Latest Contributions by JosephKerski

A staggering amount of literature exists about the use of technology in the classroom.  But what sort of technology?  This may sound obvious,  but I am interested in fostering the use of meaningful technologies in education.  Just because a technology exists does not in my mind mean that we need to dedicate valuable class time on it - it has to meet educational goals, foster inquiry, allow students to be creative and to solve problems, provide important career and life skills, for example.  I believe that using geospatial technologies with spatial thinking, including GIS, is not just interesting, but is a critically tool and perspective for 21st Century education and society. A recent survey by digedu.com found that 50% of K-12 teachers get inadequate support for using technology in the classroom.   Matt Tullman, co-founder and president of digedu. said, “It is critical that we move quickly to address barriers to meaningful use of technology in schools so that students are equipped with the digital fluency necessary to succeed in our global economy.”  I agree.  My colleagues and I on the Esri education team are dedicated to doing all we can in partnership with the global geospatial education community to reduce barriers to the use of technology in the classroom.   In the survey, 46% reported that they lack the training needed to use technology effectively with students.  By authoring tutorials, videos, short essays in this blog and elsewhere, providing face-to-face professional development at conferences such as AAG and NSTA and in institutes such as T3G, lessons, supporting educational research, and via other means, we hope to help reduce that gap.  The evolution of GIS onto the cloud through ArcGIS Online seems to break down many technological barriers, such as software installation and computer lab maintenance.  Other challenges remain, but I have been very encouraged recent progress of the use of GIS tools in education.  For example, the St Vrain Valley School District in Colorado is starting a semester-long GIS course in their STEM program, incorporating ArcGIS into their AP Human Geography course at the high school, and using ArcGIS in their history, geography, and language arts curriculum at the middle school level. The survey also found that 93% percent reported that technology has a positive effect on student engagement.  We have witnessed the deep engagement that students have when using geospatial technologies in the classroom and in the field, such as using 2D and 3D maps and visualizations, collecting and analyzing their own data, and communicating their results in multimedia-rich ways to their instructors, peers, and community groups. Educators, administrators, and students are embracing geospatial technologies as never before.  Why? Educational, societal, and technological forces are all playing a role, such STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) education, career and technology education, critical thinking, the geo-location of everyday devices, an increased awareness of the value of spatial thinking, improved bandwidth, problem-based learning, and others. GIS is being incorporated into the St Vrain Valley School District STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) program. What can we collectively do as a community to continue to break down barriers to the use of these powerful and easy-to-use tools to enhance and enrich education? ... View more

One question that we frequently receive here on the Esri education team is, "What is the size of the geospatial industry?"  Whether the question is asked in reference to a paper someone is researching, or because someone wants to obtain a sense of the "stability"of the industry when deciding whether to pursue GIScience for their career, or for some other reason, the question is a valid one, but it is difficult to definitively answer. Up through the mid 1990s, while employed at the USGS, I used to consult an annual paper book on the size of GIS to answer this question.  Back then, it was a modest sized community of government, academia, nonprofit, and industry who were involved with producing, serving, and using geospatial data, software, and services.  But since then we have seen an explosion of geospatial technologies and data surround us in many forms and on many devices, and an expansion of users far beyond the traditional sciences and planning "core" into business, health, and just about every industry that exists.  This makes answering the question increasingly difficult.  It might be akin to "what is the size of the chemical, transportation, or <you fill in the blank" industries?"  All are enormous and have fuzzy boundaries. Nevertheless, a few documents are helpful in at least getting an estimate of the size of the geospatial industry.   Geospatial World reported in their December 2013 issue on page 18 and following that the global geospatial industry brings in $270 billion in annual revenue, and companies in the sector pay more than $90 billion in wages each year.  This stemmed from a report published by Oxera in January 2013.  Equally interesting are the figures of how much travel time is saved annually due to geospatial technology (1.1 billion) and petrol saved (3.5 billion liters).  According to the Oxera report, this means that geospatial is 5 to 10 times larger than the video game industry, and at least one third the size of the global airline industry.  Geospatial is so large because "digital imagery and location-based services are essential components in resource management, supply chain logistics, infrastructure design, telecommunications, and national defense.  Also consider the manufacturing industry involved with creating consumer products, as well as the satellite and space industry needed to make it all work."  Additionally, Geospatial World author Sanjay wrote this article about the business value and the major technology and solution companies. Finally, Daratech has researched and published comprehensive surveys of the size of the geospatial industry. One way of getting a sense of the size and diversity of the geospatial industry is to visit the Exhibit Hall at the Esri International User Conference. I am amazed at what I see there each year.  Another way is to visit http://www.esri.com/industries. No matter what the size of the geospatial industry, one thing is clear:  Geospatial technology is here to stay.  As our world faces more complex and interconnected issues in this century that increasingly impact our everyday lives, the "where" questions will be increasingly asked.  And the technology to answer those questions will be GIS. ... View more

