Latest Contributions by JosephKerski

Folks: I would like to bring to your attention two upcoming MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). Both are free and focused on spatial thinking, spatial analysis, and include videos, discussions, readings, quizzes, and immersion in GIS tools and problem solving.  Perhaps they would serve as a good way for your colleagues who wonder “what’s the big deal with GIS, anyway?” or “I’ve always wanted to learn about GIS but don’t have the time or money”. 1)  Skills for the Digital Earth MOOC – through Elmhurst College – 3 through 30 April 2016: http://www.elmhurst.edu/admission/school_for_professional_studies/239271581.html Ever stop to think about how important location is when using your smart phone? This educational MOOC begins with an explanation of how society uses location in a myriad of disciplines. Geography, or rather, "where?" is important to all of us from various perspectives.  Within this MOOC, participants will learn what location technologies are used for, how the discipline developed and learn by doing via a series of scaffolded practical exercises. Online spatial software will be employed for any device using a browser which takes users through exercises and real world examples. It is appropriate for those with no prior experience with geographic information systems (GIS) software all the way to advanced users.  It is based on the Geospatial Technology Competency Model. See one of the videos I made for the course to get a feel for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9g0tsQwRAU 2)  The Location Advantage – through Esri – 16 March through 27 April 2016: http://www.esri.com/mooc/location-advantage Location analytics uses the locational component of business data to improve users’ understanding of their market, customers, and business processes. Organizations throughout the world use location analytics to make better decisions and gain a competitive advantage. This free, instructor-led MOOC explores the capabilities of Esri Business Analyst Online.  For you all in the education world, it would help you and your students investigate business-related patterns, relationships, and trends.  Also feel free to spread the word about it to your student and instructor colleagues in your school, community college, or university.   There are some key environmental business considerations embedded in the activities and readings. Joseph Kerski ... View more

