Latest Contributions by CharlieFitzpatrick

In summer 2012, teachers sufficiently skilled in desktop GIS could let an anonymous user create point data in an online map. I demonstrated this in the blog "Crowdsource Your Fieldwork," using a "breakfast beverage map." At the time, it was exciting, but tedious; documenting the steps to create a feature service, publish it, make it accessible in an app, and test it required a lengthy doc. Today, creating a vastly better experience is really easy, all online, on a PC/Mac/Chrome device, for viewing and doing also on tablet or even smartphone, using Map Viewer, Survey123, Dashboard, and StoryMap ... tools provided free to schools in the ArcGIS School Bundle. Especially in times of school disruption and social distancing, educators may find the process particularly engaging for learners (of any age), since they get to generate data and see their results quickly, and in different ways. Educators can experience this by recording your current situation via https://arcg.is/2xU1cjd, in a separate tab. Click to see StoryMap Construction was a basic design experience: Conceive, sketch, build-test-tweak-repeat, release. The workflow in this case was: Conceive the end product (the storymap as the container, with a survey feeding a map feeding a dashboard). What end product data should users be able to explore? How will they be able to explore? What data need to be generated, in what format? Identify the products needed (the survey, the map, the dashboard, the story map) and the components to engage in each step. Build, in this case, as follows: Design the survey questions and choices, optimizing for "valuable data" (in a format the dashboard could make dance) and ease of use for the survey taker. Submit enough test data so each possible choice is engaged at least once. Set permissions of the survey. Generate a new map with the test survey data; symbolize the data, set the popups, set the bookmarks; save the map, share the map to a dashboard. Build the dashboard components, optimizing for power and interest; configure interactivity. Build the story map, optimizing for ease of use, engagement, and power. Share all components and test each step and link as an anonymous user. Delete all test data. Release and promote. As usual, the hard part is conceiving the end product with enough clarity to build efficiently. It takes some familiarity with each of the tools in order to see how they work together, just like in cooking a family meal, planning an event, or building a doghouse benefit from some previous practice. Participate in/ View/ Study the story map and process above and see if you -- or, better yet, your students -- can replicate the process with something simple ... even just asking people their location, age, gender, and favorite breakfast beverage. ... View more

An excellent how-to blog by Bernie Szukalski for adding a collection of photos into your ArcGIS Online contents and then onto a map as a feature layer. ... View more

There is a survey that educators can participate in (designed for school teachers in US K12, but relevant for others). It combines four tools in one experience: a Survey123 form that feeds an ArcGIS Online map that feeds an ArcGIS Dashboard, all on a StoryMap. See http://bit.ly/2xU1cjd or click the image below. ... View more