One of our colleagues and leaders in spatial thinking in education, Dr. Diana Stuart Sinton, has written a book entitled The People's Guide to Spatial Thinking, along with colleagues Sarah Bednarz, Phil Gersmehl, Robert Kolvoord, and David Uttal.  As the name implies, the book provides an accessible and readable way for students, educators, and even the general public to understand what spatial thinking is and why it matters.  It "help us think across the geographies of our life spaces, physical and social spaces, and intellectual space."  Dr. Sinton pulls selections from the NRC's Learning to Think Spatially report and ties them to everyday life.  In so doing, she also provides ways for us in the educational community to think about teaching these concepts and skills in a variety of courses.   Indeed, as she points out, spatial thinking is particularly essential within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, as well as geography. The People's Guide to Spatial Thinking. Particularly because spatial thinking has no established "home" in the curriculum, I believe this book is an important contribution to help educators and everyone realize how and why these concepts are critically important to 21st Century education and society.  I also believe that tools such as geotechnologies that are now easily available to teach spatial thinking skills and concepts merit serious consideration in the curriculum at many different levels and in many different disciplines.  I highly encourage you to order the book from the National Council for Geographic Education, read it, and comment on this blog post in terms of your reactions to it. ... View more

If you are a reader of this blog and are an advocate of the use of GIS in education, it should be obvious by now that live web maps, many of which are powered by ArcGIS Online, are all around us.  They can be used in a variety of ways to enhance teaching and learning.  But did you also know that an expanding number of them are tied to live webcams?   The examples below represent a small fraction of these; I encourage you to share your own favorites by commenting on this blog. I created storymaps of Bruges, Belgium, and the Front Range of Colorado.  In each map, select the webcams tab to examine such places as The Markt and the foothills near Golden to teach about current weather, landforms, land use, climate, cultural diversity, vegetation, and more. The following maps were created by my colleague here at Esri, Matt Artz, who runs his own excellent blog on GIS and science. You can use the Oregon State University's Facilities Dashboard to see what's happening on campus, but also for inspiration for the storymaps that you might build for your own campus. Use the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Health Advisories by Country live web map as a useful resource in planning your next trip, but also for a good model on how to build a storymap with thumbnail maps and web sites instead of photographs. Use the Owens Valley Live Dustcams storymap to teach about landforms, climate, current weather, and the influence of human activity and natural conditions on air quality.   You could do something similar for a larger region using The High Sierra web map, which features webcams pointing at highways and even ski runs!  Or, to examine ecoregions, vegetation, climate, land use, and landforms of some of the most spectacular areas of the entire USA, use this live web map of The National Parks (shown below). Monitor headlines around the world with this storymap linked to current headlines of newspapers, and consider why certain regions' newspapers have the headlines they do, and which stories are common to multiple locations. One of my favorite maps gives you the ability to monitor current conditions of oceans and ports using the Our Oceans storymap.  Or, use the Volcanoes of the World story map as part of your unit on investigating different types of volcanoes, where they exist, and the threats they pose. The Colorado National Monument from The National Parks story map. One of my all time favorite parks. OK, I'm biased--I spent a lot of time hiking here as a child. What could you do with these and other live web maps linked to webcams? ... View more

