such as interactive dashboards and multimedia story maps, but they will also have the opportunity to collect and map their own field data. This practical experience is crucial in helping students develop the skills and confidence needed to use maps as powerful analytical tools. By engaging in these activities, students will learn how to effectively communicate complex data and spatial information through visually compelling and informative maps. The program emphasizes the importance of using geotechnologies to address real-world problems and promotes the development of solutions that contribute to a more sustainable and resilient future. By the end of the program, students will have a deep understanding of how to leverage these technologies to analyze and interpret spatial data, making them well-equipped to tackle a variety of challenges in both social and ecological contexts.  There are free and payment-for-additional-credit options.  To see more detail and/or to register for Digital Earth, see: https://www.edx.org/learn/gis-geographic-information-systems/university-of-denver-dux-university-college-digital-earth  To see more detail and/or to register for Digital Earth, Deeper Dive, see: https://www.edx.org/learn/earth-sciences/university-of-denver-digital-earth-deeper-dive This program prepares students to be leaders in the field of geotechnologies, providing them with the knowledge and practical skills necessary to make significant contributions to society. Whether they are interested in environmental conservation, urban planning, disaster response, or any other field that relies on spatial data, students will find that this program equips them with the tools to create positive change through the power of mapping and geographic analysis. These courses can be a part of a GIS MicroMasters program that you could pursue at the University of Denver, enabling you to gain credit that will count toward a University of Denver certificate or degree.  Taking these courses position you well for advancing in your career because spatial thinking will be in your mind and GIS skills will be on your toolbelt.  These perspectives and skills are increasingly in demand in government, nonprofit organizations, industry, and academia.   We plan to follow up these two courses for a deeper dive in a set of two more courses called Planet Earth. I invite you to take these courses and tell others about them.  I look forward to your reactions! --Joseph Kerski    ... 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After a quarter century after GIS Day began in 1999, GIS Day is still here.  In fact, GIS is more important than ever to our society because of (1) local-to-global challenges our communities and societies face, including natural hazards, energy, water, population pressure, human health, natural resource demand, public safety, education, and much more, and (2) the subsequent need for data-driven, thoughtful decisions made with the spatial and holistic perspective offered by the use of GIS tools and spatial data.  The contents of this essay are also available in this video. GIS is used in the daily lives of people all over the world--as they check today's weather, plan a ride share or when to take the next bus or light rail, tracking a package delivery, recording their walk or cycle ride on their fitness app, plan their trip to the public library or to a friend's house, plan today's dinner (supply chain management enabling food to be grown, processed, packaged, and shipped), or read by electric light (the utility companies using GIS to manage their lines and services).  All around them, people use GIS to plan the next urban greenspace, where to plant crops in which fields, set up wildfire watch announcements, schedule the needed repair to a water main, and ship needed medical supplies. Yet in these and dozens of other ways in which GIS is used in everyday lives and in daily decisions, GIS still remains relatively unknown by the general public--even by one's own co-workers, friends, and colleagues.   This is where GIS Day can help.  How? GIS Day is a day set aside each November to help people understand the value of spatial thinking, mapping, and spatial analysis to their community and to society as a whole.  Given the changes our world has experienced since that first GIS Day in 1999, GIS is more important than ever.   Since that time, a global pandemic, significant natural hazards, supply chain disruptions, and other events have raised global awareness of the relevance of GIS as a decision making toolset that enables people to build healthy communities, resilient cities, and a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient planet.  Thus, GIS can be justifiably celebrated as never before, as an essential technology for applying geography and spatial thinking.  One of the ways to celebrate GIS is through hosting or participating in a GIS Day event. This could be a hands-on workshop, tour of your facility, presentation, fun for all ages family event, video, contest, or another way you and your organization could highlight what you do with GIS, and the positive impacts it has to the people and land that you serve.  