Last week (see Fun with GIS 262) I posted strategies for schools to consider when disruption happens. School closings (and more) across the states (and globally) in the wake of Coronavirus/COVID-19 call for even more attention. Since many people are hurriedly shifting instructional tactics, here are some frequently asked questions. Q: "I see on the Esri Schools map (https://arcg.is/usk12gis) that our school has software, but nobody knows who. How do we learn who has it?" A: Email "schools@esri.com" with school name, city, state, and zip, and we can help connect you. Q: "We received software. How do I set up logins for students and teachers?" A: The ArcGIS Online Organization first needs to be "activated" (a three-step process), then the Org admin can set up logins. See guidance in https://esriurl.com/agoorgsforschools. Pay attention to "single sign-on and CSV." People will use these logins constantly, so be thoughtful about this process, do it carefully, and document what you do. Q: "One of my students can't see his content when he logs in." A: Ensure the student has logged into the proper location. Students MIGHT also have created their own public login as well, and gotten the two confused. After logging in, what does the URL show to the left of "arcgis.com"? Does it look like "www.arcgis.com" or like "XYZ.maps.arcgis.com"? The first is public ArcGIS.com, the second is an Organization. A single email address can be used for multiple logins. Just like if you have two accounts at a single bank/store/socialmedia/etc, make sure you log into the correct one. Q: "Students and teachers alike forget logins and passwords and we don't have 'single sign-on.' How do we help them out?" A: There are three possible steps to try, in sequence. STEP1: Go to https://www.arcgis.com/home/troubleshoot.html and enter your email address to get a list of usernames attached to that address. (If the user's email is not used in the username profile, the user should confer with the Org admin.) STEP2: Go to https://www.arcgis.com/home/troubleshoot.html and request a password reset for a given username. If the username had been operational, an email with a link will be sent to the email address attached to that username (might be the user, or the Org admin, or an email alias, depending on how the Org was set up). Click the link in that email to establish a new password (must be sufficiently strong), and record what password is established! STEP3: If either step above doesn't work, contact "accounts@esri.com," and clarify the situation (provide school name/city/state/ZIP, Org admin name and email, user's name and email, etc), and wait for a human to respond. Q: "The info from the troubleshooting page says 'Esri access not enabled.' What do I do?" A: There are two important locations for Esri technology. Those including “arcgis.com” are sites where mapping happens. Those including “esri.com” are sites about mapping. "Esri access not enabled" does not mean a username is locked out from making maps; it just means that ArcGIS Online Org admins have not granted to that particular username the permission to sign into special places on esri.com, such as to converse on GeoNet (community.esri.com), or to take courses on Esri's Training site (esri.com/training). That username may still make maps, publish data, and share items, to the limit allowed by the Org admin. The default setting for any new arcgis.com username is "Esri access disabled" (even for the admin), and an admin must proactively change that if s/he wants to allow those special privileges. See "Managing Esri Access" (p.30) of https://esriurl.com/agoorgsforschools. See also https://doc.arcgis.com/en/arcgis-online/reference/faq.htm#anchor8 Q: "Some users in our Org have an 'Analysis' button and some do not. How do I let others do analysis?" A: Doing analysis is a process that generates services, which get stored in one's contents. That process requires the user to have a role in ArcGIS Online with "publishing privileges." Org Admins and the standard "Publisher" role can publish, and thus do analysis; other roles lack that privilege. Custom roles might or might not have received the privilege. See https://esriurl.com/agoorgsforschools (p.9-11 and the links to the online help). Q: "We have our logins, but can't figure out how kids can collaborate on a project." A: See the summary in Fun with GIS 227. That document does not mention the new StoryMap template but the same rules apply. There are ways to collaborate; you just need to know what works and what doesn't. Q: "How do I know that each student actually did his or her own work?" It's always hard to tell anytime you're not seeing the activities being done. Note the usernames attached to contents. If students work in groups, have them comment on their portion, and how it looks and works, and comment on others' components. Have students do a project storyboard first, then individual tasks: design, creation, analysis, documentation. Easiest, everyone does their own project. Q: "We made a spreadsheet and saved it as a CVS {sic} file but it won't drag and drop on the map or even add to contents like I've seen people do. What gives?" A: See this doc: https://esriurl.com/tabletime. This is usually a sign of an improperly constructed CSV (comma separated values) file. A good table needs correct structure, carefully adhered to in each cell. Q: "Where can I find good instruction to learn to do cool things with ArcGIS Online?" A: There are multiple resources, depending on how much you know, how much time you can spend, and what you want to learn. See: https://esriurl.com/funwithgis262 ((Last week's blog on disrupted instruction)) https://www.esri.com/training/Bookmark/FKGMX8NF6 ((Training: ArcGIS Online: Getting Started items)) https://teachwithgis.com (("Teach with"-focused portion of learn.arcgis.com)) https://learn.arcgis.com/en/paths/getting-started-path-for-teachers/ ((Path for Teachers in learn.arcgis.com)) https://k12.maps.arcgis.com ((K12 Org)) [And, as of April 01, 2020] https://mappinghour-k12.hub.arcgis.com ((Mapping Hour)) ... View more