Dr Sandra Lach Arlinghaus and I have co-written a book entitled Spatial Mathematics—Theory and Practice Through Mapping, published by CRC Press/Taylor & Francis.  Spatial mathematics draws on the theoretical underpinnings of both mathematics and geography.  Spatial mathematics draws from geometry, topology, graph theory, trigonometry, modern algebra, symbolic logic, set theory, and more.  To build bridges between mathematics and geography, each of the book’s 10 chapters begins with theoretical discussions that form the bridge foundation, and activities that form the span between the two disciplines.  It can be used as a text in geography, GIS, or mathematics courses at the university or community college level, and by researchers interested in these intersections, and by GIS practitioners who seek deeper insight into the mathematics behind their spatial analysis. Spatial Mathematics book. Our table of contents includes 10 chapters: 1.  Geometry of the Sphere 2.  Location, Trigonometry, and Measurement of the Sphere 3.  Transformations: Analysis and Raster/Vector Formats 4.  Replication of Results: Color and Number 5.  Scale 6.  Partitioning of Data: Classification and Analysis 7.  Visualizing Hierarchies 8.  Distribution of Data: Selected Concepts 9.  Map Projections 10.  Integrating Past, Present, and Future Approaches The book also includes a Glossary, References, Further Reading, and Related Materials.Waldo Tobler of the University of California Santa Barbara, wrote, “Two ancient texts had a profound and lasting impact on the literate world—Euclid’s Elements, and the rediscovery in the 1400s of Ptolemy’s Geography from AD 150. […]  Now, in this book, additional insight for the mathematical solution of geographical tasks is provided. The pedagogical orientation is especially worthy of comment.”  Michael Batty, of the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London, wrote “Teaching mathematics can be tough but here is a book that is a gentle introduction to the mathematics of the spatial world through the medium of mapping.  The use of QR codes to access additional map-based material is clever and innovative, and provides a nice link to the very technologies that this mathematics supports.” Michael Goodchild, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, wrote that “Mathematics underpins geography in many ways, especially in this new era of computerized mapping and geographic information systems. Geography can also be an exciting and relevant way of teaching many of the basic concepts of mathematics, from geometry and topology to statistics. So this book on spatial mathematics as applied to mapping is both timely and welcome. The wealth of practical examples and the enthusiasm of its authors will fill an important niche in a mapping literature that often underplays the importance and relevance of mathematics.”    Marc Schlossberg of the University of Oregon, wrote, “This book is both all about the map and all about the math behind the map, using what has become ubiquitous on our smart phones and in our vehicles as a vehicle itself to teach complex concepts accessible, meaningful, and useful for students." ... View more

Sean Cavanagh, writing for Education Week, highlights 6 different kinds of technology and tech practices that are likely to become increasingly important in K-12 school systems over the next few years.  In addition, the Horizon Report’s 2013 K-12 Edition, discusses those technologies in more detail, and also describes barriers to the effective use of technology. The report was released by the New Media Consortium, an international organization focused on educational technology, as well as the Consortium for School Networking and the International Society for Technology in Education.  Its findings are based on the opinions and analyses of school and college technology officials, business representatives from companies around the world, and others. The report states that in the near term, mobile technologies have an expanding presence in school, growth driven by “bring-your-own-device” policies, the rise of mobile apps and other tools, and a strong interest from the private sector in developing new technologies.  Cloud computing is already being used by schools today, and more are turning to that option as a way to outsource portions of their technology infrastructure. In the mid-term, learning analytics, or the field focused on making sense of trends and patterns using “big data"--huge amounts of student-related data, is likely to grow. Data analysis is being used to help struggling learners and to help tailor curricula to student needs.  The use of open content was once largely confined to higher education, but now more organizations are developing those free, flexible materials for K-12 schools. That’s partly a response to “an expression of student choice about when and how to learn,” the Horizon report says. In the far-term, 3-D printing has the potential to help schools introduce students to the design process, help schools create materials that demonstrate concepts, and make classrooms more creative places.  Virtual and remote laboratories can allow schools to use wireless networks, cloud-based software, and mobile devices to bring scientific experiences to schools that have only limited labs. The authors also note potential stumbling blocks on the horizon. Today’s technology in schools doesn’t do enough to support personalized learning, for instance. And professional development to implement new technology is often lacking, they say. Collecting spatial data in the field. I see many ways that geotechnology fits into these trends.  Today's GIS allows students to use a variety of devices not only to create and examine web-based maps, but to collect data in the field.  It thus easily incorporates virtual and remote laboratories and the "bring your own device" model.  ArcGIS is a cloud computing platform that supports an ever-expanding array of functions, map layers, and applications.  The ArcGIS platform is beginning to be embedded into open content and learning management system architecture.  When I read the sentences I have just written, and think back to where GIS in education was just a few years ago, I am amazed.  We have more and easier-to-use data sets and tools at our fingertips than ever before.  Could we be at the tipping point where GIS will soon be adopted on an order of magnitude larger than what we have seen up now? Not only does GIS fit well with these trends, but I would argue that for the future of our students, we can't just sit around and hope that GIS spreads throughout education at all levels and in all disciplines.  I feel we must as a community take active steps to ensure that GIS and spatial thinking are embedded into an envisioned future of primary and secondary education.  GIS is well connected to educational content standards, fosters critical thinking, is by its nature created to be an investigative, problem-based set of tools and approaches, and develops skills that are in increasing demand in the workplace.  However, the most important reason we need to promote GIS is, I believe, that we face critical global issues in the 21st Century, all of which are geospatial issues that can be examined through the spatial perspective using GIS.  We simply must equip decision makers with the tools and perspectives necessary for them to be able to make the wisest decisions possible for the benefit of people and the planet. ... View more