Remote sensing education--courses, programs, and curriculum--have existed since the 1980s.  Should it be taught in 2020 and beyond?  I would say, absolutely yes, for the following reasons:  (1)  Remote sensing data sources, from Lidar, UAS, small satellites, and beyond, are rapidly diversifying; (2) Remote sensing applications have spread far beyond natural resource management to city planning, health, natural hazards, engineering, transportation, and many other fields; (3) Remote sensing tools are increasingly intertwined with GIS tools and workflows, for example, in the ArcGIS platform.  Thus a combination of GIS and remote sensing skills will be in demand in the workforce--they are no longer semi-separate communities as they were in the 20th Century.  And the good news for instructors is that the ArcGIS platform allows you to teach both GIS and remote sensing in a single environment.   If you are "starting up" with teaching remote sensing, or wanting to modernize your existing remote sensing program or curriculum, my opinion is that that a primary objective should be to help students (1) get excited about remote sensing so that they will want to continue their journey in it, and (2) provide some interesting and compelling activities that will enable them to begin investigations right away, and that will make them, later, want to pursue, with your guidance, the scientific foundations behind it as well as more advanced applications. Some ideas to get started in remote sensing are as follows: For Hour 1 in a workshop, or Week 1 in a course, start with my weird Earth set of images and teaching strategies to get students thinking spatially and asking spatial questions about patterns, relationships, and the whys of where,  here.   A section of the Weird Earth ArcGIS Online presentation.   Why is the vegetation on this island unique? For related videos on the Weird Earth theme, see the first three videos of mine in this list.   Another resource is to guide students through my "Name that Place" - Presentation  It is in video form, here.    "Name that Place" is in quiz form that guarantees engagement, interaction, and interest. Follow the above with a more detailed investigation of the Earth, using the Landsat Lens viewer to examine changes from natural and human causes: Landsat Lens     These causes could include volcanism, agriculture, the construction of dams and reservoirs, coastal erosion, glacial retreat, urbanization, mining, the shrinkage of lakes such as Lake Chad and the Aral Sea, evidence of political boundaries and differing land use on either side of the border, and many more.  Use the Landsat Explorer app to examine the Earth.  This tool allows you to build swipe maps to see change over time and with it, you can examine different band combinations, teaching the electromagnetic spectrum and other fundamental remote sensing concepts in the process: Landsat Explorer  Examine this real-time weather and maps lesson and maps, part of the Learn Lesson gallery: Predict Weather with Real-Time Data | Learn ArcGIS    Through this lesson, students will understand the importance of real-time satellite imagery, in this case, from NOAA, and products that can be derived from it. Examine the new European Data Portal that my colleague and I reviewed on our data blog for additional data: https://spatialreserves.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/european-data-portal-launched/ This blog also contains many other resources about remote sensing data, tools, and sources: remote sensing | Search Results | Spatial Reserves   These include the "top 7 sources for satellite imagery' and the "top 12 Landsat image sources and portals." For additional data, look at the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World under imagery.  Searching imagery on the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World. Next, dig deeper with some Esri tools.  These tools include Image Analyst, where you can dig into stereo imagery, deep learning image classification, and full motion video.  UAVs, or drones, have become an essential component in many remote sensing programs in higher education, and even are taught in some secondary schools.  Esri's Drone2Map (lesson here) solution and Site Scan.  Today, remote sensing is increasingly tied to Artificial Intelligence, which presents exciting new ways to teach and new career pathways for students.  Learn Lessons from Esri on remote sensing provide hands-on work and practice:   https://learn.arcgis.com/en/gallery/#?q=remote%20sensing&t=lesson   These use a variety of tools including ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online.  The IGETT Remote Sensing project set of lessons provide additional hands-on activities:   http://www.igettremotesensing.org/resources-for-instruction.html Longstanding tutorials, some of which are lacking in the newer tools but which provide solid foundations, are also useful.  For example, https://earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/remote-sensing  is NASA's excellent starting point.  In addition, https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/RemoteSensing is one I have used for years and years and is still useful.  Are textbooks still a relevant tool in modern remote sensing education?  I still have great respect for these foundational textbooks that have a place in instruction, including the following two books:  1) Jensen.  Remote Sensing of the Environment - An Earth Resource Perspective.    2) Lillesand & Kiefer's Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation book.  The Esri Press book Making Spatial decisions with Remote Sensing and GIS book was written by two colleagues of mine and provides useful activities and foundations: https://www.amazon.com/Making-Spatial-Decisions-Remote-Sensing/dp/1589483367  I hope this is helpful and I look forward your comments.   --Joseph Kerski ... 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In my last post, I discussed how to easily create compelling Cartograms in ArcGIS.  I would now like to point out one of the best things about the tool:  You are not confined to creating cartograms of variables by countries of the world.  Think outside the box!  You can create cartograms for any set of polygons that you choose!  A set of provinces or states, neighborhoods in your community, or even watersheds are all good candidates. Let's take population from 1900 to 2000 for a state, such as the great state of Kansas.  You and your students can certainly create standard choropleth maps showing the population each census year and even a animation to help visualize the changes.  But creating cartograms of the population in each county provides additional insight.  See the output from selected years, below.  The cartograms show the settlement of the high plains (western Kansas) from 1900 to 1930, followed by population loss that continues in some counties all the way to 2010.  Coupled with that is the rise of the urban centers of Wichita (south central Kansas) and Topeka, Lawrence, and Kansas City (northeast Kansas).  The combination of these trends, brought about by social, physical, and economic forces, squeeze some of the northern and western counties so much that they are almost invisible by 2010.  I've been to many of these counties, though, and rest assured that there are some vibrant communities and good people there! Think about doing this for your own area--population change in your own state over time, water quality or river flow differences by watershed, or crime rates or median age by neighborhood in your own community.  If you do this, I think it is advantageous if the readers of your cartograms know what the areas that you are analyzing look like as a standard map for comparison purposes.  Thus, you might consider providing this standard map at the front of your set of cartograms, as I do below.  That way, your audience will more readily understand how the variables you are mapping distort the "standard" way of looking at that area. The possibilities for increased spatial literacy and understanding with cartograms and ArcGIS are endless. State of Kansas - Counties and cities - Standard View Population in 1900 by county in Kansas. Many of the eastern and central Kansas counties had similar population totals. Population in 1930 by county in Kansas. The western third has now been settled, but the east continues to increase at a more rapid rate. Population in 1960 by county in Kansas. Many western counties have lost population or gained very little compared to the rise of the major urban centers of Wichita, Topeka, Lawrence, and Kansas City. Population in 2010 by county in Kansas. Urbanization continues, particularly Johnson County (suburban Kansas City) although selected rural counties are gaining population as well. ... View more