Disruptions come in all magnitudes, durations, formats, causes, and degree of foreseeability. After coping with life trauma and handling the logistics around disruptions great and small, how can GIS help students engage in school, learn, even progress? Esri provides schools and districts a great raft of free content, tools, and instructional activities that teachers and students can use, together or separately. Here are some options. If the students don’t have ArcGIS Online logins available… 1. For the teacher: Visit esri.com/schools. Explore “Instructional Resources” first, then “Educator Support.” Open the “Getting Started for Educators” item and go through #1-9 in sequence, quickly, and eventually through #15. In #14, determine if the school/district has software, and, if not, request software for the school. Use the “AGO Orgs for Schools” doc to guide implementation and set up student logins. Meanwhile, continue with items below. 2. Have students go through a GeoInquiries activity of relevance, using the prepared text or teacher-generated instructions. (If you have not used GeoInquiries, see the GeoInquiries StoryMap. If this is students' first time with GeoInquiries, have them first watch the “About GeoInquiries” video.) Have them arrange the map to show what they choose, create three screenshots, annotate the screenshots If desired using image software, and use a word processor to assemble the images into a story with explanatory text. 3. Have students use ArcGIS Online Map Viewer to assemble a single map of personal content, with a set of Map Notes (points, lines, areas, text) about a specific topic (e.g. personal history, review of previous topic, item of personal interest, etc). Create screenshots with specific assemblages of content displayed (turned “on”), and use a word processor to assemble the screenshots into a story with text. 4. Have students explore the collection of public Story Maps, use one or more as content to study, take appropriate screenshots, and use a word processor to construct a summary. 5. Have students explore four Story Maps (one each of four different formats) from the public gallery and create a summary of characteristics and capacities noticed within the technology. What techniques tend to yield effective story maps? 6. From the results of the ArcGIS Online Competition for US HS+MS Students, have students explore four different story maps. What commonalities exist in the state and national awardees? What are some situations in which a student could have been more successful with a different technique? If the students have ArcGIS Online logins available… 7. Have students go through a GeoInquiries activity, then save the map into their contents, then build a Presentation of at least 3 frames explaining the importance of the content and the patterns and relationships visible. 8. Have students assemble a “personal map and Presentation”: Use Map Viewer to assemble a single map of their choice, creating or uploading or accessing data, then create a “Presentation” of at least three frames out of the elements. 9. Have students with publishing credentials create a Survey123 form through which to gather data about a relevant topic. Have them share the survey with all members of the class. 10. Have students build a StoryMap, using classic templates or the new template. Topic options could include: focus on the class (e.g. review the year to date) focus on the disruption (e.g. tell the story of the event causing disruption) assemble your life geography (e.g. where have you been and what factors led you here) share a topic of personal interest (e.g. “if I had 2 weeks to focus all day on a topic of influence on my life today, including to prepare a presentation about it, it would be about … and go something like this …”) design a research project (e.g. plan out the project steps and timelines) ArcGIS Online allows users to explore, create, analyze, and integrate endless content across disciplines, then design presentations, and share everything. For educators needing to adapt to disruptions in school, having resources that facilitate such work can generate significant value in place of potentially lost instructional opportunity, from a single “sub day” to an extended school closing. - - - - - Follow-up: Because so many schools are juggling their instructional calendar and methods, I am continuing this with "School Disruptions 2," posted Sunday March 15, 2020. - Charlie And, see also Tom Baker's blog "Is Your School/District Moving Courses Online posted Monday March 16, 2020. - Charlie ... View more

Panelists: Jessie Hong, University of West Georgia Brandi LeRoy, Bangor High School (Maine) Judith Painter, Andrew Lewis Middle School (Virginia) Jessica Winkelaar, Highview Middle School (Minnesota) LINK to the 33-min recording, 1280x720, .mp4 (click the LINK or the image below) ... View more

Science relies on facts. We may differ in interpretations, but we should be able to agree on facts … gravity, temperature, numbers of items in a set, and so on. Facts are scientifically observable and describable by others. Asked about a news item, one of my high school teachers asked "Is he lying if he points to his legs and says 'blood flows up one leg and down the other'? No, he is not, but neither is he wholly truthful, so you have to take time to listen and think carefully … decide what is not true, what is true but incomplete, and what is complete … and then act." Years later, teaching social studies, I asked my students to be Sherlock Holmes, be scientific, seek all the relevant facts, shape their interpretations to best fit the facts instead of the reverse, say what they saw/ heard/ understood, and why they made a certain decision, based on facts. Working with GIS helps one see, hear, and understand situations through multiple layers, patterns, relationships, and perspectives. The world faces staggering challenges. We must rely on facts, science, data from credible sources, and methodologies of experts. Everyone should be able to explain how facts were determined, and how interpretations were reached, just like my students and I did with each other. We need to seek a holistic picture, unlike the proverbial blind men at different portions of an elephant describing the creature as a large fan, a wall, a tree trunk, and so on. Case in point: the rapidly accelerating newest challenge: COVID-19 Coronavirus. In our ultra-connected world, it can race from country to country in less than a day. To combat it, we need an even more viral resource: knowledge, based on facts and science, which can spread at the speed of light. Unfortunately, so too can misinformation, which has the distinct advantage of not requiring painstaking assembly. Esri has opened a new public website, the COVID-19 GIS Hub, linking content from experts: dashboards, applications, storymaps, data sets, news, relevant articles, and select social media. Of these, a key item for educators is the blogpost "Mapping coronavirus, responsibly." Maps are interpretations of data, meaning cartographers make decisions, and should map responsibly. Especially important for educators is that responsible producers of content tend to be critical thinkers about content from others, and vice versa; people who design interpretations learn about traps, why to avoid them, and how some take advantage of them, and become more critical consumers of information. Educators anxious to build critical thinkers and content consumers would do well to engage students in constructing, analyzing, and evaluating such content themselves. The necessary tools are free to schools for instructional use, around the world, in the ArcGIS School Bundle. ... View more