A number of years ago, our colleague in geography from the University of Missouri, Professor Kit Salter, created a rubric that encouraged students to truly observe and learn from their observation.  Dr Salter called it "O, SAE, can you see?" Each letter in this phrase is laden with meaning.  The "O" stands for Observation, because all geography and the study of landscape must begin with an articulate expression of what you are looking at, or what landscape problem you are considering.  The "S" stands for Speculation -- about why the landscape being observed looks the way it does.  Dr Salter  promotes speculation as a strand of critical thinking because "you have to look at visual evidence and try to determine what factors--economic, aesthetic, political, technological, and so on, seem dominant in the creation of that scene/seen" (Salter, personal communication). O SAE, can you see? Fountain Formation sandstone, photo by Joseph Kerski. The "A" stands for Analysis.  Part of the "O, SAE" exercise is determining what evidence is not  available simply through O and S.  Interviews might be required.  A list of questions that could be taken to the library or to a local realtor or long-time resident would help learn what is trying to be understood.   A can also stand for Answers, which come from observing, speculating, and grappling with the issues.  However, students need to realize that for many complex issues, there is no single correct answer.  The "E" stands for Evaluation.  Does this particular landscape phenomenon make sense?  Is what is observed environmentally sustainable?  Does the situation serve the community?  How can it be studied more effectively?  Dr Salter commented that this simple rubric worked not only in the field but also with in-class discussion or presentations, as well as with passages from prose or objective description.  He used it with primary school field trips through graduate seminars. I believe that geospatial technologies can be effectively used to bring out the themes of "O SAE can you see".  Students can use geospatial technologies such as GIS, and ArcGIS Online in particular, to map their own field-collected data, to analyze geographic variables from local to global scale, and to build richly illustrated story maps that communicate their research project's results.  Students can share the maps they have created and embed them into slideshows and websites. I believe that "O, SAE can you see?" provides an easy-to-remember and helpful framework for instruction.  But as Dr Salter remarked, perhaps a better one is "O, SAE what can you see?" ... View more

Can you build an Esri Story Map in 15 minutes?  Yes!  The map I created in that amount of time shows my walk from the San Diego Convention Center to the San Diego airport.  I was in that wonderful city for the Esri Education GIS Conference and the Esri International User Conference.  Walk?  Yes, the San Diego airport is one of the few airports that you can actually walk to, and doable in just under an hour (I must admit I got a bit sweaty while wearing my map tie and dragging my luggage).  I wanted to use that walking time to reflect upon all that I had learned at the conferences, enjoy the harbor views one last time before departing, and use it as a test case for creating a Story Map. Walking to the San Diego Airport: Story Map. First, I turned on my smartphone and fired up RunKeeper, a fitness app.  I took a few photos of the convention center and harbor along the way with that same phone.  I emailed those photos to my Google Plus/Picasaweb account's public dropbox.  Once at the airport gate, I saved my route as a GPX file, uploaded it to ArcGIS Online, and published my map as a Story Map web application.  I pointed to the location of my photographs, added some captions, and I was done. Since returning to the office, I have resisted the temptation to edit my map to make it look just a little bit nicer, because that would defeat my purpose.  My purpose was to illustrate that (1) Esri Story Maps can be created to tell just about any conceivable type of story, and that (2) they can be quickly generated, even at a crowded airport gate!  What story of your own can you make a map of using these techniques? ... View more