You could do this face-to-face, online, or in a hybrid setting. View the essay below and this video and the GIS Day website for ideas on how to have a successful GIS Day event.   This year, GIS Day will be held on Wednesday 20 November 2024, although you are certainly free to choose another day that meets your organization's needs in scheduling a GIS Day event. Use this GIS Day opportunity to go big!  Think creatively about how to highlight the good people in your organization, how you use GIS, and the positive difference it is making to your community, and hence why it will matter to your audience.  The presentations you create could serve double-duty:  They could also serve to highlight what your department or organization does, that could be important the next time your budget cycle is renewed, or when your CEO, city manager, or others ask you about what you do and the impact you are having.  Again, I think this is even more important given the often behind-the-scenes "hidden" work that GIS so frequently is.  Consider using engaging tools such as ArcGIS Hub, the ArcGIS Experience Builder, or a story maps collection as the front page for your event! Highlights of GIS Day events around the world showing some of the creative possibilities.  Because GIS is a visual technology, consider conducting a hands-on workshop or presentation!  Focus on a tool that you are excited about, or perhaps a data set that your organization is proud to have created.  Need additional ideas?  Try this GIS Day story map from Esri, or my own story map, here.   Consider starting with the Esri National Geographic MapMaker, here.  It's easy to use, fast, fun, and engaging, with dozens of layers about climate, population, river systems, biomes, and much more, in 2D and 3D.   Show off some of your favorite maps and apps in the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World.  I guarantee that nobody looking at the MapMaker or the Living Atlas maps and apps will say "that's boring!" The Mapping Hour is a series of hour-long videos that my team created that you could use as is, or for ideas on tools and approaches to teach and instructional guidelines.  Each Mapping Hour video focuses on how to use an aspect of the ArcGIS platform, such as ArcGIS Survey123 or ArcGIS Online Map Viewer, in teaching and learning.  GeoInquiries and Learn ArcGIS lessons provide additional content.   Make it spatial!  See these stories here and here that I compiled from a few of the thousands of GIS Day events over the past years from all over the world to discover what people have done to make this day engaging, fun, and informative.  Make it interactive!  Create a map-based quiz, or use the existing ones that I created such as Name That Place from satellite images, Name That Place from ground photographs, Sounds of Planet Earth, or Weird Earth.  I created each of these using the capabilities of ArcGIS Online, such as Instant Apps.  Some are in story map form, such as this Wyoming Map Quiz.   Oh, what's not to love?  Place and space! Try this Pioneers of Geography and GIS treasure hunt story map quiz that I created with the help of our Esri development team for GIS Day:   https://esri.github.io/treasure-hunt-app/?edition=pioneers-geo-and-GIS   Solve a series of questions--each focuses on a geography or GIS pioneer and hints at a location somewhere in the world where the pioneer was born or worked.  To answer the question, frame the solution within the viewfinder using the map's pan/zoom functions.  You could use it for an icebreaker, a contest, or as a fun break in between longer presentations. The answers to the 25 questions include Aryabhata, Zheng He, Dawn Wright, Roger Tomlinson, and … oh, I’m not going to give you any more answers!  You need to take the quiz yourself!   For a graphic, see below.  If you’re stumped you can skip the guessing.  For more, see this collection of thematic Treasure Hunts.  You could even use Kahoot or another fun online quiz format in conjunction with maps and images.   GIS Day pioneers of geography treasure hunt quiz. Put your GIS skills to the test with my GIS-themed crossword puzzle.   Consider these clues:  16 Across:  A spatial term denoting features that overlay, or ‘cross’ each other.   40 Across:  Type of thematic map in which areas are symbolized in proportion to a variable that represents a summary of a geographic characteristic within each area.  69 Down:  University of Kansas cartographer George, who devised the natural breaks classification.  295 Down:  The standard deviation of the residuals (prediction errors).  How are you doing so far?  Use this crossword in your event as a contest, awarding kudos to the person or team to get the most clues in, say, 5 minutes.    GIS crossword puzzle--hundreds of clues from easy to difficult are included to test your GIS expertise! The resources pages on the GIS Day site provide additional lessons, posters, videos, and other items you could use.   Need more inspiration?  OK, how about 101 more ideas including sending a thank-you note to a GIS or geography teacher and producing a GIS Day song.  But definitely do not watch any of my own off-key geo-GIS songs! Once you've gathered your team, and planned what you will do, register your event on the GIS Day site.  