Cartograms are such a compelling teaching and research tool. Did you know that you can use ArcGIS Desktop to create cartograms? I wrote a short essay about that very thing here: https://blogs.esri.com/esri/gisedcom/2016/02/26/creating-cartograms-in-arcgis-desktop/ -- Joseph Kerski ... View more

Cartograms are such a compelling teaching and research tool. Did you know that you can use ArcGIS Desktop to create cartograms? I wrote a short essay about that very thing here: https://blogs.esri.com/esri/gisedcom/2016/02/26/creating-cartograms-in-arcgis-desktop/ ... View more

Cartograms, because they distort our expected view of mapped variables, are wonderfully rich tools for teaching and research.  They allow us to see relationships and trends that may not be evident in a typical choropleth map.  A distance cartogram shows relative travel times and directions within a network.  More common is an area cartogram, a map in which some variable is used instead of the land area in each polygon to determine the size of that polygon. I remember using graph paper to make rectangular area cartograms as an undergraduate (though I realize I am dating myself).  Today, one can use Web GIS and desktop GIS to create cartograms. For example, nearly 700 variables can be mapped on www.worldmapper.org, and the data can be downloaded as Excel spreadsheets and analyzed within ArcGIS. Let's say you wanted to dig deeper and make your own cartograms, with the ability to do further analysis within a GIS environment.  You can use the cartogram geoprocessing tool that my colleague Tom Gross at Esri created.  How can a GIS, which focuses on accurate spatial representations of features, be used to create cartograms? Download the tool and find out!  The tool also includes step-by-step instructions and a sample set of data. Once you install the cartogram tool, you simply run it to create the cartograms.  An intuitive interface allows specifying input and output.  You can even distort your base layers (such as the imagery shown below) so that your cartogram can include these as reference layers.  I did this for cities, a 30-degree world grid, and a satellite image of the Earth to see these reference layers overlaid on my cartogram. In this example, I chose to map the 2015 population by country.  Then, I mapped the total CO2 emissions by country in 2004, in millions of metric tons, from the US Energy Information Agency. What patterns do you notice? The cartogram map layer has to be written into a geodatabase, but otherwise, the tool has few restrictions. I am very pleased cartographically with the results, and the methodology of how these cartograms are generated is well documented:   These are Density-Equalizing Cartograms using methodology developed by Mark Newman and Michael Gastner at the University of Michigan. What other variables and at what other scales could you map and analyze as cartograms? Cartogram of World Population in 2015. Cartogram of C02 emissions in 2004, as a Map Layout. ... View more