I recently created a set of activities based on using web-based GIS tools to teach spatial thinking using drive-time buffers, a set of activities that use viewsheds as a teaching tool, another on the use of zonal statistics, another on analyzing the best route to a facility, and another on routing around barriers.  They are all free, easy to use, powerful, based on Esri technology, and they foster spatial thinking. Analyzing supermarket access in ArcGIS Online. Now let's open this map that incorporates point, line, and polygon data and some of the spatial analysis techniques that you have been exploring using the above blog lessons and web maps.  This map shows access to supermarkets.  The supermarkets have been buffered for walking (1 mile) and driving (10 minutes).  People in poverty with low access and farmers markets are also shown.  Notice how the symbology changes as you zoom out of Detroit to the county level.  Find, zoom to, and study your own community and compare it to Detroit.  What is the purpose of this map that you have been examining?  Why is access to supermarkets a concern to society?  What are the patterns of access in your own community, or the neighborhoods across town? Turn on the map layer indicating food expenditures at home versus away from home. Examine the details for this map layer so you will understand what it means. How have the spatial analysis techniques you have been exploring using the maps above been used to create this map?  What about the map's symbology do you find interesting, useful, or even confusing?  Why?  How could you use this map as a teaching and learning tool? ... View more

I recently created a set of activities based on using web-based GIS tools to teach spatial thinking using drive-time buffers, a set of activities that use viewsheds as a teaching tool, another on the use of zonal statistics, and another on analyzing the best route to a facility.  Each of these shares common elements:  They are all based on Esri GIS technology.  They are all free, easy to use, powerful, and they foster spatial thinking.  Let's use another GIS tool to investigate routing around barriers.  Barriers may be physical, such as ridges or rivers, or they may be a human construct or consequence, such as one-way streets, road repair, or an accident. Routing around barriers Examine the routing around barriers mapping application.  Let's say you are running a bicycle courier service in downtown San Diego.  Your pick up point is at 1 st Avenue and Market Street.  Your destination is at 10 th Avenue and Market Street.  Add these 2 stops and have the map calculate your route, shown in blue.  But now say there is construction at 7 th Avenue and Market.  Use Add Barriers and add a barrier at 7 th Avenue and Market (3 blocks due west of 10 th and Market). What changed on your map after you added a barrier, and why?  Experiment with additional barriers in different locations around downtown San Diego.  Zoom out and repeat the operation with a slightly different scenario at this new scale:  Now you're in a truck filled with trees that you must deliver around metropolitan San Diego.  How can you most efficiently deliver your trees to 4 urban gardens around the city?  Add barriers and observe how they change your route's pattern.  How much additional time do you estimate would be required to make your deliveries with these new barriers? How might you be able to use this tool in your instruction to foster spatial thinking? ... View more

I recently created a set of activities based on using web-based GIS tools to teaching spatial thinking using drive-time buffers, another set of activities that use viewsheds, and another on the use of zonal statistics.    Typical modern GIS tasks also include determining the best route and the closest facilities to specific locations.  This is important for a wide range of applications, from emergency services bringing people in an ambulance to the nearest hospital to the nearest competitor to your planned new bicycle rental facility. Finding the Route and the Closest Facility to a chosen point. Open this web map and click somewhere on the map in northeastern San Francisco that represents a location where let's say you are currently located.  What is the closest facility to your chosen point?  Change the choice under the map to find the routes for the 1 closest facility to a point to 2 closest facilities. Two routes are shown in this image; I selected one of them, highlighted in cyan, and the directions are given for this route. This tool is easy to run with the above link and yet can lead to so many wonderful discussions about the Can you think of real-world situations where a route to two or more closest facilities would be needed from a given point, besides the emergency and bicycle examples I gave above?  Name them and discuss why this type of analysis is so critical to our 21st Century world. ... View more

I recently created a set of activities based on using web-based GIS tools to teaching spatial thinking using drive-time buffers, and another set of activities that use viewsheds.   Another type of spatial analysis computes and summarizes data from points, lines, or polygons, and is called “zonal statistics.”  To easily use an application of zonal statistics, use this map to summarize population in specific areas. Calculating the population of the Atlanta area with zonal statistics tool. After accessing the map, click "Summarize Population" in the  lower left section of the map and then draw a polygon that encompasses Atlanta, Georgia. What is the population of the Atlanta area?  Why is your result likely to be different each time you draw the polygon?  How does the population of an area of similar size in rural Georgia compare to the population of Atlanta?  How does the population of an area of similar size in rural Wyoming compare to rural Georgia?  Compare your counts to areas of similar sizes in the Ganges River basin in India, or to an area in the Sahara Desert.  Why is the base data that is being used for the population counts critical to the specific results you receive from these calculations?  Test the results over the ocean:  Do the counts total zero? How might you be able to use this tool in teaching and learning about issues of map projections, data quality, zonal statistics, and other spatial concepts? ... View more