Now you need to publicize your event!  Will your event be only for internal employees, or for the wider community?  If the latter, consider your city or regional GIS community's web pages or listservs or social media to post.  Also consider posting to your regional chapter of the Esri Young Professionals Network (https://www.esri.com/en-us/about/ypn/overview).  But don't stop at the GIS community--reach those who have never heard of GIS, too!  Via your local school board, public library, city hall, arts district, or other community groups.   If you don't want to host an event, no problem!  You could use the web map on the GIS Day site to find an event of interest to you, and join that event! Stay tuned, follow us on Twitter/X, and visit the GIS Day website often to hear more about opportunities for the global GIS Day community to come together to celebrate GIS Day this year. What will you do to host a your virtual or face-to-face GIS Day event or attend an event this year? ... View more

The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in education around the world is a relatively recent phenomenon. Settled almost entirely since 1990, the landscape is marked by pedagogical and technological trailblazing by enterprising educators who have overcome numerous challenges to teach about GIS and teach with GIS. They do so to promote spatial thinking throughout education. They have done so in a wide variety of settings, to students of all ages from primary, secondary, college, university, and after-school programs, in lecture halls, computer laboratories, on mobile devices, and in the field.  Our Esri education team has been actively supporting these educators and this movement since 1992, in partnership and in collaboration with the community of educators, globally.  For all of the variety of the ways GIS is being used in education, a remarkably small number of themes are common. In the paper and set of 3 videos below, I identify those themes that have helped to create a growing, vibrant international GIS education community. These include a focus on problem-solving, inquiry-driven pedagogical techniques that use real-world data and geotechnologies to analyze spatial patterns on a local to global scale. They focus on classroom, community, and careers, and promote scholarship, citizenship, and artisanship. Yet despite progress over the past 35 years, not only do challenges remain, but forces are acting that could confine spatial thinking in education to a relatively small part of educational practice and research through 2030. These forces include an overreliance upon standardized assessments, budgetary constraints that curtail necessary components such as fieldwork and IT support, a lack of a curricular fit or home for GI (Geographic Information), and a continued reliance on funding and staffing educational institutions by disciplinary and departmental models which at times hinder interdisciplinary tools and approaches such as those offered through GIS.  The videos and paper makes recommendations about what needs to happen to advance the use of GIS in education at all levels. This includes establishing a disciplinary home for GIS throughout education, an increased emphasis on portfolios and other authentic assessment instruments, and the funding and establishment of a center that promotes research in the implementation and effectiveness of GIS in education. The future of GIS in education will also be impacted by community science or volunteered geographic information, the Web GIS environment, mobile computing, open data portals, and open application programming interfaces (APIs). Spatial analysis with GIS addresses the essential issues of the 21st Century. Natural and human-caused hazards, urban sprawl, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, public safety, water quality and availability, biodiversity loss, healthy economies, and other key and complex issues of our time can be better understood through the spatial framework. Spatial thinking and analysis must take place throughout education, not only to have a positive impact on teaching and learning, but also on society as a whole, to benefit people and the planet. If this does not occur, we will be on uncertain footing in education, and we will be on precarious ground as a global society. As I state in the following series of videos, and in a paper that follows, without spatial thinking and spatial analysis in education and in society, we will essentially be sleepwalking into the future. Part 1 of 3:  https://youtu.be/7PaEEJOENHI?si=SlYFdIYYLIHb-Wwm  Part 2 of 3:  https://youtu.be/YOv8REdT2go?si=0avo5KMQ1X34rtGD  Part 3 of 3:  https://youtu.be/nXuzxDVFkE8?si=hHCjd4-vZyE2Wifd  https://gispoint.de/fileadmin/user_upload/paper_gis_open/537510017.pdf is a complete article, expanding on the themes in the videos that I have authored on this subject, for those who want to dig deeper into what I feel is an important topic. What do you think we should be doing as a community to actively support, promote, and encourage spatial thinking and analysis in education, with implications for the greater society? I welcome your comments!   --Joseph Kerski  ... View more