One of our community asked: As I continue to attempt to convince one of my local school Districts to work with me on implementing a comprehensive plan to incorporate GST as an instructional tool, I have been asked another question I do not have an answer for.  Is there any research based studies/evidence which demonstrate that GST improves academic achievement and understanding.  I wrote:  We have been for years maintaining a GIS Education research bibliography: http://education.library.esri.com/ You might want to look at the works of these authors – Donna Goldstein, Sarah Bednarz, for starters. Joseph Kerski And some of the results of the SPLINT project in the UK: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/splint/ One of my colleagues wrote: Hi Marc, I am not aware of any direct links to show GST itself improves understanding/achievement but I usually look at it from the spatial thinking perspective (it’s not the GST itself – it’s the thinking behind it and how the material is presented to students), and there is research that shows that spatial thinking can improve academic achievement. This is an oldy but a goodie http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11019/learning-to-think-spatially-gis-as-a-support-system-in though there may be some newer research out there that others know about. Sarah Bednarz just gave a great webinar for NCGE on this concept. Maybe you can check out the archive. See also - http://www.nap.edu/catalog/9853/how-people-learn-brain-mind-experience-and-school-expanded-edition Lori Another colleague wrote: I actually did my Master’s research on this topic, and here are 2 references for you - an article co-written with Dr. Dawn Wright (for conference presentations) https://www.academia.edu/2912772/Using_Geovisualizations_in_the_Curriculum_Do_Multimedia_Tools_Enhance_Geography_Education and a longer version – research paper Using Educational Tools and Integrative Experiences via Geovisualizations that Incorporate Spatial Thinking, Real World Science and Ocean Literacy Standards in the Classroom: A Case Study Examined http://marinecoastalgis.net/michelle09 Enjoy! Michelle Michelle Kinzel, M.S., GISP [email protected] ... View more

Abductive reasoning (also called abduction, abductive inference or retroduction) is a form of logical inference that goes from an observation to a hypothesis that accounts for the observation. It ideally seeks to find the simplest and most likely explanation. In abductive reasoning, unlike in deductive reasoning, the premises do not guarantee the conclusion. One can understand abductive reasoning as "inference to the best explanation".  The fields of law,  computer science, and artificial intelligence research have renewed interest in the subject of abduction.  Abductive reasoning can be effectively taught through spatial thinking and analysis with the use of GIS technology.  Through the overlaying, swiping, symbolizing, and classification of maps and imagery in a GIS, students are encouraged to make observations about the patterns, relationships, and trends, or -- even the lack of pattern.  They can then form a hypothesis about why the pattern exists and how it came to be.  They can then test that hypothesis against the data, by running a set of spatial statistical techniques, by testing different models, by symbolizing and classifying the data in different ways, and by examining different regions of the world at different scales, testing whether the relationship holds in all regions and scales, or just some. All of this is what I find most valuable about GIS:  It is one of those few tools that allow for inquiry, investigation, hypothesis testing, changing the variable(s) analyzed, all in a single environment.  It also, simultaneously, allows for the planning, collection, analysis, and communication of data and research with tools such as Survey123 and QuickCapture, ArcGIS Online and Pro, story maps and other web mapping applications, and operations dashboard.  Consider the example below from a GIS-based investigation:  Say after observing the map that the student's hypothesis is that the savanna regime division is generally characterized by higher population densities in East Africa.  Then, that student can investigate such questions as:  Does the savanna suffer from biodiversity loss to a greater degree than less populous ecoregions?  What are other factors that can help explain the pattern of population density in this area? At a larger scale, is population density still higher in the savanna than other ecoregions?  Why or why not?    About my note above about the "lack of pattern":  Oftentimes I notice when working with students that if there is no discernible geographic pattern, they think that their analysis or data are invalid.  Not necessarily!  When working with GIS, you are using real world data, describing real world phenomena, with all of its inherent complexities and limitations.  There may be no spatial pattern to that phenomena.  But that doesn't make the phenomena less interesting, relevant, or important.  The lack of spatial pattern should lead you to ask additional questions!  For more, see my video.  I look forward to your comments! --Joseph Kerski Examining ecoregions and population density in a GIS environment (ArcGIS Online). ... View more