Adults ask “What can K12 students do with GIS besides following step-by-step instructions to a pre-determined result?” Quite a lot, I suggest, if one examines the research and product from Esri’s competition for high school and middle school students. The ArcGIS Online Competition for US High School and Middle School Students is in only its fourth year, but already there are examples showing notable capacity. Students either solo or as a team of two research a topic in their state, and produce their result in a StoryMap or web app They are tasked with documenting their process and data, submitting it to their school for a first round of competition, which promotes to the state up to five for a second round of competition. The $100 awards earned by the top 5+5 at the state level are attractive, but nothing like the bragging rights and potential impact of elevation to the national level. See the results from 2019, 2018, and 2017. Each year, the winner and honorable mention at both levels are highlighted, and links to the all state awardees are included. The first three years show increasingly sophisticated presentations, but also more and more use of media from external sources. Therefore, we have tweaked the 2020 rules to limit external media, to emphasize student-generated content, particularly maps. We want to see what students can find, create, organize, and analyze about their world. Students accustomed to independent research have shown that they can step out on their own, dig deeply, map powerfully, document carefully, and present impressively, heeding guidelines all the while, just like adults need to. Anyone anxious to see examples need only check the competition results. And students who wisely inspect what worked before will do well also to note carefully the 2020 constraints. ... View more

Training to be a teacher, I learned that I did not need to invent from scratch every part of every lesson every day. I needed instead to be able to identify good resources and know how best to use them for my specific needs. Back before personal computers, it was challenging and time consuming just to find good content, and then to grasp, tweak, and prepare it. Today, teachers need less time to build, but more time to sift, assess, grasp, and practice hands-on for themselves. One “good danger” these days is getting hooked on all the captivating practice available. A great resource is easily accessible, serves broad audiences, supports many concerns and desires, informs quickly, instructs deeply, fosters experimentation, and spawns new work. A terrific case in point is Esri's Maps for Public Policy, part of the Living Atlas on ArcGIS Online. Without needing even to log in, policy leaders, community activists, and researchers, including teachers and students, can all use this collection easily and powerfully. And because it is online, it works on any internet-connected device, though even the biggest smartphones are too small to provide as much utility as a modest tablet; even the most basic Chromebooks work just fine. While exploring, I thought about all the hours we social studies teachers spent searching for and struggling to prep data for use with our students. Here is robust content, really a pre-built online atlas, about people across the 50 states, down to neighborhood level, already formatted, so you can focus on your theme of interest, and cross-reference others in search of relationships. These quick instructions will help you consider, explore, modify, collect, share, research, and use as templates to guide future work: https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/blog/maps-inform-public-policy-help-turn-plans-into-actions/ https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-living-atlas/mapping/make-several-nuanced-policy-maps-from-one-arcgis-living-atlas-layer/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opx6c8M_YWw With these as guides, I explored as if leading a high school class in Los Angeles toward their own research projects. Following the process laid out above, I created my own small set of maps in just a few minutes — https://arcg.is/ierq0. Take a look, then create your own at esri.com/policymaps. [[Update Sept 28, 2020: See also this post by Joseph Kerski in June 2020, and this blog by Charlie Fitzpatrick in Sept 2020]] ... View more

T3G Institute Alums: With the decision to discontinue T3G Institutes and focus on online resources, supporting the educator community, and opening up resources to all, we will shift this T3G Alums Group on GeoNet from a private group to a public group. Our goal has always been to have a “big tent” with more and more people taking advantage of the resources you have seen and used. As part of this process, we will go thru this GeoNet group and flense “expired content” that might not make sense for the broader public. close down the current “public site” (esriurl.com/t3g = a project page under the K12 Instruction group)  employ the “ArcGIS Hub” capacity of the T3G Org and publish there some of our “longterm content” This zone will remain a forum for educators to exchange ideas and seek “birds of a feather.”  ... View more