This map in ArcGIS Online shows snow cover for the globe as it changes throughout the course of the year.  The patterns the map reveals is fascinating.  What is the effect of latitude on snow cover?  How does snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere compare to that in the Southern Hemisphere?  Which month had more snow on the ground than any other, in Canada, versus in Sweden?  What is the effect of elevation on snow cover?  During a specific month, which of the world's major cities had snow on the ground?  Measure the extent in square kilometers for each of the months for specific countries and graph your results. This map features NASA’s Next Generation Blue Marble imagery in a set of 12 monthly composite images of the entire earth, using 500-meter-resolution imagery from the MODIS satellite.  More information is available than just the snow cover.  These monthly images reveal other seasonal changes on the land surface, such as the greening up and dying back of vegetation in the temperate regions such as North America and Europe, and the dry and wet seasons in the tropics.  The Blue Marble Next Generation imagery was produced by Reto Stöckli, NASA Earth Observatory (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center).  The data is from 2004.  For more information about this data layer, see this description.  The data layer can be added to any map that you are analyzing in ArcGIS Online, and compared to other data layers, such as mean annual precipitation, or ecoregions.   If you prefer to show the data as a web mapping application, see this app. How might you use this map and its information in your instruction? Seasonal changes map in ArcGIS Online. ... View more

In an article in Directions Magazine, I describe five forces catapulting geography onto the world stage.  These five forces, including geo-awareness, geo-enablement, geotechnologies, citizen science, and storytelling, are transforming the audience for geography and the way geography is taught and perceived. After I describe each of these forces and why they matter, I define in the article what I consider to be the three legs of the "geoliteracy stool" - (1) content knowledge, (2) skills, and (3) the geographic perspective.  I then ask, "Is geoliteracy becoming increasingly valued?  What role can and should teaching and learning with GIS play in geoliteracy? How can the community seize the opportunity that these five forces represent to foster geoliteracy and promote the use of GIS and spatial thinking at all levels of education?" I look forward to hearing your comments. Five converging global trends that present geography with new global opportunities (Kerski, 2016). ... View more

What is a spatial citizen?  It has been defined as "An individual who has the motivation, knowledge, skills, and competencies to access and reason with geo-information in order to participate in democratic processes."  (Adapted from  I. Gryl, T. Jekel, and K. Donert, 2010).   Are we as the geospatial education community, encouraging students to become spatial citizens? Emerging research on spatial citizenship seeks to understand how the education community can best do that. But how can the geospatial education community best equip educators so that they can promote such participation?   Most researchers agree that helping students to develop geotechnology skills is only part of the solution.  Skills in spatial thinking, coping with geospatial information, communicating with that information, and developing critical thinking skills with regard to problem solving and to data are all just as important as the technical skills.  Indeed, all of these are skills we have written about in this blog.  How can educators new to the field develop competencies to teach these skills, and how can experienced educators continue to sharpen their skills? To help answer these questions, researchers Uwe Schulze, Inga Gryl, and Detlef Kanwischer developed a spatial citizenship competence model for teacher education and training.  It includes instrumental competence (such as methodological and technological skills), interpersonal competence (such as interaction and cooperation skills), and systemic competence (such as how to teach these skills most effectively).  The model contains six major dimensions:  1.  Technology and methodology.  2.  Reflection.  3. Communication.  4.  Spatial domain. 5.  Citizenship education.  6.  Implementation strategies. The authors argue that such a model shifts from focusing on subject-specific GIS content to the use of geospatial technology and spatial representations within everyday digital geomedia environments in a multifaceted, reflective way.  They go on to say that digital geomedia is a new interdisciplinary language that is spoken in a variety of subjects.  I don't think we are quite to the point where this is universally recognized throughout education and society, but there are encouraging signs. For more information, see the review we wrote about the book Learning and Teaching with Geomedia, which includes chapters about this topic, and the Spatial Citizenship website. Spatial Citizenship. ... View more

I wrote about this recently in the Spatial Reserves data blog: Data Management Tips in ArcGIS Online | GIS Education Community --Joseph Kerski ... View more